Mark 16:13

Mar 16:13. Ἀπήγγειλαν) They brought back word.—οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις, not even them) Luk 24:34, affirms they did believe. Both statements are true. They did believe: but presently there recurred to them a suspicion as to the truth, and even positive unbelief. The faith suddenly arising in them, and entertained at first with a joy which had still in it something of an unwonted and ecstatic character blended with it, was not faith, as compared with the faith which followed, cleared as the latter was of all dregs of unbelief, and fully satisfied as to all difficulties, and suitable to the exigencies of the apostleship. Luk 24:37-38; Joh 20:25; Mat 28:17.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. they went and told it unto the residue] No sooner did they recognise our Lord in the breaking of the bread (Luk_24:35), and He had vanished out of their sight (Luk_24:31), than they returned in haste to Jerusalem, ascended to the Upper Room, found ten of the Apostles met together (Luk_24:33), and whereas they thought they alone were the bearers of joyful tidings, they were themselves greeted with joyful tidings, “The Lord has risen indeed, and appeared unto Simon” (Luk_24:34; 1Co_15:5). When this appearance was vouchsafed to St Peter we are not told. It certainly occurred after the return from the sepulchre, but whether before or after the journey to Emmaus cannot be determined.

neither believed they them] The Ten, as we have just now seen, announced that the Lord had appeared to Simon, and this they at the time believed. When the two disciples arrive, they announce that He had appeared to them also. Unable to comprehend this new mode of existence on the part of their risen Lord, that He could be now here and now there, they were filled with doubts. They had refused to believe the evidence of Mary Magdalene (Mar_16:11), and even now hesitation possessed them, and they could not give credence to the word of the two disciples. The Evangelists multiply proofs of the slowness of the Apostles to accept a truth so strange and unprecedented as their Lord’s resurrection, and that not to a continuous sojourn, as in the case of Lazarus, but to a form of life which was manifested only from time to time, and was invested with new powers, new properties, new attributes. The Resurrection, it is to be remembered, was unlike (a) any of the recorded miracles of raising from the dead, (b) any of the legends of Greece or Rome. It was “not a restoration to the old life, to its wants, to its inevitable close, but the revelation of a new life, foreshadowing new powers of action and a new mode of being.” See Westcott’s Gospel of the Resurrection, pp. 154–160.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven,.... Apostles; for this was now the number of them, Judas being gone from them, and dead; and they were so called, though Thomas was not now with them, because their whole company consisted of this number: this appearance of Christ to them was on the same first day of the week, at evening, Joh 20:19, though it must be very late at night; for it was after the two above disciples were returned from Emmaus, where Christ and they had supped together; see Luk 24:29;

as they sat at meat; or "sat together"; being assembled together, and the doors shut fast for fear of the Jews, Joh 20:19, and so the Arabic renders it, "while they were gathered together"; and the Persic version, "who being gathered together were sitting": nor does the word necessarily signify sitting at meat; nor is it very likely that they should be eating so late at night; though it is probable they had been eating, as seems from Luk 24:41;

and upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart: not but that their hearts were very contrite for their sinful carriage to Christ; and very much humbled they were under the present dispensation: their hearts were much affected, and they were filled with sorrow and trouble for the loss of Christ; but in this point their unbelief increased by their fears, and so much prevailed, that all that were said by one, and another, made no impression on them: and a great aggravation of their incredulity, and a reason of Christ's upbraiding them in this manner were,

because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen; as Mary Magdalene, and the other women, and Cleophas, and the other disciple that was with him, who were eyewitnesses that he was risen from the dead; and such as might have been depended on.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The residue - The remainder. Those who remained at Jerusalem.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. They — The two disciples from Emmaus. The residue — The rest of their fellow apostles. Neither believed they them — There was perhaps a reasonableness in this distrust of particular relations of our Lord’s appearances. A due skepticism of any particular story was doubtless right.

It did not imply necessarily a disbelief that the Lord would rise again according to his promises. In fact, like true philosophers, the disciples held that no narrative of the kind should be accepted until it had been fully tested by the most satisfactory evidence. Hence their skepticism affords just ground for our belief. Their testimony is the testimony of incredulous and scrutinizing witnesses.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they went away and told it unto the rest: neither believed they them. This want of faith happened by the permission and providence of God. "This their unbelief," says St. Gregory, "was not so much their infirmity as our future constancy on the faith."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither believed they them - They were moved a little by the testimony of these, added to that of St. Peter, Luke xxiv, 34; but they did not yet fully believe it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

13. And they went. Back to Jerusalem, to the upper room where the ten disciples were assembled (Luke 24:33). And told it. They related their whole interesting interview.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

13. κἀκεῖνοι. See on Mar 16:10-11.

οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις ἐπίστευσαν. This does not agree with Luk 24:34, where the two, on their return from Emmaus, are greeted with the news that the Lord is risen and has appeared to Simon. But Thomas did not believe this, and there may have been others who were convinced neither by these two nor by the Ten. The compiler of these notes is evidently not copying from Lk., and what follows seems to show that he had been told that the Apostles had refused to believe the evidence from Emmaus. The Apostles may have been allowed to hear of the Resurrection before seeing the risen Christ in order that they might know from personal experience what it was to have to depend upon the testimony of others, as would be the case with their converts (Joh 20:29; Joh 20:31). See Hort on 1Pe 1:8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13.] κἀκεῖνοι—as Mary Magdalene had done before.

τοῖς λοιποῖς] Supply τοῖς μετʼ αὐτοῦ γενομένοις.

οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις ἐπίστευσαν—not consistent with Luk 24:33, Luk 24:34. Here again the Harmonists have used every kind of distortion of the plain meaning of words to reconcile the two accounts; assuming that some believed and some doubted, that they first doubted and then believed; or, according to Bengel, first believed and then doubted.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.