What does Jesus mean in John 2017?

Answer 1

In this passage Jesus says "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " Many have found this passage difficult and wonder what Jesus means by 'for I have not yet returned to the Father'. However, one has to look to the original Greek and not to English (which can be notoriously ambiguous) for a much simpler answer than many written about in theological tomes. The Greek word for 'for' is gar. However, this word also means 'since'. Also in the original texts there were not the same punctuation marks, in the passage of what Jesus says, that we use. In the light of this, we can rewrite it thus: "Do not hold on to me! Since I have not yet returned to the Father, go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " This implies that Jesus does not wish Mary to cling to him, but to go immediately to the disciples and tell them of the resurrection, whilst Jesus is still here and not yet ascended. I think it was Sherlock Holmes who said that often the simplest explanation was the one most likely to be true.