welve, then to a large company of
disciples,--above five hundred,--then to James, then to all the apostles.
The sixth in the list is his own experience, which he puts in the same
class with the appearances of the first Easter morning. Two of these
instances are found only in Paul's account, the appearance to James and to
the five hundred brethren, though this last may probably be the same as is
referred to in the Gospel of Matthew (xxviii. 16-20).

212. The gospel records are much fuller, but they differ from each other
even more than they do from Paul. Mark is unhappily incomplete, for the
last twelve verses in that gospel, as we have it, are lacking in the
oldest manuscripts, and were probably written by a second-century
Christian named Aristion, as a substitute for the proper end of the gospel
which seems by some accident to have been lost. These twelve verses are
clearly compiled from our other gospels. They have value as indicating the
currency of the complete tradition in the early second century, but they
contribute nothing to our knowledge of the resurrection. All, then, that
Mark tells is that the women who came early on the first day of the week
to anoint the body of Jesus found the tomb open and empty, and saw an
angel who bade them tell the disciples that the Lord had risen. How the
record originally continued no one knows, for Matthew and Luke use the
same general testimony up to the point where Mark breaks off, and then go
quite different ways. Of the two Matthew is closer to Mark than is Luke.
The first gospel adds to the record of the second an account of an
appearance of Jesus to the women as they went to report to the disciples,
and then tells of the meeting of Jesus with the disciples on a mountain in
Galilee, and his parting commission to them. It gives no account of the
ascension. Luke agrees with Mark in general concerning the visit of the
women to the tomb, the angelic vision, and the report to the disciples. He
says nothing of an appearance of Jesus to the women on their flight from
the tomb, but, if xxiv. 12 is genuine (see R.V. margin), he, like John,
tells of Peter's visit to the sepulchre.

213. Luke further reports the appearances of Jesus to two on their way to
Emmaus, to Simon, and to the eleven in Jerusalem,--this last being blended
consciously or unconsciously with the final meeting of Jesus with the
disciples before his ascension. The genuine text of the gospel (xxiv. 50)
says nothing o