What does Mark 16:2 mean?
We know that Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath (Mark 15:42). What we don't know is which Sabbath it was. Jesus was crucified on Passover (Mark 14:12). The day after Passover is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is a holiday-Sabbath (Leviticus 23:5–7). John says the Sabbath after Jesus' death was a "high day" (John 19:31). So it may be that the day after Jesus' death was a holiday-Sabbath and the day before His resurrection was a normal, Friday-evening-to-Saturday-evening Sabbath.Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses watched Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus bury Jesus (Mark 15:42–47; John 19:39). Nicodemus had brought seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes, but when the women returned to where they were staying, they prepared more spices to complete the burial custom (Luke 23:56).
John says the women come "while it was still dark" (John 20:1); Luke says, "at early dawn" (Luke 24:1); Matthew says, "toward the dawn" (Matthew 28:1). The light would have just started to creep into the sky around 5:00 a.m. and be fully above the horizon around 6:30 a.m. The women literally could not have come any earlier, without dragging along extensive lighting.