Mark 16:9–14

Verse 9. This appearance of our Saviour is more fully related by Saint John. Our Lord arose early from the monument in which he had been placed late in the evening, thus fulfilling the words of the psalmist: In the evening weeping shall have place, and in the morning gladness. Psalms 29. Ven. Bede.—Rising early. It appears from this that our Saviour arose early, about sunrise, as was the sentiment of Saint Augustine; though Saint Gregory seems to think that he arose at midnight, in the same manner as Samson, who was a figure of Christ, arose in the middle of the night and carried away the gates of Gaza. If we follow this opinion, we must understand the word early as referring to the verb appeared, not to the participle rising, and then the sentence will be: he rising, (having arisen) appeared early the first day of the week. The first interpretation, however, of Saint Augustine seems more agreeable to the text: he rising early the first day of the week, appeared, and so forth

NU includes the text of verses 9-20, but mentions in a footnote that a few manuscripts omitted it. The translators of the World English Bible regard Mark 16:9-20 as reliable based on an overwhelming majority of textual evidence, including not only the authoritative Greek Majority Text New Testament, but also the TR and many of the manuscripts cited in the NU text.

Verse 12. He had appeared to Magdalene in the form of a gardener, and to two disciples in the form of a traveller.

Verse 14. At length, and so forth [1] in the Latin text, taken according to the letter, is lastly, or last of all: but if we examine and compare the four gospels, this was not the last time that Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. We can only then understand it of the last time mentioned by this evangelist.—To the eleven. If this apparition (as it was the opinion of Saint Augustine) was made when Saint Thomas was not with them, they were only then ten, without Saint Thomas and Judas. The evangelist here calls them eleven, because the apostolical college (Judas being dead) consisted of no more than eleven. And this way of speaking may be justified by diverse examples: one instance may suffice. A meeting of the Jewish sanhedrim might be called the Council of the Seventy-two, though it many times happened that all the seventy-two were not there present. Witham.—Some think that this was the last apparition of Jesus Christ, after which he quitted the earth, and ascended into heaven. V.