1 And when the sabbath was past (i.e. the weekly sabbath. This was 3 days and 3 nights from the preparation day, when He was buried),
Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought (before the weekly sabbath [Luke 23:56; 24:1]) aromatics, that they might come and anoint Him.
April 7th
2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they come up to the sepulchre the sun having risen.
3 And they said to themselves, "Who will roll us away the stone cut from the door of the sepulchre?" (That was their only difficulty; therefore the could not have heard about the sealing and the watch. This is a Divine supplement, peculiar to Mark. The ground being on an incline [sideways], therefore the door was more easily closed than opened)
4 And when they looked up, they see that the stone had been rolled away (implying attention, surprise, and pleasure): for it was very great.
5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting in the right side, clothed in a long outer robe of distinction; and they were amazed.
6 And he said to them, "Be not amazed: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who has been crucified: He is risen; He is not here: look the place where they laid Him.
7 But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter (a Divine supplement, here) that He goes before you into Galilee: there shall you see Him, even as He said to you."
8 And they went out quickly, and fled away from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.
B2 u 9. His appearance to Mary.
v 10. Her report.
w 11. Disciples' unbelief.
u 12. His appearance to the 2 disciples.
v 13-. Their report.
w -13. Disciples' unbelief.
9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week (i.e anytime after sunset on our Saturday, 6 p.m.), He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast seven demons.
10 And she went and told them that had been in company with Him, as they mourned and wept.
11 And they, when they had heard that He is alive [again from the dead] (see Matt. 9:18), and had been seen by her, disbelieved [it].
12 After these things He was manifested in a different form out to two out of them, as they walked, and went into the country. (See Luke 24:13-35)
13 And they went and told it to the residue:
neither believed they them.
A Z 14. After the Lord had risen.
A 15-18. Commission.
Z 19. After the Lord had ascended.
A 20. Obedience.
14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at meat (a Divine supplement, here), and reproached them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen.
15 And He said to them (probably sometime after v.14, on the eve of the Ascension), "Go you into all the world, and proclaim the glad tidings to all the creation. (Put for all of mankind. Fulfilled during "that generation". See Col. Col. 1:6,23.)
16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieves shall be condemned.
17 And these signs shall follow close upon (see Heb. 2:3,4, and the fulfillment in Acts 3:7,8; 5:16; 6:8; 9:34,40, &c. They were limited to the dispensation covered by the Acts of the Apostles. See Heb. 2:3,4; 6:1-6; and cp. 1 Cor. 13:8-10) them that believe (not merely the Apostles, therefore); Through My name shall they cast out demons (see Acts 8:7; 16:18; 19:11-16); they shall speak with different tongues; (See Acts 2:4-11 [as foretold by Joel 2:28,29]; 10:46; 19:6. 1 Cor. 12:28)
18 They shall take up serpents (see Acts 28:5. Cp. Luke 10:19); and if they drink any deadly thing (the condition to be seen by the result), it shall by no means hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick (see Acts 3:7; 19:11,12; 28:8,9. 1 Cor. 12:9,28. James 5:14), and they shall recover."
19 So then after the Lord (the contrast is between the Lord here, and the disciples of v.20) had spoken to them, He was received up into the heaven, and sat at the right hand of God.
20 And they went forth, and preached every where (see Col. 1:6,23), Yehovah working with them (the witness of "God" is distinguished [Heb. 2:4] from the testimony of His Son [Heb. 2:3], and from the gifts of the Spirit [Heb. 2:4]), and confirming the word (logos) by means of signs following. Amen.
Most modern critics are agreed that the last twelve verses of Mark 16 are not an integral part of his Gospel. The are omitted by T [A];
The question is entirely one of evidence.
We have seen that this evidence comes from three sources: (1) manuscripts (2) versions, and (3) the early Christian writers, known as "the Fathers". This evidence has been exhaustively analyzed by the late Dean Burgon, whose work is epitomized in the Nos. I-III, below.
I. As To MANUSCRIPTS, there are none older than the fourth century, and the oldest two uncial MSS. (B and a, see Ap. 94. V.) are without those twelve verses. Of all the others (consisting of some eighteen uncials and some six hundred cursive MSS. which contain the Gospel of Mark) there is not one which leaves out these twelve verses.
II. As to the Versions:--
1. THE SYRIAC. The oldest is the Syriac in its various forms : the "Peshitto" (cent. 2), and the "Curetonian Syriac" (cent. 3). Both are older than any Greek MS. in existence, and both contain these twelve verses. So with the "Philoxenian" (cent. 5) and the "Jerusalem" (cent. 5).
2. THE LATIN VERSIONS. JEROME (A.D. 382), who had access to Greek MSS. older than any now extant, includes these twelve verses; but this Version (known as the Vulgate) was only a revision of the VETUS ITALA, which is believed to belong to cent. 2, and contains these verses.
3. THE GOTHIC VERSION (A.D. 350) contains them.
4. THE EGYPTIAN VERSIONS: the Memphitic (or Lower Egyptian, less properly called "COPTIC"), belonging to cent. 4 or 5, contains them; as does the "THEBAIC" (or Upper Egyptian, less properly called the "SAHIDIC"), belonging to cent. 3.
5. THE ARMENIAN (cent. 5), the ETHIOPIC (cent. 4-7), and the GEORGIAN (cent. 6) also bear witness to the genuineness of these verses.
III. THE FATHERS. Whatever may be their value (or otherwise )as to doctrine and interpretation yet, in
determining actual words or their form, or sequence their evidence, even by an allusion, as to whether a verse or verses existed or not in their day, is more valuable than even manuscripts or Versions.
There are nearly a hundred ecclesiastical writers older than the oldest of our Greek codices; while between A.D. 300 and A.D. 600 there are about two hundred more, and they all refer to these twelve verses.
PAPIAS (about A.D. 100) refers to v. 18 (as stated by Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. iii. 39).
JUSTIN MARTYR (A.D. 151) quotes v. 20 (Apol. I. c. 45).
IRENAEUS (A.D. 180) quotes and remarks on v. 19 (Adv. Hoer. lib. iii. c. x.).
HIPPOLYTUS (A.D. 190-227) quotes vv. 17-19 (Lagarde's ed., 1858, p. 74).
VINCENTIUS (A.D. 256) quoted two verses at the seventh Council of Carthage, held under CYPRIAN.
The ACTA PILATI (cent. 2) quotes vv. 15, 16, 17, 18 (Tischendorf's ed., 1852, pp. 243, 351).
The APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS (cent. 3 or 4) quotes vv. 16, 17, 18.
EUSEBIUS (A.D. 325) discusses these verses, as quoted by MARINUS from a lost part of his History.
APHRAARTES (A.D. 337), a Syrian bishop, quoted vv. 16-18 in his first Homily (Dr. Wright's ed., 1869, i. p. 21).
AMBROSE (A.D. 374-97), Archbishop of Milan, freely quotes vv. 15 (four times), 16, 17, 18 (three times), and v. 20 (once).
CHRYSOSTOM (A.D. 400) refers to v. 9; and states that vv. 19, 20 are "the end of the Gospel".
JEROME (b. 331, d. 420) includes these twelve verses in his Latin translation, besides quoting vv. 9 and 14 in his other writings.
AUGUSTINE (fl. A.D. 395-430) more than quotes them. He discusses them as being the work of the Evangelist MARK, and says that they were publicly read in the churches.
NESTORIUS (cent. 5) quotes v. 20 and
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA (A.D. 430) accepts the quotation.
VICTOR OF ANTIOCH (A.D. 425) confutes the opinion of Eusebius, by referring to very many MSS. which he had seen, and so had satisfied himself that the last twelve verses were recorded in them.
IV. We should like to add our own judgment as to the root cause of the doubts which have gathered round these verses.
They contain the promise of the Lord, of which we read the fulfillment in Heb. 2:4. The testimony of "them that heard Him" was to be the confirmation of His own teaching when on earth : "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and divers miracles, and gifts of pneuma hagion (i.e. spiritual gifts, according to His own will."
The Acts of the Apostles records the fulfillment of the Lord's promise in Mark 16:17, 18; and in the last chapter we find a culminating exhibition of "the Lord's working with them" (vv. 3, 5, 8, 9). But already in 1Cor. 13:8-13, it was revealed that a time was then approaching when all these spiritual gifts should be "done away". That time coincided with the close of that dispensation, by the destruction of Jerusalem; when they that heard the Lord could no longer add their confirmation to the Lord's teaching, and there was nothing for God to bear witness to. For nearly a hundred years (*1) after the destruction of Jerusalem there is a complete blank in ecclesiastical history, and a complete silence of Christian speakers and writers (*2). So far from the Churches of the present day being the continuation of Apostolic times, "organized religion", as we see it to-day, was the work of a subsequent and quite an independent generation.
When later transcribers of the Greek manuscripts came to the last twelve verses of Mark, and saw no trace of such spiritual gifts in existence, they concluded that there must be something doubtful about the genuineness of the verses. Hence some may have marked them as doubtful, some as spurious, while others omitted them altogether.
A phenomenon of quite an opposite kind is witnessed in the present day.
Some [believers in these twelve verses], earnest in their desire to serve the Lord, but not "rightly dividing the Word of truth" as to the dispensations, look around, and not seeing these spiritual gifts in operation, determine to have them (!) and are led into all sorts of more than doubtful means in their desire to obtain them. The resulting "confusion" shows that God is "not the author" of such a movement (see 1Cor. 14:31-33).