What Does Mark 16:4 Mean?
And when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very great.
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 when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.THE KEY
The stone is still described as exceedingly great, yet the perfect tense shows its removal is complete and the entrance remains open.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two things together for you now: the obstruction is genuinely great, and the entrance is no longer sealed. The size of a barrier does not tell you whether its hold has already ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that an obstacle’s size proves it cannot be moved.
THE ROOT
ἀποκεκύλισται
apokekylistai
GROWS FROM
κυλι-
kyli-
The Greek stem κυλι- (kyli-) means “roll.” The compound ἀποκυλίω (apokylio, “roll away”) adds ἀπό (apo, “away” or “from”).
The verb is perfect passive: the stone has been rolled away, and that completed action leaves it away now. The same rolling verb appears in the women’s question just before this verse, so their concern is answered by the opening they find.
ALSO GROWS
apokylio: To roll away.
ἀποκυλίω
The women ask who will roll the stone away in Mark 16:3; here the same verb shows that the action is already complete.
proskylio: To roll toward or against.
προσκυλίω
Mark 15:46 uses this related verb as the stone is rolled to the tomb’s entrance; the same root describes both closing the way and clearing it.
THE PATTERN
A barrier at an opening can be rolled away, exposing what it kept inaccessible.
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.And the LORD said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the taunt of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.And behold, there was a great earthquake, for a messenger of the LORD came down out of the heavens, and came and rolled the stone away from the door, and sat upon it.THE THREAD
And they said to one another, Who will roll the stone away from the door of the tomb for us?The question uses ἀποκυλίω (apokylio, “roll away”), the same verb whose completed form appears in this verse. The question about who can move the great stone meets its answer in the next line: it has already been rolled away.
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