What Does Mark 16:10 Mean?
She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.THE KEY
The same Greek verb for mourning appears in the promise that mourners are comforted: the report arrives inside grief, not after it.
THE MEANING
A message reaches people while they are still mourning and weeping. Witness and sorrow occupy the same moment; the tears do not have to disappear before the report arrives.
THE ROOT
πενθοῦσιν
penthousin
GROWS FROM
πενθ-
penth-
to mourn, grieve
“mourned” in this verse is penthousin. English can make grief sound like a backdrop; the Greek verb is the same one Matthew uses for those who mourn. There, comfort is joined to mourners, so this report meets grief as it is, before it has cleared.
ALSO GROWS
pénthos: mourning, grief
πένθος
The noun names the grief this verb expresses, linking the people’s mourning to grief itself.
penthéō: to mourn, grieve
πενθέω
This is the verb’s dictionary form and the same verb used in Matthew’s promise to those who mourn.
ἀπήγγειλεν
apēngeilen
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
to announce, report
The word rendered “told” belongs to the Greek family of announcing and messengers. It carries the shape of a report moving from a witness to people who have not seen what she has seen.
ALSO GROWS
ángelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
The shared word family links the act of reporting with the one who carries a message.
katangéllō: announce, proclaim
καταγγέλλω
This related verb makes the announcement aspect of “told” more visible.
THE PATTERN
A spoken witness carries personal encounter into a community.
Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.Mary Magdalene came and brought word to the disciples that she had perceived the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
Flourishing are those who mourn, for they are comforted.Matthew uses the same Greek verb for “mourn” that Mark uses here. Matthew joins that mourning with comfort; Mark places the mourners beside a report that arrives while their grief is still present.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us