passage, Gundry believes Mark could not have ended at 8, with the women silent about what they had seen. A second event would need to occur to break their silence, and Gundry feels that this section of Matthew is based on that content. Nolland considers the "to my brothers" to be a "striking innovation". It shows that Jesus stands with the disciples, even though they deserted him, and shows that Jesus considers the relationship unruptured by the events of the crucifixion. Schweizer notes that in the original Greek, the word translated as brothers is gender neutral and can refer to both Jesus' male and female followers. Jesus has referred to brothers several other times in Matthew, notably at 12:46, 12:49, 12:55, and 28:16 Jesus' words conclude, anticipating a resurrection appearance in Galilee, which is fulfilled in verses 18–20. This is the final mention of the women in the gospel, and there is no report of the message being delivered. That the disciples are present in Galilee, at Matthew 28:16, indicates that the message was delivered. Heinrich Meyer argues that this was to be the first appearance to the eleven disciples in this gospel, not subsequent to the Jerusalem appearances reported by Luke and John, and therefore supports the view that this gospel has adopted a Galilean tradition in regard to Jesus' appearances. Meyer further argues that the omission of the Judean appearances would not have been the intention of Matthew himself and therefore that this is one "of [the] passages in our Gospel which show traces of other than apostolic authorship". Notes References Sources Tkacz, Catherine Brown, "Esther, Jesus, and Psalm 22", The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Vol. 70, No. 4 (October 2008), pp. 709–728. Matthew 28