Last 12 verses of Mark

I don't worry about it unless I'm preaching on that chapter, and if I am doing that then I can find plenty of support/exposition of what those verses teach in other places in the NT.

 

This is not just wrong, but diametrically wrong. I believe there are only four or five manuscripts that don't have the verses and almost 1,000 that do.

Steve

 

Your belief is mistaken Steve. According to Bruce Metzger, the two oldest oldest Greek manuscripts,Latin,Syriac,Coptic,Georgian, and 100 Armenian manuscripts do not have verses 9-20 of Mark 16.

Metzger said that ''Clement of Alexandria and Origen show no knowledge of these verses.'' Metzger relates that ''Eusebian and Jerome attest that the passage was absent from almost all Greek copies of Mark known to them.''

 

Well, I suppose I ought to have been more specific and said that only four Greek manuscripts don't have the verses out of nearly 1,000. There are more Greek manuscripts that have the Johannine Comma than leave out these verses of Mark. Also the writer of Codex Sinaiticus mutely attests to his knowledge of the verses by leaving a space for hem at the end of his MSS.

Also, I will see your Clement and Origen and raise you a Justin Martyr, Tatian , Irenaeus and Hyppolytus all of whom quote from these verses. And if Jerome couldn't find any Greek manuscripts with the verses in, it's rather strange that the Vulgate includes them. Actually, Clement used only about two dozen verses from Mark in his major writings, and Origen, in his major extant works, failed to use over 30 other 12-verse sections of Mark. Such casual non-use of a passage actually says very little, if anything, about the contents of the manuscripts used by these two writers.

As well as the Vulgate, at least some of the Old Latin MSS have the verses along with the Syriac Curetonian, Peshitta and Bohairic.

Steve

 

While in school, read that it was probably added in to "smooth out" the abrupt ending of the Gospel in the "traditional" ending ?

Was it due to that, or was it ascribal addition/interpolation that came in over time to support the concept that the Apostles did indeed confirm HJesus as Messiah through signs and wonders?

personally, since hebrews mentions same thing done by Apsotles, would use that instead!