Marcos 16:8

The women were so upset by what had happened that when they left the tomb they told no one what they had seen-at first. However, it was not long before they were spreading the news that Jesus was alive again (Matthew 28:8; Luke 24:9).

"The ending of Mark . . . punctures any self-confident superiority the reader might feel, for the ending turns irony back upon the reader. Throughout the story when Jesus commanded people to be quiet they talked anyway. But at the end when the young man commands the women to go tell the message-the crucial message-in an ironic reversal they are silent. The fear of the women dominates the ending of the story. At this point fear forces the reader to face once again the fear in his or her own situation. No matter how much the reader ’knows’ or ’sees,’ he or she still must make the hard choice in the end-whether to be silent like the women or to proclaim the good news in the face of persecution and possible death." [Note: Ibid., pp. 61-62.]

"With his closing comment he [Mark] wished to say that ’the gospel of Jesus the Messiah’ (ch. Mark 1:1) is an event beyond human comprehension and therefore awesome and frightening. In this case, contrary to general opinion, ’for they were afraid’ is the phrase most appropriate to the conclusion of the Gospel. The abruptness with which Mark concluded his account corresponds to the preface of the Gospel where the evangelist begins by confronting the reader with the fact of revelation in the person of John and Jesus (Ch. Mark 1:1-13)." [Note: Lane, p. 592.]