women, who have been with him since his days in Galilee, have been present at the cross (15:40–41), at the burial (15:47), and at the empty tomb (16:1–7). But in the end they join the disciples in their trembling, astonishment, fear, and flight (v. 8; see 14:50). In the light of the information provided in 1:1–13 the Christian reader is asked to reassess God’s design, outlined in 1:1–13, on arrival at the conclusion of the story of Jesus in 16:1–8. If 1:1–13 served as a prologue to the Gospel of
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