What Does Mark 16:3 Mean?
And they said to one another, Who will roll the stone away from the door of the tomb for us?
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 they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?THE KEY
The Greek keeps the same rolling motion in view: the stone is rolled toward the tomb, then they ask who will roll it away.
THE MEANING
You can move toward what matters while still asking who can move the barrier in front of it. The verse lets that uncertainty remain open without treating it as proof that the way is closed. The next line says the stone has already been rolled away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that you must know how an obstruction will be removed before the way beyond it can open.
THE ROOT
ἀποκυλίσει
apokylísei
GROWS FROM
κυλίω
kyliō
to roll or cause to roll
“roll the stone away” in this verse is apokylísei. The prefixes turn the same motion in opposite directions: pros- means toward, while apo- means away. The question imagines a future act, “Who will roll it away?”, and the next verse answers with the same root in a completed form: “has been rolled away.”
ALSO GROWS
proskylíō: to roll toward or against
προσκυλίω
Mark 15:46 uses this compound for rolling the stone to the tomb’s entrance.
apokekýlistai: has been rolled away
ἀποκεκύλισται
Mark 16:4 uses this form to answer the women’s question with an action already completed.
μνημείου
mnēmeíou
GROWS FROM
μνημ-
mnēm-
memory or remembrance
“sepulchre” in this verse is mnēmeíou. The Greek word for the tomb belongs to the language of remembrance: a μνημεῖον is a memorial as well as a tomb. The women face a sealed place of memory and ask how its entrance can be opened.
ALSO GROWS
mnḗmē: memory, remembrance
μνήμη
This related noun makes the remembrance carried by μνημεῖον visible.
mnēmoneúō: to remember, keep in mind
μνημονεύω
This verb shares the memory-root and shows the same family extending from a memorial place to the act of remembering.
THE PATTERN
A barrier at an opening can seem decisive until it is moved and passage opens.
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob drew near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and gave drink to the flock of Laban his mother's brother.Jesus said, Lift away the stone. Martha, sister of the one who had died, said to him, Lord, by now he stinks, for he has been dead four days.And when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very great.THE THREAD
And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a tomb hewn from the rock, and rolled a stone toward the door of the tomb.Mark 15:46 uses the same root κυλίω with pros-, describing the stone rolled toward the tomb’s entrance. Here apo- turns that same motion away from the entrance, so the question holds the reversal of the sealing action inside its own verb.
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