Luke 24:11

And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk; and they disbelieved them.

The disbelieving apostles are in view here. Far from having concerted a series of lies to claim a resurrection that never occurred, the Eleven refused at first to believe it, and were not convinced until that night of the resurrection day when Jesus appeared to them (and a certain number of others) in that upper room.

Inherent in the unbelieving stance of the Eleven was their "hardness of heart" (Mark 16:14), a fact given only in the second Gospel and probably reflecting the testimony of the apostle Peter. From this, it is natural to suppose that one of the impediments to the belief of the Eleven was the fact of our Lord's appearing first to Mary Magdalene, and to at least one other company of women, and very probably to two other companies of women (if those in Luke 24:1-9 are different), and again to two ordinary disciples on the way to Emmaus "before he appeared to the Eleven." The apostles who had been so bothered about who would be the head man in the kingdom, it would appear were personally slighted by those first appearances for the sake of teaching them a lesson of humility; and, when the Lord finally appeared to the Eleven, the disciples from Emmaus were present, and probably Mary Magdalene and certain other women also.

Most assuredly, this verse teaches that the Eleven were of a mind to reject the testimony thus far received; and it is equally sure that they were wrong in so doing; for Jesus upbraided them for it (Mark 16:14),