Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17, K.J.V.)

Of all the passages that get preached and quoted at Easter, this verse is among the most debated. I’ve long hesitated to write a blog post about it simply because the issues surrounding it are so convoluted. But here now I’m finally taking on the assignment.

For starters, there is the translation issue. I quoted the King James Version of the verse as an opening text because that translation’s rendering is at the core of the issues. Whereas the vast majority of translations quote Jesus as saying something along the lines of, “Do not cling to Me,” “Stop clinging to Me,” or “Do not hold on to Me,” the translators of the K.J.V. went with the statement, “Touch me not.” Obviously, there is a difference between clinging to a man and merely touching him.

The Greek verb in question is haptou, which is the present imperative tense of the Greek verb haptomai. The K.J.V. of John 20:17 simply continues that translation’s consistent pattern of translating haptou and haptomai as “touch,” “toucheth,” or “touched.” For example, this Greek wording is used in the story of the woman with the issue of blood who said to herself concerning Jesus, “If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole” (Matthew 9:20-21; Mark 5:27-28; Luke 8:44-47). Similarly, it’s used to describe others believing that touching Jesus or His clothing would result in healing (Matthew 14:36; Mark 3:10; Mark 6:56). For that matter, it’s used to describe Jesus Himself literally touching someone to provide healing (Matthew 8:3; 8:15; 9:29; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 7:33; 8:22; Luke 5:13).

This wording is also used to describe what Jesus did in resurrecting the widow of Nain’s deceased son (Luke 7:14) and what He did in restoring the severed ear of Malchus (Luke 22:51). Furthermore, it’s used to describe Jesus touching Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:7), Him touching infants and small children to bless them (Mark 10:13; Luke 18:15), and the sinful woman washing His feet with her tears and drying them with her hair (Luke 7:39). Again, in each of these instances, the King James Version uses the words “touch,” “touched,” or “toucheth.”

Why, then, do the majority of translations come to John 20:17 and render it something other than “touch”? Well, the fact is that haptomai and haptou can refer to more than a mere touch. As evidence of this, consider the following quote from Greek scholar Marvin R. Vincent:

The verb, primarily, means “to fasten to.” Hence it implies here (John 20:17), not a mere momentary touch, but a clinging to. Mary thought that the old relations between her Lord and herself were to be renewed; that the old intercourse, by means of sight, sound, and touch, would go on as before. Christ says, “The time for this kind of intercourse is over. Henceforth your communion with me will be by faith through the Spirit. This communion will become possible through my ascending to the Father.” (Word Studies in the New Testament, Marvin R. Vincent)

Of course, by now maybe you are asking, “Why is this translation issue so important?” It’s important because if “Touch me not” is 100% accurate, it opens up a couple of interesting possibilities about what Jesus had on His itinerary that resurrection morning. I’ll explain both of these possibilities so that you see what you think of them.

Possibility #1 has to do with the Jesus, in His resurrected/glorified body, sprinkling His shed blood in heaven’s sanctuary. The Bible teaches that the earthly tabernacle God instructed the Israelites to build was the copy (example, shadow, figure, symbol) of the heavenly things (Hebrews 8:1-5; 9:9; 9:23-24; 10:1). Evidently, this means there is a heavenly tabernacle (temple, sanctuary) that features the same basic layout as Israel’s earthly tabernacle. As a matter of fact, the apostle John was allowed to see this heavenly sanctuary as a part of his revelation that serves as the last book of the Bible (Revelation 15:5-8). John even saw heaven’s version of the Ark of the Covenant sitting in the Holy of Holies room of that heavenly sanctuary (Revelation 11:19).

Okay, so once a year, on the annual Day of Atonement, Israel’s earthly High Priest would take some of the blood of a sacrificial bull and a sacrificial goat into the Holy of Holies room of the earthly tabernacle and use his finger to sprinkle that blood onto the Mercy Seat, which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. As the High Priest was completing this ceremony he wasn’t to be touched by anyone lest he or the special garments he wore during the ceremony somehow become defiled. This earthly ceremony is described in detail in Leviticus 16:1-34.

Now let’s take that ceremony and make it a scene in heaven’s sanctuary. Hebrews 9:24-26 indicates that Jesus, in His role as the eternal High Priest (Hebrews 2:17; 3:1; 4:14-16), at some point after His resurrection entered into the Holy of Holies of heaven’s sanctuary and sprinkled His own shed blood on the Mercy Seat of the heavenly Ark of the Covenant. Therefore, it could have been that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene just as He was about to ascend to heaven and perform that ceremony. If this was the case, it would explain why He wouldn’t let Mary Magdalene touch Him at that moment, only to a short time later that same morning have no objection to a certain group of women holding Him by His feet (Matthew 28:9-10) or to Thomas touching Him the following Sunday (John 20:24-29).

While this interpretation might be considered outlandish, it is bolstered by the fact that the Greek verb that is translated as “ascended” in John 20:17 is in the perfect active indicative sense, which implies that Jesus was in the active process of ascending when He appeared to Mary Magdalene. In other words, what He literally said was, “Go tell My brothers that I am ascending…” (For the record, this is how all other translations besides the K.J.V. read.) So, if Jesus truly was beginning His ascension at that very moment, it must have been a different ascension than His final one that occurred 40 days later and is described in Acts 1:1-11.

Remember, though, that I told you the translation “Touch me not” opens up not one but two interesting possibilities about Jesus’ itinerary that first Easter Sunday. What, then, is the second possibility? Like the first possibility, it requires an Easter Sunday ascension from Jesus to perform a High Priestly duty in heaven, but this second possibility has nothing to do with Him sprinkling His blood in heaven’s Holy of Holies. Instead, the duty I have in mind now is described in its earthly performance by Israel’s earthly High Priest in Leviticus 23:10-11. On the day after the Sabbath following the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the High Priest was required by Old Testament law to wave a sheaf of firstfruits before the Lord. This ceremony served to not only signify the beginning of the harvest season but also to dedicate the firstfruits of the harvests to the Lord.

Perhaps, then, the duty Jesus needed to perform before He could be touched that resurrection Sunday morning, which actually was the day after the Sabbath following the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was that of Him ascending to Heaven and presenting Himself to God the Father as the firstfruits from the dead. This would fit in perfectly with 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, which calls Jesus “the firstfruits” of those who have died. For that matter, is it possible that Jesus performed this heavenly ceremony that morning in addition to performing the other one involving His blood?

While all of this certainly makes for fascinating conjecture, we need to acknowledge that there are some logical objections to this entire line of interpretation. So, let’s consider a few of those before we run off too far into fanciful interpretations of scripture. I’ll name three of those objections even though I’ll admit that others could be added to the list.

Objection #1: Many experts in the Greek language contend that the original Greek of John 20:17 conveys the idea that Mary Magdalene was already touching Jesus (clinging to Him) when He spoke the words in question. This contention is based upon the fact that the present imperative tense of the verb is used. If this is a correct assessment what Jesus wanted from Mary Magdalene was a ceasing of what she was already doing. Needless to say, if Mary Magdalene was already clinging to Jesus or even touching Him at all, that doesn’t align with the idea that He needed to remain untouched and ceremonially pure because He was about to ascend into heaven to perform some type of ceremony in heaven’s sanctuary.

Objection #2: Even if Jesus did at some point perform either one or both of those ceremonies in heaven, there is nothing to mandate that it all happened that resurrection morning in the brief amount of time between His appearance to Mary Magdalene and His appearance to that group of women. The fact is, He could have performed one or both ceremonies after His Acts 1:1-11 ascension.

Objection #3: By consulting all four of the gospels to develop a chronology of the events of that resurrection morning, we find that the conversation Jesus had with Mary Magdalene didn’t take place until a lot of other things had happened that morning. By the time the conversation occurred, an angel had removed the stone from Christ’s tomb and had caused the men guarding the tomb to flee (Matthew 28:1-15), that group of women of which Mary Magdalene was originally a member had arrived at the tomb site (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1,10; John 20:1), Mary Magdalene had left the group to go tell Peter and John that Christ’s body wasn’t in the tomb (John 20:1-2), the group of women had been informed by two angels that Jesus had arisen (Matthew 28:5-7; Mark 16:4-7; Luke 24:3-8), Peter and John had visited the site (John 20:3-10), and Mary Magdalene herself had made it back to the site (John 20:11-18). You see, in light of this chronology a fair question to ask is, “If Jesus needed to ascend to heaven that morning to perform some type of High Priestly ceremony there, why did He wait so long to do it? Why didn’t He do it immediately as soon as He resurrected?”

Obviously, just as there are plausible arguments to be made that Jesus ascended that morning so that He could do something in heaven, there are equally plausible arguments to be made that He didn’t. As for where I find myself in all of this, as of this writing — and I could change my mind at a later date — I fall by a slim margin on the side of the interpretation that He did ascend that morning and perform either one or both of those heavenly ceremonies I’ve mentioned. My reasons for coming down on this side of the debate are varied, and I’ll cite them as the close to this post. As you read them keep in mind that I’m just one student of the Bible in a long line of them who have come to John 20:17 and tried to accurately understand it. The debate about the passage won’t be settled by any of us anytime in this life, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to get the interpretation right.

• As evidenced by many of those other stories in which the Greek wording haptomai (haptou) is used, the wording genuinely can mean “touch” rather than “cling to” or “hold.” Putting it simply, “Touch me not” is a perfectly acceptable translation, not a plainly wrong one.
• In order to make Christ’s command to Mary Magdalene mean “Stop clinging to Me” or “Don’t hold Me,” an assumption must be made that she was already in the process of clinging to Him or holding to Him. This is a leap all those who disagree with “Touch me not” are willing to make, but the reality is that the story itself makes no mention of Mary Magdalene embracing Jesus, hugging Him, throwing herself into His arms, etc. That scriptural silence leaves us to build a scenario around nothing more than an implication, and that is never an ideal way to interpret the Bible.
• The fact that the morning in question was the morning of the day after the Sabbath following the Feast of Unleavened Bread really does fit in perfectly with the idea of Jesus wanting to perform that heavenly ceremony involving the sheaf.
• Jesus saying, “I am ascending…” rather than, “I will ascend…” seems significant to me. While I can’t answer why He chose that very moment to ascend, the text says what it says and I favor applying it literally rather than projecting it to be a reference to the ascension 40 days later.