Peter Kirby wrote:TedM wrote:I don't see the prior reference to other women as weakening my point though because their existence doesn't automatically make it true that they knew about the empty tomb by the time Mary was first telling the disciples about it. There''s a whole scene missing. Them standing together before the burial isn't a valid substitute.
The question was why the author would write this way. You believe it is X. But it could also be Y. You don't believe it could be Y. But it could be Y. The writer could have Mary saying "we" because the author wanted to the character to say something more than their personal ignorance.
Fiction authors normally like to add such explanations (ie for Mary was feeling embarrassed, scared, alone, etc..). Otherwise it seems sloppy.
Your view is less coherent, because it has the author simultaneously affirm that Mary went alone and that Mary did not go alone.
Not necessarily. She could have gone alone and then told them, or gone alone and then brought them back to see for themselves.
Your ideas regarding the inconsistency of those trying to tell the truth have meant that you don't believe this is odd at all. You've attributed the incoherency of this view to the author's bungled handling of prior tellings.
I do think it is odd because clearly a needed explanation wasn't given. Op makes clear I at least think it is interesting. But I think it is more odd if it is coming from one's imagination than from one's belief or memory of events. There is no need to assume a bungled handling, as my options just stated show. But the author may simply have thought that the other women were much less important figures for the origin of the resurrection story, since Mary saw Jesus first in his story, only Mary ran to Peter and John, and then Mary was the first to realize when Jesus appeared to her right after that. And even moreso if the source of this story really was Peter or John.
There's no way to prove that your opinion is correct, when there are ways to read the story as a coherent story. You don't like them, but there they are.
Your example is way out there IMO. For Mary to blurt out 'we' due to some pschological issue going on inside of her (perhaps her demons had come back) without providing the typical explanation that fiction writers like to provide, doesn't ring likely to me at all. But, different opinions are a good thing.
Kunigunde Kreuzerin wrote:It might be not completely impossible that Mary meant with the "we" herself and the disciples in the sense of "they have taken him away and now we all do not know ..."
This is also possible.
Again, to me not likely at all. Who tells someone something really surprising that they clearly would want to verify, and then immediately includes their opinion/fears as if they already knew and before they even have had a chance to respond? Highly unlikely. Very awkward interpretation.