Charles Ellicott Commentary John 20:7

"and the napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself." — John 20:7 (ASV)

And the napkin, that was about his head.—Compare Note on John 11:44.

Not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together...—This was not seen from outside (John 20:5), but was in a separate place, perhaps on the inner side of the sepulcher. In this description and in this verse, the minute knowledge and remembrance of an eyewitness reaches its climax. The very fact that the napkin was folded did not escape the writer’s eye, nor fade from his memory.

Then went in also that other disciple...—If the vivid details of this picture impress us with the fact that we are in the presence of an eyewitness, nonetheless do the traits of character remind us of all that we know from other sources of the actors in the scene. The bold impetuosity of St. Peter, and the gentle reverence of St. John, are represented in him who quickly entered into the sepulcher, and in him who stood gazing into it, and afterwards went in. He went in, therefore, as the original exactly means, because he heard from Peter of what he had seen.

And he saw, and believed.—The gentler character was also the more receptive, and this appears to be intimated in this verse. Nothing is said of St. Peter’s faith, but St. John seems to unveil for us the inner history of his own spiritual life. The word for “see” is different from either of those used before in John 20:5-6. (Compare Luke 10:23.) It is not that he saw, as from a distance, nor was it simply that he beheld what was immediately presented to his gaze; it is not that he saw in any merely physical sense, but that he saw with the eye of the mind and grasped the truth that lay beneath the phenomena around him. He saw, and he who had believed before, found in this fact the stepping-stone to a higher faith. (Compare Note on John 2:11.)