Mark 16:9-11--Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Mark 16:9-11
English Standard Version

[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene​
9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

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I left the notation in today's passage that shows that some early manuscripts of the book of Mark stop at Mark 16:8 (the gospel ends with the Resurrection).  The existence of such notes does not make me doubt the authenticity or veracity of the Scripture, and I've talked about this issue in some of my earliest "Faith and Culture" blogs.  Suffice it to say that admitting there was some slight variance in copies before the existence of the printing press which made exact duplicates is both honest and transparent, so we don't look at only one manuscript or even one group of manuscripts, but a large number of manuscripts and, in this case, the translators are telling you that the majority of the manuscripts agree with what they have printed, but a minority of the manuscripts, albeit some of them were some of the earliest manuscripts we know of, so not include this passage.  It is then up to you to choose whether you put more trust in a few "early" manuscripts or the majority "consensus" of the totality of manuscripts that have been found.  Then an important question is, "If this passage were not there...." or "If this word were different...." (whatever the footnote indicates), would that actually have any meaningful change in what I believe?  I can say that with 100% certainty, in every such instance, the answer is a resounding, "No."

For instance, today's passage which talks about Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene is also recorded for us in John 20:11-18, in the last gospel we know was written, and we are certain of those words in that passage, so there is no reason to doubt the testimony here in Mark that is in agreement with the testimony given by John.  In fact, I already made mention of the fact that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first in yesterday's blog.  I referred not only to this passage in Mark, but also to the passage in John that said that while the other women were busy looking at the tomb, Mary turned around and was weeping and Jesus was standing right there ready to comfort her.

Mark reminds us that God chose people we wouldn't expect to be His witnesses.  Not only a group of women, but this woman in particular had been possessed by seven demons until Jesus cast them out of her.  She was the one that went and told everyone that was gathered together to mourn the death of Jesus that He was alive.  They did not believe her at first, but agreed to send Peter and John to investigate what Mary and the other women who were at the tomb had to say.  They at least wanted to see what happened to the body for themselves.  Interestingly enough, Peter (who is telling things to Mark to write) didn't include his own interaction with the angel at the tomb, but John tells us about that.  No, Peter will focus next on the two disciples on the road to Emaus.  They are more clearly identified in the book of Luke in Luke 24:13-31.  So, again, we will have confirmation of tomorrow's passage with even greater detail in another gospel where there is no question as to the inclusion of those words in Luke's original letter.  After this comes the Great Commission which we know well from the book of Matthew, Luke, and Acts (John ends his gospel in a different way) and Mark's account is mostly in agreement with that of Matthew and Luke (both in the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts as Luke wrote both volumes).  I'll address the one or two verses that are in no other parallel passage when we get there, but for now, I want you to feel certain that what we're studying is real history seen by many eyewitnesses as the book of 1 Corinthians tells us.

I hope that explanation of this note was helpful to you today and did not distract too much from the passage itself, which, as we saw was really not in question.  Jesus chose to appear first to Mary Magdalene which was counter-cultural because women in general, and especially women with a history like hers would never be believed in a court of law, so don't let anyone ever tell you that Jesus was misogynistic.  He encouraged men and women alike to follow Him and be His disciples.  He also loved children in a society where they were not valued, and He cared for those who were disabled, sick, and otherwise seen as "a burden on society."  Jesus loved all of them, but Mary had a special love for Jesus because of what she had been saved from.  We too should love Jesus because of what we have been saved from and our changed lives should be testimony enough that agrees with our words that we too have "met" the Risen Christ, and that He has given us new life.