The story of the empty tomb is Mary Magdalene’s story. To this point in the Gospel, Mary has been mentioned only once, with no further identification (19:25), probably because she is presumed to be well known to the Gospel’s readers. In Mark, Matthew, and Luke she is mentioned first among the women who came to the tomb on Sunday morning, but here she seems to come alone. Only her statement that we [plural] don’t know the whereabouts of Jesus’ body (v. 2) betrays a consciousness of others present with her at the tomb (contrast I don’t know in v. 13).

From the fact that the stone in front of the tomb had been moved, Mary inferred that Jesus’ body had also been moved. Without looking into the tomb she ran to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, that someone had stolen …