The Empty Tomb
And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it. Mark 16:11 · Berean Standard Bible
But when they hear that Jesus is alive and that she has actually seen Him, they refuse to believe it.
They couldn't accept it. Maybe because it seemed too good to be true, or maybe because in that culture, a woman's testimony wasn't taken seriously. Either way, they missed it.
Mark records the disciples' refusal to believe Mary.
She saw Him with her own eyes, but they won't believe her. Grief and cultural bias keep them from accepting the best news they'll ever hear.
Despite hearing that Jesus is alive (za) and has been seen (etheathe) by Mary, the disciples episteusan (disbelieve), refusing to accept her testimony.
The disbelief may reflect the cultural devaluation of women's testimony in first-century Judaism. It also establishes the pattern of resistance to the resurrection that Jesus will address.
The narrator records the disciples' rejection of Mary's report.
The disciples refuse to believe Mary's eyewitness testimony. Their disbelief, though understandable given their grief, represents a failure of faith that Jesus will later rebuke.
9Early on the first day of the week, after Jesus had risen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had driven out seven demons.
10She went and told those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping.
11And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it.
12After this, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them as they walked along in the country.
13And they went back and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
Read all of Mark 16 — Three women arrive at dawn expecting a corpse. They find a young man in white and a message that rewrites everything: he is risen.
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