Jesus and Mary Magdalene

A Facebook exchange:

Nisao

The women were glad that Jesus had risen and went to tell the disciples. But in John, Mary Magdalene was at the tomb claiming they stole the body. How so?

If three gospel claim Mary Magdalene saw Jesus already and was told by the angels he has risen and they were glad.

But John tells a different story. She was in the tomb crying. And the angels asked,' why are you crying? she said they stole the body, I don't know where they laid him.' Two different stories.

Hays 

Mark is less detailed, and makes indiscriminate statements about the women in general. By contrast, the Fourth Gospel singles out the Magdalene for a more detailed, discriminating account. That's not a contradiction but a difference between generality and specificity in overlapping accounts.

The narrators are getting their information from different women who visited the tomb. So there will be variations in what each woman saw, heard, remembered. When they went there. If they went there once or went back, as group or individually. For instance, they might travel as a group when it was still fairly dark, but have more freedom of individual movement during daylight. 

The Synoptics give a general account of what happened to the women. By contrast, the Fourth Gospel zeroes in on the unique experience of the Magdalene. That doesn't contradict the Synoptic accounts. Generalizations make room for exceptions. They are less precise because they deal with things shared in common by most participants. But the Johannine narrator spends more time on individuals. So the distinctive encounter between Jesus and the Magdalene is fleshed out. And one reason is because he probably had more information.