Mary Magdalene Meets the Risen Jesus in the Garden

Mary remains weeping, sees angels, and then sees Jesus without recognizing him until he calls her by name. Thinking he is the gardener is narratively natural in a garden; later Christian interpreters have also heard new-Eden and new-Adam resonances. Those echoes are plausible, especially because John has framed Jesus through creation language from the opening verse, but the Gospel does not explicitly label Jesus the new Adam here. Mary is commissioned to announce the resurrection and Jesus’ message about ascending to “my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”