This article draws on spatial theory to analyse the final chapter of Mark’s Gospel, describing a setting full of religious and cultural significance. The analysis reveals a narrative of building tension, leading to a decisive angelophany. Three main arguments are advanced. Firstly, Mark takes a characteristic and subversive approach to space by deliberately bringing events into the challenging (typically, unclean) setting of a tomb. Secondly, Mark explores the borderland between life and death through themes of space and time. Thirdly, the understanding of the tomb space ultimately is transformed, making it the site of a well-constructed angelic revelation, and casting the women visitors as prophetic recipients of the Gospel commission. In light of these points, Mk 16.1-8 may be considered a carefully built and decisive ending to the Gospel, based upon the author’s thoughtful manipulation of narrative space.
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