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Although the NA28 text of Mark 16:1 states that three women (Mary Magdalene, Mary of James, and Salome) visited the empty tomb, there is significant variation on this detail in the earliest textual transmission. Salome is absent from the empty tomb in oldest Latin copy of Mark (Codex Bobiensis, dated 380–420 ce), as well as Codex Bezae (dated c.400 ce) and two other important Old Latin witnesses (Codex Colbertinus, VL 6, and Fragmenta Sangallensia, VL 16). Obviously Salome is not a participant in a minority textual strand of Mark 16. This paper explores potential editorial motives behind these variants, and suggests that ancient controversies about Salome and the perpetual virginity of Mary may have inspired some of the textual instability, to the point where a confident recovery of Mark’s initial text is impossible in these verses. It will also raise the question of whether the varying names and number of women in 15:40–16:1 is connected to the broader problem of the endings of Mark.