Mark’s Testimony

Mark gives this statement: “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.” “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Mark 16:1, 2, 9. These words, written some ten years after the events recorded, state that the Sabbath was past before the first day of the week began. First-day writers tell us that Mark, with the other disciples, had been keeping the first day of the week as the Sabbath for ten years when he wrote this. Can we believe such a statement? Would he apply “Sabbath” to a day which he did not regard as such, and refrain from calling the one “Sabbath” which he did observe. This would be most surprising, yea, utterly unreasonable. We must conclude that Mark still acknowledged the ancient Sabbath as identical with the one he observed.ChSa 45.1