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MARK 16:8 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 16:7Mark 16:9
“And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.”
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid — Mark's original ending (the earliest and best manuscripts end at verse 8) is the most abrupt ending in the New Testament. Trembling, bewildered, fled, said nothing, afraid: the women's response to the resurrection is not triumphant proclamation but fear and flight and silence. The fear is the appropriate response to the encounter with divine reality — the same ecstatic terror as every theophanic encounter in the Gospel. The silence that ends the Gospel is the inverse of the first line (the beginning of the good news) — the beginning has been announced; the ending is the ongoing story that the reader must now live.

Church Fathers on Mark 16:8

After the sadness of the sabbath, a happy day dawns upon them, which holds the chief place amongst days, for in it the chief light shines forth, and the Lord rises in triumph.

Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

For these religious women after the burial of the Lord, as long as it was lawful to work, that is, up to sunset, prepared ointment, as Luke says. And because they could not finish their work from the shortness of the time, when the sabbath was over, that is, at sunset, as soon as the time for working came round again, they hastened to buy spices, as Mark says, that they might go in the morning to anoint the body of Jesus. Neither could they come to the sepulchre on the…

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation

For they do not understand the greatness and dignity of the wisdom of Christ. But they came according to the custom of the Jews to anoint the body of Christ, that it might remain sweet-smelling, and might not burst forth into moisture, for spices have the property of drying up, and absorb the moisture of the body, so that they keep the body from corruption.

Theophylact · 11th century
Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Mark 16:8 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy