A. In the ending of the book of Mark the women go to the tomb to see Jesus and find that the stone in front of the tomb had already been moved. Once they go inside the tomb they see what is identified as a “young man dressed in a white robe” who tells them not to be afraid. Then the women run off and are afraid and the book ends. The short ending in Mark confused people since it did not discuss Jesus after he was resurrected. In Matthew and Luke however there are more fulfilling endings for believers to hold onto. For example in Matthew the women have an encounter with Jesus after they flee the tomb in fear. Also in Luke there are passages with Jesus addressing his disciples after he is resurrected. One explanation of the changes in these books is that Matthew and Luke developed Mark’s story for the audience at the time.

B. I believe that scholars would take the same ideas about the differences between the books. That being that Matthew and Luke would have taken the book of Mark and developed the ideas. Mark also uses the first person when Jesus speaks to people.

C. After examining this story in the different books I believe that Matthew and Luke were writing to a different, more confused, audience than Mark was. Since the audience was vastly different the book had to develop and change the ending in order to clear up the confusion. Another possible explanation however is that the developed version of the tomb story came from source Q.