Sunday, April 17, 2022

Explanatory Notes -- Mark 16:1-8 (Resurrection)

Explanatory notes on Passion Week in the Gospel of Mark (still a few missing pieces). 

Today for Easter, we conclude with the resurrection in Mark 16. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

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16:1 And when the Sabbath had passed, Mary the Magdalene and Mary the [mother] of James and Salome bought spices in order that, having come, they might anoint him. 2. And very early on the first [day] of the week they come to the tomb, the sun having risen.

The women observed where they had put the body of Jesus on Friday (15:47). But they do not anoint him in observance of the Jewish Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. They now come to finish the burial process on Sunday morning. 

Nothing in these verses transfers the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The expression, “on the first of Sabbaths,” is an idiom for “on the first day of the week.” They buy spices on Sunday and do not treat the day as they have just treated Saturday.

However, this first day is an eighth day—it is a day of new creation. This day will be the “Lord’s Day.” For Christians, every Sunday is a little Easter, another day of Christ rising from the dead. The sun has risen, and the Son has risen.

The women who come are the same women we saw in Mark 15:40 who looked on as Jesus died. Mark makes no mention of Jesus’ mother Mary. We know from that verse that the Mary here is the mother of James “the less” or “the younger,” presumably James the son of Alphaeus.

16:3 And they were saying to themselves, “Who will roll away for us the stone from the door of the tomb?" 4. And having looked up, they see that the stone has been rolled away (for it was very large). 5. And having entered into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right, having worn a white robe, and they were alarmed.

They understandably wonder who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. The tomb has been cut out of a rock face, and a rock has been used to secure the entrance. Such rocks at times sat into grooves in the bedrock so that they stayed in place when in position.

However, when they arrive, they not only find that the rock has been rolled away from the entrance. There is a man in white inside the vault. Presumably, he is an angel.

16:6 And he says to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are seeking Jesus the Nazarene, the one having been crucified. He is risen and is not here. Behold, the place where they put him."

The angel announces Jesus’ resurrection. “He is risen!” The women are understandably alarmed. This is neither the first nor the last time that an angel tells someone not to be afraid when appearing to them.

Jesus’ resurrection is a bodily resurrection. Because he is risen, his body is no longer there. Resurrection is not a spirit going to heaven. For the earliest Christians, like the Pharisees and other Jews of the time, resurrection involved a body (cf. 1 Cor. 15).

16:7 "But depart, tell his disciples and Peter that he goes ahead of you into the Galilee. There you will see him, just as he spoke to you."

Interestingly, the angel points to Galilee as the place where Jesus will appear to the disciples. However, in Matthew, Luke, and John, Jesus’ first appearance is in Jerusalem. In Matthew, he appears there to the women on their way (Matt. 28:9). In John, he appears near the tomb to Mary Magdalene (John 20:14). In Luke and John, he appears to them on the night of his resurrection (Luke 24:36; John 20:19). 

Assuming that the original ending of Mark is lost, it is of course possible that Mark also told of a Sunday night appearance. However, as the text of Mark stands, we are left to expect the primary appearance to be in Galilee. In Matthew, this appearance is when Jesus gives the Great Commission.

In Mark 14:28, Jesus tells the disciples that he will meet them in Galilee after he is raised. At the time, they have no real understanding of what he has told them. Here, Mark makes it clear that this promise was fulfilled, even though in the verses we have he does not go on to narrate the event. He only indicates here that it would indeed take place.

16:8 And having gone out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and amazement was taking hold of them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

In its current form, Mark does not narrate the women going on to tell the disciples what had happened, although Matthew does (28:8). The women are understandably confused and frightened. On a historical note, it is unlikely that someone would invent this account if it were not true. It is a strong historical argument that Jesus’ tomb was indeed empty when the women came to anoint him.

The reaction of the women also fits two key features of Mark’s narrative. First, it fits the hiddenness of Jesus’ messianic identity. He did not rise publically in front of everyone. His resurrection took place in a way of which only a few were initially aware. He required faith.

Secondly, his followers do not immediately understand what was going on. This fact fits with the lack of understanding his followers have in general. Their lacking may have provided hope for the audience of Mark, especially if Mark was written around the time of the Jewish War or the destruction of Jerusalem. Even the first disciples did not get it right the first time.

Some believe that Mark ended his Gospel at this point to prompt the audience to consider its response to Jesus, his death and resurrection. Are they going to be like these women or are they going to go tell someone? My personal hunch is that more verses sat here originally, but that they were lost at an early date. 

Other Endings

Most scholars consider it quite unlikely that the ending of Mark in the King James was part of the original Gospel of Mark. We of course do not have any original manuscript of any book of the Bible. So scholars look at the copies we have and try to determine the most likely conclusion, using both internal and external evidence.

External evidence is what we see in the manuscripts. Here, the oldest Greek biblical manuscripts we have do not have verses 9-20. There are mentions of the ending that seem to be quite old, but Eusebius in the early 300s indicates it is not a prevalent reading of the Greek manuscripts in his day. There is a "shorter ending" that exists in some manuscripts, indicating that someone capped the book at one point because there was no ending they found pleasing there.

In the end, the internal evidence is determinative. Verse 9 effectively starts the whole chapter over again, like verses 1-8 didn't exist. It proceeds in a summary rather than narrative fashion--there is a sudden style change and the text forgets anything about what was said about the women in 16:8.

I personally think it likely that there was another ending to Mark after verse 9, but one that was lost to history at a very early date indeed. Since Matthew used Mark as a source, it may give us some hints as to what was originally there.

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