Mark 16:13

And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:9-13 Better news cannot be brought to disciples in tears, than to tell them of Christ's resurrection. And we should study to comfort disciples that are mourners, by telling them whatever we have seen of Christ. It was a wise providence that the proofs of Christ's resurrection were given gradually, and admitted cautiously, that the assurance with which the apostles preached this doctrine afterwards might the more satisfy. Yet how slowly do we admit the consolations which the word of God holds forth! Therefore while Christ comforts his people, he often sees it needful to rebuke and correct them for hardness of heart in distrusting his promise, as well as in not obeying his holy precepts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them, &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 16:12"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they went and told it unto the residue,.... Upon their return to Jerusalem, which was on the same night, they went to the eleven apostles, and the other disciples that were with them, and related the whole affair to them; how that Jesus had joined them by the way, and discoursed much with them about himself, and expounded the Scriptures on the road; and when they came to the end of their journey, sat down at meat with them, when he was very plainly discerned, and known by them, and then disappeared; see Luke 24:33;

neither believed they them. "These two", as the Arabic version reads; though they were men, and fellow disciples; and this was a repeated testimony, and a second set of witnesses of Christ's resurrection to them; all which aggravates their unbelief: upon sight of them they said, "the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon", Luke 24:34; the reason of which Dr. Lightfoot thinks was this, that Peter hearing that Christ was risen, and went before them into Galilee, was eager to see him, and therefore took this journey along with Cleophas, which the rest of the disciples knew; and he returning so soon, they concluded he had seen him: but when he, and Cleophas, told the whole affair, they were as unbelieving as ever.

Geneva Study Bible

And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. they went and told it unto the residue] No sooner did they recognise our Lord in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35), and He had vanished out of their sight (Luke 24:31), than they returned in haste to Jerusalem, ascended to the Upper Room, found ten of the Apostles met together (Luke 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” (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 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 (Mark 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.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 16:13. Ἀπήγγειλαν) They brought back word.—οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις, not even them) Luke 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. Luke 24:37-38; John 20:25; Matthew 28:17.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - 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." Mark 16:13