What Does Mark 16:5 Mean?
And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white robe, and they were stunned.
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 entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.THE KEY
The tomb holds newness before anyone has yet heard an explanation.
THE MEANING
You enter a place marked by death and find a young figure seated there, clothed in white. Fear and a composed presence share the scene; even before a word is spoken, the tomb holds more than absence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that a tomb can contain only loss and absence: here, a witness is already present.
THE ROOT
νεανίσκον
neaniskon
GROWS FROM
νεανισκ- (neanisk-), from νέος (neos)
young; new
“young man” in this verse is neaniskon. Neaniskos belongs to the Greek word family around neos, meaning young or new. The verse places youth inside a burial place, letting newness resonate where the scene expects an ending.
ALSO GROWS
neos: young or new
νέος
Its two shades let the young figure carry a quiet resonance of newness in the tomb.
neotēs: youth
νεότης
This related word keeps the focus on youth as a quality, not merely the figure’s age.
λευκήν
leukēn
GROWS FROM
λευκ-
leuk-
white; bright
The Greek word family holds both whiteness and the act of making white. The garment is described by a word that also connects to garments becoming white elsewhere in Scripture.
ALSO GROWS
leukos: white or bright
λευκός
This is the word family of the garment’s visible whiteness.
leukainō: make white; whiten
λευκαίνω
Its use for robes made white in Revelation connects the garment’s appearance with a process of becoming white.
THE PATTERN
The place marked by death becomes a place where life is disclosed.
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the ground of Israel.And she saw two messengers in white, sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.So we were laid in the ground with him through immersion into death, that as the Anointed One was raised from the dead through the weight of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.THE THREAD
And I say to him, My lord, you know. And he says to me, These are the ones who come out of the great pressure, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.Mark’s word for the garment’s whiteness, leukos, shares its word family with the verb leukainō, “make white,” used here of robes made white. The connection lets the white garment in the tomb echo a wider image of people emerging from tribulation clothed in whiteness.
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