“Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her is literally “and they say to her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ” The conjunction “and” at the beginning of a sentence suggests Semitic Greek. “They say” is rendered they asked by Good News Translation and most other translations, since a question follows. They asked her is placed after the angels’ words, in order to achieve a more dramatic effect.

Woman is the same noun of address used in 2.4 and 19.26. As indicated previously, it is a term of respect. In languages in which there is no appropriate polite form of address which would be suitable in this context, it may be better simply to omit entirely a noun of address. The question why are you crying? should be sufficient.

She answered is literally “she says to them.”

The last part of verse 13 repeats essentially the words of the last part of verse 2. The differences are my Lord instead of the Lord, I do not know instead of we don’t know, and the omission of from the tomb (verse 2).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .