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Mark 16:12

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

He appeared - unto two of them - These were the two who were going to Emmaus. The whole account is given by Luke, 24:13-34, where see the notes.

Dr. Lightfoot's criticism upon this passage is worthy of notice.

"That, in the verses immediately going before, the discourse is of the two disciples going to Emmaus, is without all controversy. And then how do these things consist with that relation in Luke, who saith, That they two, returning to Jerusalem, found the eleven gathered together, and they that were with them; who said, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon? Luke 24:34. The word λεγοντας, saying, evidently makes those to be the words των ενδεκα, of the eleven, and of those that were gathered together with them; which, when you read the versions, you would scarcely suspect. For when that word is rendered by the Syriac, cad amrin ; by the Arabic, wehom yekolon ; by the Vulgate, dicentes; by the Italian, dicendo; by the French, disans; by the English, saying; who, I pray, would take it in another sense, than that those two that returned from Emmaus said, The Lord is risen indeed, etc.? But in the original Greek, when it is the accusative case, it is plainly to be referred to the eleven disciples, and those that were together with them; as if they had discoursed among themselves of the appearance made to Peter, either before, or now in the very access of those two coming from Emmaus. And yet, says this our evangelist, that when those two had related the whole business, they gave no credit to them; so that, according to Luke, they believed Christ was risen, and had appeared to Simon, before they told their story; but, according to Mark, they believed it not, no, not when they had told it. The reconciling therefore of the evangelists is to be fetched thence, that those words pronounced by the eleven, Ὁτι ηγερθη ὁ Κυριος οντως, etc., The Lord is risen indeed, etc., do not manifest their absolute confession of the resurrection of Christ, but a conjectural reasoning of the sudden and unexpected return of Peter. I believe that Peter was going with Cleophas into Galilee, and that being moved with the words of Christ, told him by the women, Say to his disciples and Peter, I go before you into Galilee - think with yourself how doubtful Peter was, and how he fluctuated within himself after his threefold denial, and how he gasped to see the Lord again, if he were risen, and to cast himself an humble suppliant at his feet. When therefore he heard these things from the women, (and he had heard it indeed from Christ himself, while he was yet alive, that when he arose he would go before them into Galilee), and when the rest were very little moved with the report of his resurrection, nor as yet stirred from that place, he will try a journey into Galilee, and Alpheus with him; which, when it was well known to the rest, and they saw him return so soon and so unexpectedly - Certainly, say they, the Lord is risen, and hath appeared to Peter, otherwise he had not so soon come back again. And yet, when he and Cleophas open the whole matter, they do not yet believe even them."

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

He appeared in another form - In a form unlike his ordinary appearance so much so that they did not at first know him. See the notes at Luke 24:13.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
Better news cannot be brought to disciples in tears, than to tell them of Christ's resurrection. And we should study to comfort disciples that are mourners, by telling them whatever we have seen of Christ. It was a wise providence that the proofs of Christ's resurrection were given gradually, and admitted cautiously, that the assurance with which the apostles preached this doctrine afterwards might the more satisfy. Yet how slowly do we admit the consolations which the word of God holds forth! Therefore while Christ comforts his people, he often sees it needful to rebuke and correct them for hardness of heart in distrusting his promise, as well as in not obeying his holy precepts.
Ellen G. White
The Desire of Ages, 795-802

This chapter is based on Luke 24:13-33.

Late in the afternoon of the day of the resurrection, two of the disciples were on their way to Emmaus, a little town eight miles from Jerusalem. These disciples had had no prominent place in Christ's work, but they were earnest believers in Him. They had come to the city to keep the Passover, and were greatly perplexed by the events that had recently taken place. They had heard the news of the morning in regard to the removal of Christ's body from the tomb, and also the report of the women who had seen the angels and had met Jesus. They were now returning to their homes to meditate and pray. Sadly they pursued their evening walk, talking over the scenes of the trial and the crucifixion. Never before had they been so utterly disheartened. Hopeless and faithless, they were walking in the shadow of the cross. DA 795.1

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