Mark 16:12 Study Bible: And after these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they walked on their way into the country.

◄ Mark 16:12 ►

After this, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them as they walked along in the country.

After this
This phrase indicates a sequence of events following the resurrection of Jesus. The Greek word used here, "meta," suggests a transition or continuation of the narrative. It emphasizes the ongoing revelation of Jesus to His followers, underscoring the importance of His appearances as foundational to the Christian faith. Historically, this period was a time of confusion and fear for the disciples, making Jesus' appearances crucial for their understanding and belief in His resurrection.

Jesus appeared
The Greek word for "appeared" is "phaneroō," which means to make visible or manifest. This suggests that Jesus' post-resurrection appearances were intentional and purposeful, designed to reveal His glorified state. Theologically, this emphasizes the reality of the resurrection, affirming that Jesus was not a ghost or vision but truly alive. His appearances served to strengthen the faith of His followers and to commission them for the mission ahead.

in a different form
The phrase "in a different form" is intriguing and has been the subject of much theological discussion. The Greek word "morphē" indicates a change in appearance or outward form. This suggests that Jesus' resurrected body had properties that transcended normal human limitations, yet He remained recognizable to those He chose to reveal Himself to. This transformation highlights the mystery and power of the resurrection, pointing to the glorified state believers will also experience.

to two of them
This refers to two of Jesus' disciples, though not part of the original twelve apostles. The specific mention of "two" aligns with the account in Luke 24:13-35, where Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This encounter emphasizes the personal nature of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, showing His care and concern for all His followers, not just the prominent ones. It also underscores the importance of community and fellowship in recognizing and experiencing the risen Christ.

as they walked along
The setting of walking along the road suggests a journey, both literal and spiritual. The Greek word "poreuomai" implies movement and progress. This can be seen as a metaphor for the Christian life, a journey of faith where believers encounter Christ in the midst of their daily lives. Historically, roads were places of travel and communication, symbolizing the spread of the Gospel message as the disciples would soon be commissioned to go into all the world.

in the country
The phrase "in the country" indicates a rural setting, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This setting is significant as it reflects the humble and accessible nature of Jesus' ministry. The Greek word "agros" refers to fields or countryside, places where Jesus often taught and performed miracles. This setting also symbolizes the universality of the Gospel, reaching beyond urban centers to all corners of the earth, fulfilling the Great Commission.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jesus
The resurrected Christ who appears in a different form, demonstrating His divine power and authority over life and death.

2. Two Disciples
These are followers of Jesus who are traveling in the country. Their identity is not specified in this verse, but they are part of the larger group of Jesus' disciples.

3. The Country
This refers to the rural area outside of Jerusalem where the disciples were walking. It signifies a place of revelation and encounter with the risen Christ.

Teaching Points

The Mystery of the Resurrection
Jesus' ability to appear in different forms underscores the mystery and power of the resurrection. It challenges us to recognize His presence in unexpected ways in our own lives.

The Importance of Spiritual Perception
The disciples' initial failure to recognize Jesus reminds us of the need for spiritual discernment. We must be open to seeing God at work in ways that may not align with our expectations.

The Role of Scripture in Revelation
As seen in the fuller account in Luke, Jesus uses Scripture to reveal Himself to the disciples. This teaches us the importance of engaging with the Bible to deepen our understanding of Christ.

Encounters with Christ Transform Lives
The disciples' encounter with Jesus on the road leads to a transformation in their understanding and faith. Our own encounters with Christ should lead to personal transformation and a renewed commitment to His mission.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the appearance of Jesus in a different form challenge our understanding of His resurrection body and its implications for our own resurrection hope?

2. In what ways can we cultivate spiritual perception to recognize Jesus' presence in our daily lives, especially when He appears in unexpected forms?

3. How does the use of Scripture in the account of the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) inform our approach to Bible study and understanding God's revelation?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced a transformation in your faith through an encounter with Christ. How did it change your perspective or actions?

5. How can we, as a community of believers, support one another in recognizing and responding to the presence of Christ in our midst?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Luke 24:13-35
This passage provides a detailed account of the encounter on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus appears to two disciples. It highlights the same event mentioned in Mark 16:12, offering a fuller account of how Jesus revealed Himself through the breaking of bread.

John 20:14-16
Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Jesus, where He appears in a form she does not initially recognize, parallels the theme of Jesus appearing in different forms.

1 Corinthians 15:5-7
Paul recounts the appearances of the risen Christ to various individuals and groups, affirming the reality of the resurrection and its foundational importance to the Christian faith.

Sermons

The Changing Form of the Unchanging Saviour	W. L. Watkinson.	Mark 16:12
Resurrection Proofs	A.F. Muir	Mark 16:1-14
An Eventful Day	J.J. Given	Mark 16:1-18
The Resurrection	R. Green	Mark 16:1-18
Appearances of the Risen One	E. Johnson	Mark 16:9-14

People

James, Jesus, Mary, Peter, Salome

Places

Galilee, Jerusalem, Nazareth

Topics

Afterwards, Along, Appeared, Different, Field, Form, Manifested, Revealed, Showed, Walked, Walking

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Mark 16:1-14

2555 Christ, resurrection appearances

Mark 16:9-14

8837 unbelief, and life of faith

Mark 16:11-14

5884 indecision

Mark 16:12-14

8761 fools, in teaching of Christ

Library

The World-Wide Commission
'Every creature.'--Mark xvi. 15. The missionary enterprise has been put on many bases. People do not like commandments, but yet it is a great relief and strength to come back to one, and answer all questions with 'He bids me!' Now, these words of our Lord open up the whole subject of the Universality of Christianity. I. The divine audacity of Christianity. Take the scene. A mere handful of men, whether 'the twelve' or 'the five hundred brethren' is immaterial. How they must have recoiled when they …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Enthroned Christ
'So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.'--Mark xvi. 19. How strangely calm and brief is this record of so stupendous an event! Do these sparing and reverent words sound to you like the product of devout imagination, embellishing with legend the facts of history? To me their very restrainedness, calmness, matter-of-factness, if I may so call it, are a strong guarantee that they are the utterance of an eyewitness, who verily saw …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Perpetual Youth
'And entering Into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment.'--Mark xvi. 5. Many great truths concerning Christ's death, and its worth to higher orders of being, are taught by the presence of that angel form, clad in the whiteness of his own God-given purity, sitting in restful contemplation in the dark house where the body of Jesus had lain. 'Which things the angels desire to look into.' Many precious lessons of consolation and hope, too, lie …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Love's Triumph Over Sin
'Tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before yon into Galilee.--Mark xvi, 7. This prevailing tradition of Christian antiquity ascribes this Gospel to John Mark, sister's son to Barnabas, and affirms that in composing it he was in some sense the 'interpreter' of the Apostle Peter. Some confirmation of this alleged connection between the Evangelist and the Apostle may be gathered from the fact that the former is mentioned by the latter as with him when he wrote his First Epistle. And, in the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Incredulous Disciples
'And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4. And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 6. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Angel in the Tomb
'They saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were aifrighted. 6. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him.'--Mark xvi. 5,6. Each of the four Evangelists tells the story of the Resurrection from his own special point of view. None of them has any record of the actual fact, because no eye saw it. Before the earthquake and the angelic descent, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Christ Crowned, the Fact
"When God sought a King for His people of old, He went to the fields to find him; A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute And a following flock behind him. "O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute, And the sling and the stone for battle; A shepherd was King, the giant was naught, And the enemy driven like cattle. "When God looked to tell of His good will to men, And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them; To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep, He told of a Christ sent to save them. …
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Baptismal Regeneration
Our Lord having thus given us an insight into the character of the persons whom he has chosen to proclaim his truth, then goes on to deliver to the chosen champions, their commission for the Holy War. I pray you mark the words with solemn care. He sums up in a few words the whole of their work, and at the same time foretells the result of it, telling them that some would doubtless believe and so be saved, and some on the other hand would not believe and would most certainly, therefore, be damned, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

Unbelievers Upbraided
On Thursday Evening, June 8th, 1876. "He . . . upbraided them with their unbelief."--Mark 16:14. I SHALL not dwell so much upon this particular instance of the disciples' unbelief as upon the fact that the Lord Jesus upbraided them because of it. This action of his shows us the way in which unbelief is to be treated by us. As our loving Saviour felt it to be right rather to upbraid than to console, he taught us that on some occasions, unbelief should be treated with severity rather than with condolence. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 50: 1904

Sermon for Ascension Day
This third sermon on the Ascension tells us how man ought continually to follow after Christ, as He has walked before us for three and thirty years, passing through manifold and great sufferings, before He returned unto His Father. Mark xvi. 19.--"So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." AFTER the Son of God, Jesus Christ, had eaten with His disciples upon the Mount of Olives, and reproved them, that they had been so long time …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

The Necessity of Faith for Justification
1. THE LUTHERAN HERESY VS. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.--The Protestant Reformers, notably Luther and Calvin, did not deny that justification is wrought by faith, but they defined justifying faith in a manner altogether foreign to the mind of the Church. a) They distinguished three kinds of faith: (1) belief in the existence of God and the historical fact that Christ has come on earth, suffered, and ascended (fides historica); (2) the sort of trust which is required for exercising the gift of miracles …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

Fifth Appearance of Jesus.
(Jerusalem. Sunday Evening) ^B Mark XVI. 14; ^C Luke XXIV. 36-43; ^D John XX. 19-25. ^b 14 And afterward ^c as they spake these things [while the two from Emmaus were telling their story] , ^b he was manifested unto the eleven themselves as they sat at meat; ^d 19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus ^c himself ^d came and stood in the midst, ^c of them, and saith unto them, Peace …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Third and Fourth Appearances of Jesus.
(Sunday Afternoon.) ^B Mark XVI. 12, 13; ^C Luke XXIV. 13-35; ^E I. Cor. XV. 5. ^b 12 And after these things he was manifested in another form [i. e., another manner] unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. ^c 13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus [Several sites have been suggested, but the village of Emmaus has not yet been identified beyond dispute. Its location is probably marked by the ruins called el Kubeibeh, which lies northwest …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Ascension.
(Olivet, Between Jerusalem and Bethany.) ^B Mark XVI. 19, 20; ^C Luke XXIV. 50-53; ^E Acts I. 9-12. ^b 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, ^e 9 And when he had said these things, ^c he led them out until they were over against Bethany: and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them [it is significant that our Lord's gesture, when last seen of men, was one of blessing], and ^e as they were looking, he was taken …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Obedience to the Last Command
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations.' --Matt. 28:19. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.'--Mark 16:15. #8216;As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so send I them into the world' -- John 17:18; 20:21. Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth.'--Acts 1:8. All these words breathe nothing less than the spirit of world conquest. All the nations,' all the world,' …
Andrew Murray—The School of Obedience

Baptism, a Divinely Appointed Means of Grace.
When we inquire into the benefits and blessings which the Word of God connects with baptism, we must be careful to obtain the true sense and necessary meaning of its declarations. It is not enough to pick out an isolated passage or two, give them a sense of our own, and forthwith build on them a theory or doctrine. In this way the Holy Scriptures have been made to teach and support the gravest errors and most dangerous heresies. In this way, many persons "wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction." …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

Of the Places of Burial.
There were more common and more noble sepulchres. The common were in public burying-places, as it is with us: but they were without the city. "And through that place was no current of waters to be made; through it was to be no public way; cattle were not to feed there, nor was wood to be gathered from thence." "Nor was it lawful to walk among the sepulchres with phylacteries fastened to their heads, nor with the book of the law hanging at their arm." Some sepulchres were extraordinary; that is, in …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Baptism.
Literature. The commentaries on Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; 8:13, 16, 18, 37; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27; Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21. G. J. Vossius: De Baptismo Disputationes XX. Amsterdam, 1648. W. Wall (Episcopalian): The History of Infant Baptism (a very learned work), first published in London, 1705, 2 vols., best edition by H. Cotton, Oxford, 1836, 4 vols., and 1862, 2 vols., together with Gale's (Baptist)Reflections and Wall's Defense. A Latin translation by Schlosser appeared, vol. I., …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

Christ Risen
"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb when the sun was risen. And they were saying among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the tomb? and looking up, they see that the stone is rolled back: for it was exceeding great. And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

The Ascension
"So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen." MARK 16:19-20 (R.V.) WE have reached the close of the great Gospel of the energies of Jesus, His toils, His manner, His searching gaze, His noble indignation, His love of children, the consuming zeal by virtue of which He was not more truly the …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

Of Baptism.
1. Baptism defined. Its primary object. This consists of three things. 1. To attest the forgiveness of sins. 2. Passages of Scripture proving the forgiveness of sins. 3. Forgiveness not only of past but also of future sins. This no encouragement to license in sin. 4 Refutation of those who share forgiveness between Baptism and Repentance. 5 Second thing in Baptism--viz. to teach that we are ingrafted into Christ for mortification and newness of life. 6. Third thing in Baptism--viz. to teach us that …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Dispute with Whitefield
1741. Sunday, February 1.--A private letter, written to me by Mr. Whitefield, was printed without either his leave or mine, and a great numbers of copies were given to our people, both at the door and in the Foundry itself. Having procured one of them, I related (after preaching) the naked fact to the congregation and told them, "I will do just what I believe Mr. Whitefield would, were he here himself." Upon which I tore it in pieces before them all. Everyone who had received it, did the same. So …
John Wesley—The Journal of John Wesley

Links

Mark 16:12 NIV
Mark 16:12 NLT
Mark 16:12 ESV
Mark 16:12 NASB
Mark 16:12 KJV

Mark 16:12 Commentaries

Bible Hub