The Easter Bible Story: Verses and Meaning

1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

11While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

12When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,

13telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

14If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

15So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Mark 16

1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.

2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb

3and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

8Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

9When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

10She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

11When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

12Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

13These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

14Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.

20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Luke 24

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

7‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

8Then they remembered his words.

9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

13Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;

16but they were kept from recognizing him.

17He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”They stood still, their faces downcast.

18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19“What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.

20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;

21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning

23but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.

24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

25He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

26Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.

29But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.

31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

32They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together

34and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

36While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?

39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

41And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

42They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

43and he took it and ate it in their presence.

44He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

46He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,

47and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

48You are witnesses of these things.

49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

50When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

51While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

52Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

53And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

John 20

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

6Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,

7as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

10Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

22And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

23If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24Now Thomas (also known as Didymus ), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.