In Mark the women go to the tomb and see a young man who tells them that Christ has been risen. (16:1-7) However, the women do not obey and Mark ends at 16:8 with the statement that the women “told no one for they were afraid.” Later scribes added several different endings to the gospel after 16:8, which were not originally part of Mark. An extra twelve verses are added in some later copies (16:9-20) such as and included in the Vulgate. Our earliest complete codices such as B and א omit this longer ending. A different shorter ending, the conclusio brevior, is found in Miniscule 44 and other late copies and adds after 16:8 the words, “But they reported briefly to Peter and those with him all they had been told, and After this Jesus himself sent out through them from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.” Which is to say, our earliest gospel has no resurrection appearances whatsoever, and later scribes found this so troubling as to invent divergent endings in their copying. The young man standing inside of the tomb says to the women,
“Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’” (Mark 16:7)
However, Mark ends in the very next verse without ever relating any appearances in Galilee. However, the gospel of Matthew goes on to describe these appearances in Galilee but in Luke they occur in Jerusalem.