Missing: Mark 16:9-20 (Major)
Last 12 Verses of Mark
Last updated
Last 12 Verses of Mark
Last updated
The Long Ending of Mark (Mark 16:9-20): The earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark end at verse 16:8. The longer ending, which includes Jesus' appearances after his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, is not found in some of the oldest manuscripts.
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Misquoting Jesus p. 75
The evidence that these verses were not original to Mark is similar in kind to that for the passage about the woman taken in adultery, and again I don't need to go into all the details here. The verses are absent from our two oldest and best manuscripts of Mark's Gospel, along with other important witnesses; the writing style varies from what we find elsewhere in Mark; the transition between this passage and the one preceding it is hard to understand (e.g., Mary Magdalene is introduced in verse 9 as if she hadn't been mentioned yet, even though she is discussed in the preceding verses; there is another problem with the Greek that makes the transition even more awkward); and there are a large number of words and phrases in the passage that are not found elsewhere in Mark. In short, the evidence is sufficient to convince nearly all textual scholars that these verses are an addition to Mark.