What Does Mark 16:14 Mean?
Afterward he showed himself to the eleven as they reclined at the meal, and he reproached them for their refusal to trust and for the stiffness of their hearts, because they had not trusted those who had seen him after he had been raised.
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
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.THE KEY
The same Greek trust-root names both their unbelief and their failure to trust the witnesses, revealing the hardened heart in what testimony it refuses to receive.
THE MEANING
The risen one stands before the reader and names a refusal to trust, including the refusal to receive the witness of those who have seen him. The verse joins the inward state and outward response: distrust becomes hardness of heart, exposed by the presence of the risen one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that withholding trust from others’ testimony leaves the heart neutral; it names that resistance hardness of heart.
THE ROOT
ἀπιστία
apistia
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance, or confidence.
“refusal to trust” in this verse is apistia. The negative prefix in ἀπιστία (apistia, lack of trust) turns the trust-root into its absence, and the same root returns in ἠπίστησαν (ēpistēsan, they did not trust). The verse ties their inward unbelief directly to their refusal to receive the witnesses’ report.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
This is the noun family behind unbelief; the verse turns on whether trust is present.
pisteuō: To trust or believe.
πιστεύω
This verb names the act of trusting that the witnesses’ testimony calls for.
ēpistēsan: They did not trust.
ἠπίστησαν
This is the verse’s repeated trust-root in the explanation of why Jesus rebukes them.
σκληροκαρδία
sklērokardia
GROWS FROM
σκληρ- (sklēr-, hard) + καρδι- (kardi-, heart)
A compound joining hardness or rigidity with the heart, the inner center.
“stiffness of their hearts” in this verse is sklērokardia. The Greek compresses hard and heart into one word, showing that their response is more than a passing doubt: resistance has settled in the inner center. Placed beside the repeated trust-root, the compound makes the inner condition visible in their rejection of testimony.
ALSO GROWS
sklēros: Hard, rigid, or harsh.
σκληρός
This is the hard quality carried into the compound describing the heart.
sklērynō: To harden.
σκληρύνω
This verb shows hardness as a condition that can take hold within a person.
kardia: Heart, the inner center.
καρδία
This names where the verse locates the hardness.
THE PATTERN
The heart’s posture becomes visible in whether it receives the testimony of what has been seen and spoken.
And Israel saw the great hand that the LORD did upon the Egyptians, and the people stood in awe of the LORD, and they leaned their weight on the LORD and on his servant Moses.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have perceived me, you have leaned your full weight. Flourishing are those who have not perceived, and yet have leaned their weight.Mark pairs ἀπιστία (apistia, lack of trust) and ἠπίστησαν (ēpistēsan, they did not trust), both from πιστ- (pist-, trust); John uses πιστεύω (pisteuō, trust or believe) from the same family. The shared root spans refusal after hearing witnesses and trust after encounter, while Jesus also names trust that does not depend on sight.
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