John 20:10 describes the disciples leaving the empty tomb and returning to their own houses, which tells you they had seen the evidence but had not yet grasped what it meant. The verse is a narrative note written by the Gospel’s author, John, and it describes the actions of Peter and the other disciple after they examined the tomb on the morning of the resurrection.
So the disciples went away again to their own homes.
John 20:10 (WEB)
What John 20:10 Means
The phrase “went away again” points back to the previous verses, where Peter and the unnamed disciple ran to the tomb, looked inside, and found the linen cloths and the face cloth folded in a separate place. Having seen what they needed to see, the two men simply went home. The word “again” hints at the back-and-forth movement of the morning, with the disciples running out and in as news spread.
The phrase “to their own homes” is ordinary and easy to skim past. John wants you to notice how quiet and undramatic the scene is. Nobody shouts the news from the rooftops in this moment. The men return to the familiar places where they were staying, carrying questions they cannot yet answer.
The verse does not promise that the disciples understood the resurrection at this point, and it does not say what they felt on the walk home. It records a fact and leaves the reader to observe the gap between what they had witnessed and what they could yet explain. Verse 9 makes that gap explicit by admitting they did not yet know the Scripture that foretold the resurrection.
The Context of John 20:10
The Gospel of John was written, according to long-standing church tradition, by the apostle John, and it was likely composed toward the end of the first century for a community that needed to understand who Jesus was and what he had accomplished. Its emphasis on signs, belief, and eyewitness testimony shapes how the empty tomb scene is told. Each character is given a response, and those responses reveal where faith is still forming.
Just before verse 10, John describes how the two men entered the tomb and saw the burial cloths. Just after, the focus shifts to Mary Magdalene, who remains outside weeping and then encounters angels and eventually Jesus himself. Read in this sequence, verse 10 is a pause. The men leave, and the story turns to the one who stays. That contrast helps you see that the disciples’ departure is not a failure of love but an incomplete step on the way to recognition.
Key Phrases in John 20:10
Luke 24:12
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.
(WEB)
This verse describes Peter running to the tomb, looking inside, and going home amazed. It parallels John 20:10 closely and shows that the reaction of wonder followed by a return home was a shared experience among the first witnesses.
John 20:8
So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb also entered in, and he saw and believed.
(WEB)
This verse shows the unnamed disciple entering the tomb and believing, just before the disciples leave. It gives the moment of belief that comes right before the return home, showing that seeing and believing can happen before full understanding arrives.
A Short Prayer From John 20:10
Lord, when I see something I cannot fully understand, help me to be honest about what I have witnessed and patient with what I do not yet know. Give me the grace to go home and rest when I am overwhelmed, without fear that stepping back means I have lost faith. Meet me in the ordinary places where my questions wait, and let your presence be as real there as it was at the tomb. Teach me to trust that you are still at work even when my understanding is incomplete. Amen.
