APPENDIX: THE LONGER ENDING (16:9–20)

9When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

12Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

14Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

COMMENTARY

9–20 The gospel of Mark actually has four different endings in the MS tradition (see Notes), but only two have any significant claim to authenticity: (1) the ending that concludes the gospel with v.8, and (2) the so-called longer ending (vv.9–20). Both the external and internal evidence weigh against the longer ending.

External Evidence. The two oldest Greek uncial MSS, and B, do not contain these verses. They are also absent from the Old Latin codex Bobiensis, the Sinaitic Syrian MS, about one hundred Armenian MSS, and the two oldest Georgian MSS (AD 897 and AD 913). Neither Clement of Alexandria nor Origen shows any knowledge of the existence of vv.9–20. Almost all the Greek copies of Mark known to Eusebius and Jerome did not contain these verses. The original form of the Eusebian sections makes no provision for numbering sections beyond 16:8. Some MSS that include the verses have scribal notes stating that they are absent in older Greek copies, and in other Greek MSS the verses are marked with obeli or asterisks to indicate they are spurious (see Metzger, 102–6).

In addition there are MSS and versions in which the shorter ending (followed by the longer ending) is found. B. B. Warfield (An Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament [New York: Whittaker, 1890], 200) correctly says, “The existence of the shorter conclusion . . . is a fortiori evidence against the longer one. For no one doubts that this shorter conclusion is a spurious invention of the scribes; but it would not have been invented, save to fill the blank.”

The great majority of MSS contain the longer ending. They include A C D K X W Δ Θ Π Ψ 099 0112 f¹³ 28 33 et al. Irenaeus and Tatian’s Diatessaron are the earliest patristic witnesses for the inclusion. Justin Martyr is uncertain. The external evidence seems to indicate that the longer ending was in circulation by the middle of the second century and was probably composed in the first half of the same century. Its inclusion in the TR and so in the KJV made this reading the “standard” in English Bibles until textual advances in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (For a scholarly defense of the longer ending, see W. R. Farmer, The Last Twelve Verses of Mark [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1974].)

Internal Evidence: Vocabulary. Many of the words in this section are non-Markan; i.e., they do not appear elsewhere in the gospel or they are used differently from the way Mark uses them elsewhere. In the Greek text there are 101 different words in vv.9–16 (167 words total). After disregarding unimportant words such as the definite article, connectives, proper names, etc., there remain 75 different significant words. Of these, 15 do not appear to this point in Mark, and 11 others are used in a sense different from typical Markan usage. These features mean that slightly over one-third of the words are “non-Markan.” After due allowance is made for different subject matter requiring different vocabulary, it would seem that the marked difference in vocabulary between vv.9–20 and the rest of Mark’s gospel makes it difficult to believe that they both came from the same author (see Metzger, 104; Bratcher and Nida, 519ff.).

Internal Evidence: Style. Here the argument against Markan authorship of vv.9–20 is even stronger. The connection between v.8 and vv.9–20 is abrupt and awkward. Verse 9 begins with the masculine nominative participle anastas, which demands for its antecedent “he,” i.e., Jesus; but the subject of the last sentence of v.8 is the women, not Jesus. Mary Magdalene is referred to as though she had never been mentioned before; yet she appears three times in the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection narratives that immediately precede (15:40, 47; 16:1). It is also strange that the detail “out of whom he had driven seven demons” is for the first time mentioned here. Also, the women who were commissioned in v.7 to “go, tell his disciples and Peter” of Jesus’ resurrection are not mentioned with Mary Magdalene in the longer ending. The angel at the tomb spoke of a postresurrection appearance to the disciples in Galilee, but in the longer ending Jesus’ appearances are confined to Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity. All of these factors weigh heavily against the authenticity of these verses. To this evidence should be added the words of Bratcher and Nida, 520: “The narrative is concise and barren, lacking the vivid and lifelike details so characteristic of Markan historical narrative.”

Internal Evidence: Content. Finally, the content of vv.9–20 appears to be a summary of postresurrection appearances from the other gospels. For example, Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene alone (vv.9–11) likely comes from John 20:11–18. The fact that Mary had been possessed by seven demons (v.9) is reported elsewhere only in Luke 8:2. The reluctance of the disciples to believe Mary’s report (v.11) echoes Luke 24:11, and the appearance to two disciples on a journey (vv.12–13) is an abbreviated version of Luke’s account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13–35). The ascension (v.19) is narrated briefly in Luke 24:51 and in more detail in Acts 1:9, but not in the other gospels.

There are also other content issues that suggest the material is non-Markan. The rebuke Jesus gives his disciples in v.14 is particularly severe—more severe than any he gives elsewhere in the gospel. Neither of the words used here—apistia (“without faith”) and sklērokardia (“stubborn refusal to believe,” “obtuseness”)—is elsewhere used by Jesus of his disciples. Speaking in tongues (v.17) is not mentioned elsewhere in the gospels and seems to reflect the post-Pentecost situation of Acts (cf. Ac 2:3–4; 10:46; 19:6). The same may be said of the confirmation of the gospel through signs (vv.17, 20; cf. Ac 2:43; 4:30; 5:12; Heb 2:4). Until this passage, confirmatory “signs” (sēmeia) have been referred to only negatively in Mark’s gospel—they are demanded by those without faith (Mk 8:11–12; 13:4, 22). Luke 10:19 speaks of trampling on snakes but not of picking them up with one’s hands (v.18; cf. Ac 28:3–6). The drinking of poison without harm is unknown in the NT. (Superstitious use of this verse has given rise to the snake-handling and poison-drinking sects of, most notably, Appalachia.) Anointing the sick with oil is mentioned in 6:13, but no laying on of hands by the apostles occurs in the gospels. Paul, however, lays hands on Publius’s sick father (cf. Ac 28:8). There is nothing like v.20 in any of the gospels. It sounds more like a summary of the activities of the apostles from the book of Acts.

In sum, it seems highly unlikely that vv.9–20 were an original part of the gospel. The vast majority of scholars reject their authenticity.

NOTES

9–20 In addition to MSS ending at 16:8 and those that include vv.9–20, there are two others endings in the MS tradition, although neither have any realistic claim to authenticity:

(1) A shorter ending, which reads: “But they reported briefly to Peter and those with him all that they had been told. And after this Jesus himself sent out by means of them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.” This reading appears in four uncial MSS of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries (L Ψ 099 0112), Old Latin k, the margin of the Harclean Syriac, several Sahidic and Bohairic MSS, and a good number of Ethiopian MSS. All of them, except k, then continue with vv.9–20. Both the external and internal evidence are clearly against the authenticity of this ending. It seems to be either an attempt to provide an ending in itself or to provide a smoother transition between v.8 and v.9.

(2) An interpolation that occurs after v.14 of the longer ending in one Greek MS, Washingtonianus (also called Freer addition, designated W), which reads:

And they excused themselves, saying, “This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the spirits. Therefore, reveal thy righteousness now”—thus they spoke to Christ. And Christ replied to them, “The term of years of Satan’s power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near. And for those who have sinned I was delivered over to death, that they may return to the truth and sin no more, in order that they may inherit the spiritual and incorruptible glory of righteousness which is in heaven.”

Appearing in only one Greek MS, this ending is clearly not a part of Mark’s gospel; it was probably inserted at this point to tone down the severe condemnation of the disciples in v.14 and to provide a smoother transition to v.15.