Is it true that the original Gospel of Mark ended in Chapter 16 v8 and verses 9-20 a later addition?

Answer 1

It is not true that the original ending of Mark was not included. The two manuscripts where it is omitted Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are indeed old. These two manuscripts, against the overwhelming majority, are taken to prove that the ending of Mark is not genuine. It has been alleged by some that the inclusion of the ending in later manuscripts is a forgery or insertion by later Christians. However the actual manuscripts themselves support the ending being genuine as they have the correct amount of space deliberately left for the ending to be inserted later. For an unknown reason it was omitted. One cannot leave space for an ending which does not exist. == ==

Unfortunately some of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are also not the most reliable. Vaticanus in particular was not copied carefully as it omits words and clauses numerous times, with most of these omissions being in the Gospel of Mark. Codex Sinaiticus also has many errors, which makes it stand out as unreliable, unlike many other New Testament manuscripts. An incomplete manuscript such as 'Papyrus -45', which is sometimes used as evidence against the ending cannot in fact be used to prove anything either way.

Dean Burgon says of Codex Vaticanus and Sinaiticus: ' The impurity of the text exhibited by these codices is not a question of opinion but of fact. In the Gospels alone Codex Vaticanus leaves out words or whole clauses no less than 1491 times. It bears traces of careless transciption on every page. Codex Sinaiticus abounds with errors of the eye and pen to an extent not indeed unparalelled, but happily rather unusual in documents of first-rate importance. On many occasions 10, 20, 30, 40 words are dropped through very carelessness. Letters and words, even whole sentences are frequently written twice over, or begun and immediately canceled; while that gross blunder, whereby a clause is omitted because it happens to end in the same words as the clause preceding, occurs 115 times in the New Testament.' *(Dean Burgon reference from 'The Revision Revised' )

The ending of Mark 16 was in fact accepted as genuine very early in church history as it is present in the majority of manuscripts containing Mark. It would also appear that Mark is quite incomplete without it and would then end abruptly and without the resurrection.

The overall manuscript evidence for the ending of Mark being genuine is quite strong. The vast majority of manuscripts of Mark contain the passage. It is thought likely that some copyist from 200-300 AD left a copy of Marks Gospel unfinished and this became the source for the very small number of defective copies that exist today. The total manuscript evidence is this - it is in 18 out of 20 Uncials and 600 Cursive manuscripts making a total of 618.

Another compelling argument is that 18 early church writers quote from the ending of Mark. Well over half of these (including Irenaeus in 180 AD who commented on v19 and Hippolytus 190-227 AD who quotes v17-18) quoted from it well before either Sinaiticus or Vaticanus were copied. This indicates that it existed from an early stage and is genuine, definitely not the work of 'Christian forgers.' These early church writers were also from every area of the ancient church, indicating that the ending was widely known. = Mark 16 = {| ! style="background: rgb(204, 204, 255) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial" |

|} Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins with the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome - there they encounter a man dressed in white who announces Jesus' resurrection. After a brief series of resurrection appearances to Mary Magdalene, two disciples, then the Eleven (the Twelve Apostles minus Judas) the text concludes with the Great Commission and the Ascension. There is scholarly debate concerning the final twelve verses (16:9-20), since two fourth-century Greek manuscripts end at Mark 16:8,[1] and another Old Latin manuscript has a different, shorter ending. Some seventh-to-ninth-century Greek manuscripts have minor variations on this shorter ending. Furthermore, linguistic and stylistic differences between the concluding canonical verses 9-20 (often called the "longer ending") and the rest of the Gospel have been regarded by some scholars as enough to doubt their authenticity. Verse 8 ends with the women fleeing from the empty tomb, and saying "nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_16

== == Although there certainly are different manuscripts, the 'scholarly debate' has arisen about the ending of Mark. Those who oppose the ending as being genuine essentially follow the line of Westcott and Hort who believed that the 'oldest is best.' However this does not hold true when the oldest manuscripts available are poor specimens. Scholars also look at what are called 'majority readings' where an overwhelming majority of manuscripts support a particular reading, as well as variety, meaning manuscripts of different types and from different regions. The ending of Mark is well supported by a number of these criteria and so is most likely genuine. In addition, as mentioned above, the space for the ending is left in the two main manuscripts which leave it out. It is also quoted from by an early church writer from a date before these manuscripts were written, thus proving its existence before then.