Dec
20
2006
Original Ending of Mark Found! (sort of)
What happened to the original ending of Mark? Did one exist? If so, what happened to it? Where did the the ending that we have in our Bibles today come from?
Last semester, I took a class on the Gospel of Mark. When we arrived at Mark 16:9-20, we began asking the question: What do we do as preachers who preach whole books of the Bible? Do we stop at verse 8? Are verses 9-20 inspired… even if they were not found in the original manuscripts? And how do we handle such the technical issue of text criticism from the pulpit, without denying the authority and inerrancy of Scripture?
After reading dozens of books and commentaries that address this subject, I have come to the conclusion that there was an original ending to Mark’s Gospel. (This means that Mark was not trying to be a literary genius by leaving us with a clever cliffhanger. It also excludes the possibility that he was dragged to his martyrdom as he was finishing the Gospel.) For some reason, in God’s providence, the original ending was lost.
The two endings found in our Bibles today assuredly did not come from Mark’s pen. This is not a surprise. This was common knowledge from as early as the second century. The Church Fathers addressed the issue too.
So what was Mark’s ending like? I believe that we actually have the original ending to Mark, or at least its substance, if not its exact words. And it’s been in our Bibles all along. Since Matthew follows Mark faithfully through most of his Gospel, it is not a stretch to see that his use of Mark continues right through the end of Matthew’s Gospel, albeit with some minor changes.
So… I am offering here what I believe the original ending of Mark would have sounded like, based on the way Matthew often revised Mark.
16:8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for fear and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
And immediately, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. And he said to them, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It may seem short. (After all, it’s shorter than the extra ending we have in Mark, and also than Matthew’s ending which includes the report of the guards). But it seems to me that this proposal is not too far-fetched. Obviously, we probably will never know until we meet Mark face to face and ask him ourselves. But honestly, I am surprised that with all the books analyzing how Matthew revises Mark, I have rarely come across the proposal that the substance of Matthew’s ending is a clear indication of what Mark’s original ending was like.