New Testament · Gospel

Mark 16:13

The Empty Tomb

And they went back and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Mark 16:13 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Mark 16:13, in plain English

They go back and tell the others, but nobody believes them either.

Why it's here

Now two separate groups have seen the risen Jesus, and still the disciples won't believe. Sometimes the truth has to meet you face to face before you can accept it.

Who's speaking

Mark notes the continued disbelief among the disciples.

Where it sits in the story

Report after report comes in, and still they can't believe it. Sometimes the most life-changing truth is the hardest to accept.

A Closer Look

The scholarly reading

The two disciples return and report their encounter, but the rest of the group again apisteusan (disbelieve), maintaining their pattern of resistant unbelief.

Language and setting

A second testimony from two witnesses (meeting the Deuteronomy 19:15 standard) is still rejected. The escalating disbelief builds toward Jesus' direct intervention.

Voice

The narrator records the continued disbelief despite a second testimony.

Significance

Even with multiple witnesses now reporting the same thing, the disciples refuse to believe. Their grief-hardened skepticism will require a direct encounter with the risen Jesus.

In context

Mark 16:11–15

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.

14Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

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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