Mark 16 - The Empty Tomb

The Empty Tomb

See also: Empty tomb and Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Mark says the Sabbath is now over and Mary Magdalene, another Mary, the mother of James, and Salome (all also mentioned in Mark 15:40), come to anoint Jesus' body, which Luke 24:1 agrees with. John 19:40 seems to say that Nicodemus had already anointed his body. John 20:1 and Matthew 28:1 simply say Mary went to the tomb, not why.

The women wonder how they will remove the stone over the tomb. Upon their arrival, they find the stone already gone and go into the tomb. This shows that, according to Mark, they expected to find a dead Jesus. Instead, they find a young man dressed in a white robe who tells them:

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

The white robe might be a sign that the young man is a messenger from God. Matthew 28:5 describes him as an angel. According to Luke there were two men. John says there were two angels, but that Mary saw them after finding the empty tomb and showing it to the other disciples. She comes back to the tomb, talks to the angels, and then Jesus appears to her.

Mark uses the word neaniskos for young, a word he used to describe the man who fled at Jesus' arrest in Mark.Mark 14:51–52 Jesus had predicted his resurrection and returning to Galilee during the Last Supper in Mark. Mark uses the passive verb form ēgerthē—translated "he was raised," indicating God raised him from the dead, rather than "he is risen" translated in the NIV.

The women, who are afraid, then flee and keep quiet about what they saw. Fear is the most common human reaction to the divine presence in the Bible.

This is where the undisputed part of Mark's Gospel ends. Jesus is thus announced to have been resurrected from the dead and to have gone into Galilee.