Mark 16:12

After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12-13) After that he appeared in another form.—See Notes on Luke 24:13-35.

Benson Commentary

Mark 16:12-13. He appeared in another form unto two of them, &c. — Of which, see notes on Luke 24:13-33. And they went and told it unto the residue — Namely, the same evening. Neither believed they them — That is, some of them did not believe, though others of them did, who, though they had given little credit to the reports of the women, supposing they were occasioned more by imagination than reality; yet, as appears from Luke 24:34, when Simon declared that he had seen the Lord, they began to think that he was risen indeed. Their belief, therefore, was not a little confirmed by the arrival of the two disciples, who declared that the Lord had appeared to them also.

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

He appeared in another form - In a form unlike his ordinary appearance so much so that they did not at first know him. See the notes at Luke 24:13-31. "As they walked and went into the country." To Emmaus, Luke 24:13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. After that he appeared in another form—(compare Lu 24:16).

unto two of them as they walked, and went into the country—The reference here, of course, is to His manifestation to the two disciples going to Emmaus, so exquisitely told by the Third Evangelist (see on [1529]Lu 24:13, &c.).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 12,13. Of this appearance St. Luke gives us a very large account, Luke 24:13-35.

See Poole on "Luke 24:13", and following verses to Luke 24:35.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After that,.... A little time, or some few hours after, on the selfsame day; see Luke 24:13;

he appeared in another form: it seems to have been the form, or habit of a gardener that he appeared in to Mary; since she thought him to be one, and to be the gardener that belonged to the garden, in which the sepulchre was: but now it was in another form, or habit, that he appeared; very likely in the habit of a Scribe, or doctor; since he took upon him to expound the Scriptures to the persons he appeared to; as also took bread, and blessed it, when at supper with them, Luke 24:27. According to the Jewish canons (m).

"if two persons eat together, and one of them is a Scribe, and the other an unlearned man, , "the Scribe blesses", and the unlearned man is excused.''

This is not to be understood of any change in the shape of his body, or the features of his face; for as soon as their eyes were opened, which had been before held, they knew him perfectly well: whereas, if there had been such an alteration made in him, that he could not have been known for the same, there would have been no need of holding their eyes, that they should not know him, Luke 24:16. This appearance was

unto two of them; one of them was Cleophas, or Alphaeus, which is the same, Luke 24:18; the other is by some (n) thought to be Simon Peter, from what is said in Luke 24:34 though others (o) think it was Nathanael, and others (p) Luke the evangelist, who conceals his own name, when he mentions the other; and some (q) that his name was Ammaon, which perhaps may be through mistake of the place, Emmaus, where they were going, for the name of one of them, and the appearance to them was,

as they walked, and went into the country: to a country village called Emmaus, about sixty furlongs, or seven miles and a half from Jerusalem; see Luke 24:13.

(m) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 45. 2.((n) Lightfoot, Hor. in. v. 13. & in Luke 24.13. (o) Epiphan contra Haeres. l. 1. Haeres. 23. (p) Vid. Theophylact. in Luc. xxiv. 13. (q) Ambros in Luc. 12. 49. & 24.

Geneva Study Bible

{2} After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

(2) Christ appears to two other disciples and at length to the eleven.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Mark 16:12-13. A meagre statement of the contents of Luke 24:13-35, yet provided with a traditional explanation (ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ), and presenting a variation (οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις ἐπίστευσαν) which betrays as its source[184] not Luke himself, but a divergent tradition.

μετὰ ταῦτα] (after what was narrated in Mark 16:9-11) does not occur at all in Mark, often as he might have written it: it is an expression foreign to him. How long after, does not appear. According to Luke, it was still on the same day.

ἐξ αὐτῶν] τῶν μετʼ αὐτοῦ γενομένων, Mark 16:10.

περιπατοῦσιν] euntibus, not while they stood or sat or lay, but as they walked. More precise information is then given in πορευομένοις εἰς ἀγρόν: while they went into the country.

ἑφανερώθη] Mark 16:14; John 21:1, He became visible to them, was brought to view. The expression does not directly point to a “ghostlike” appearance (in opposition to de Wette), since it does not of itself, although it does by ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ, point to a supernatural element in the bodily mode of appearance of the risen Lord. This ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ is not to be referred to other clothing and to an alleged disfigurement of the face by the sufferings borne on the cross (comp. Grotius, Heumann, Bolten, Paulus, Kuinoel, and others), but to the bodily form, that was different from what His previous form had been,—which the tradition here followed assumed in order to explain the circumstance that the disciples, Luke 24:16, did not recognise Jesus who walked and spoke with them.

Mark 16:13. κἀκεῖνοι] these also, as Mary had done, Mark 16:10.

τοῖς λοιποῖς] to the others γενομένοις μετʼ αὐτοῦ, Mark 16:10; Mark 16:12.

οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις ἐπίστ.] not even them did they believe. A difference of the tradition from that of Luke 24:34, not a confusion with Luke 24:41, which belongs to the following appearance (in opposition to Schulthess, Fritzsche, de Wette). It is boundless arbitrariness of harmonizing to assume, as do Augustine, de consens. evang. iii. 25, Theophylact, and others, including Kuinoel, that under λέγοντας in Luke 24:34, and also under the unbelievers in the passage before us, we are to think only of some, and those different at the two places; while Calvin makes the distribution in such a manner, that they had doubted at first, but had afterwards believed! Bengel gives it conversely. According to Lange, too, they had been believing, but by the message of the disciples of Emmaus they were led into new doubt. Where does this appear? According to the text, they believed neither the Magdalene nor even the disciples of Emmaus.

[184] De Wette wrongly thinks (following Storr, Kuinoel, and others) here and repeatedly, that an interpolator would not have allowed himself to extract so freely. Our author, in fact, wrote not as an interpolator of Mark (how unskilfully otherwise must he have gone to work!), but independently of Mark, for the purpose of completing whose Gospel, however, this fragment was subsequently used.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 16:12-14. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα, afterwards (only here in Mk.); vaguely introducing a second appearance in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem.—δυσὶν ἐξ αὐτῶν, to two of the friends of Jesus previously referred to, not of the Eleven. Cf. with Luke 24:13. It is not only the same fact, but the narrative here seems borrowed from Lk.—ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ, in a different form. Serving no purpose here, because the fact it accounts for, the non-recognition of Jesus by the two disciples (Luke 24:16), is not mentioned.—εἰς ἀγρόν: for εἰς κώμην in Lk. The use of φανεροῦσθαι in the sense of being manifested to, in Mark 16:12, is peculiar to this section (again in Mark 16:14).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12, 13. The Appearance to Two of them

12. After that] On the world’s first Easter-Day the risen Saviour manifested Himself first to Mary Magdalene, then to the other ministering women. The Evangelist now proceeds to relate the appearance to the two disciples journeying towards Emmaus, which is more fully described by St Luke (Luke 24:13-35).

he appeared] “he is schewid,” Wyclif. This word in the original is applied to our Lord’s “manifestations” of Himself after His resurrection (a) by St Mark twice, here and Mark 16:14; (b) by St John three times, John 21:1; John 21:14; (c) by St Paul to our “manifestation” in our real character at the Last Judgment, 2 Corinthians 5:10 (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:5); (d) by the same Apostle to the “manifestation” of Christ at His second coming, Colossians 3:4. The word points here to a change in the Person of our Lord after His resurrection. He is the same and yet not the same. (a) The same. There are the well-known intonations of His voice, and the marks in His hands and feet (John 20:20; John 20:25); and He eats before His Apostles, converses with them, blesses them. And yet He is (b) not the same. His risen Body is no longer subject to the laws of time and space. He comes we know not whence. He goes we know not whither. Now He stands in the midst of the Apostles (John 20:19); now He vanishes out of their sight (Luke 24:31). He knows now of no continued sojourn on earth. He “appears from time to time” (Acts 1:3); He “manifests” Himself to chosen witnesses, as seemeth Him good.

in another form] It is plain from St Luke 24:16 that He was not at the time recognised. This appearance would seem to have been vouchsafed early in the afternoon of the day of the Resurrection.

unto two of them] The name of one was Cleopas = Cleopatros, not the Clopas of John 19:25, and another whose name is not known. Some have conjectured it was Nathanael, others the Evangelist St Luke.

as they walked] from Jerusalem in the direction of the village of Emmaus. St Luke says it was sixty stadia (A. V. “threescore furlongs”), or about 7½ miles from Jerusalem. From the earliest period it was identified by Christian writers with the Emmaus on the border of the plain of Philistia, afterwards called Nicopolis (1Ma 3:40), situated some 20 miles from Jerusalem. Afterwards it was identified with the little village of el-Kubeibeh, about 3 miles west of the ancient Mizpeh, and 9 miles from Jerusalem. The true site has yet to be settled.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 16:12. Ἑτέρᾳ, another [different]) This is the intermediate step of His revelation between His announcement of the fact by messengers, and His manifest appearance: just as the number two [viz. of those to whom He here appears] is intermediate between the one single female messenger and the many witnesses.—[εἰς ἀγρὸν, into the country) towards Emmaus.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - And after these things he was manifested in another form unto two of them, as they walked (πορευομένοις) on their way into the country. This appearance is doubtless the same as that which is related fully by St. Luke (Luke 24:13). Mark 16:12

Vincent's Word Studies

After these things (μετά ταῦτα)

An expression never used by Mark.

Another form (ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ)

More correctly, a different form.