Mark 16:9

My Notes

What Does Mark 16:9 Mean?

"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." The first witness of the resurrection is a woman — specifically, a woman from whom Jesus had cast seven demons. Not Peter. Not John. Not the male disciples who held official positions. Mary Magdalene — a woman whose past was defined by extreme spiritual bondage — is the first human being to see the risen Christ.

The choice is deliberate and subversive: in first-century Jewish culture, women's testimony was inadmissible in court. If Mark (or the early church) were inventing the resurrection, they would never have chosen a woman as the first witness. The fact that they report it despite its legal weakness is evidence of historical accuracy — and of God's consistent pattern of choosing unlikely witnesses.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What does God choosing Mary Magdalene as the first resurrection witness teach about who he entrusts with his most important revelations?
• 2.How does your past (the 'seven demons') disqualify you in human eyes but qualify you in God's?
• 3.Why would God choose a legally inadmissible witness rather than a credible one — and what does that reveal about his values?
• 4.Where has God given you a 'first witness' testimony that your past would seem to disqualify you from?

Devotional

He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. A woman. A formerly demon-possessed woman. The first witness of the most important event in history is a person whose testimony wouldn't be accepted in any first-century court.

Out of whom he had cast seven devils. Mark identifies Mary by her past — not to shame her but to magnify the grace. The woman who once housed seven demons is now the first human to see the resurrected Lord. The bondage that defined her before Jesus is the backstory that makes her selection as first witness extraordinary. The person most dramatically delivered becomes the person most dramatically entrusted.

First. The word matters. Not simultaneously with the disciples. First. Before Peter. Before John. Before any of the twelve who walked with Jesus for three years. A woman from Magdala who was freed from seven demons sees the risen Christ before anyone else in the universe.

The choice shatters every assumption about who God uses and how God reveals. The resurrection — the evidence that everything Jesus said was true — is first revealed to a witness the legal system wouldn't accept. God's credibility strategy is the opposite of the world's: choose the least credible witness by human standards because divine revelation doesn't need human credibility. It creates its own.

If God wanted to make the resurrection legally airtight by first-century standards, he would have appeared to the high priest. Or to Pilate. Or to a group of male scholars. Instead, he appeared to Mary Magdalene — alone, in a garden, at dawn. Because the resurrection isn't established by legal credibility. It's established by the God who chooses whom he chooses.

The woman who had seven demons is the first to see the risen Lord. The person whose past would disqualify her testimony is the person God trusts with the most important testimony in history. If your past makes you feel disqualified from being used by God — if the demons you once housed make you feel unfit for witness — Mary Magdalene says: you're first in line.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture