Mark 16:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Their shocked state was a result of their failure to exercise faith in what Christ had told them beforehand. They had come to the sepulchre to anoint the body. Why did they want to do that? Because they didn't expect the resurrection. Though they had heard of it either from the Lord himself or via the disciples (Luke 24:8 says they remembered Christ’s words), it didn't sink in. It somehow went – as we say – in one ear and out of the other. They therefore fled from the sepulchre in a state of amazement and physically trembling. They were frightened out of their wits. They were on the way back to the city, and they were telling no one on the way what they had seen, because they were going to tell these things first to the disciples and to no one else. Faith would have been able to cope with these events without being quite so disturbed.