What’s the Deal with Mark 16:9-20?

This is the last of several posts sharing a series of reflections I wrote for my church from the Gospel of Mark. These devotionals covered passages which would not be preached on in our sermon series. If you would like to listen to sermons from this series, you can find recordings of them here and here. This devotional covers Mark 16:9-20. This post was published by The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture. Below is a snippet of the full article. You can find the full article here: www.washingtoninst.org

[SOME OF THE EARLIEST MANUSCRIPTS DO NOT INCLUDE 16:9–20.]

9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 

12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 

14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]

There are at least two reasons why we might think Mark intended to end his Gospel on such a wild cliffhanger [at verse 8]. First, Mark’s ending lines up perfectly with his thematic and rhetorical use of amazement, awe, and fear. All through Mark, we see the disciples constantly “amazed,” “astonished,” and “afraid.” This ending is absolutely consistent with Mark’s pattern of punctuating Jesus’ miracles and teachings. Of course, nothing is more amazing, astonishing, and fear-inducing than Jesus’ resurrection! It seems fitting he would end with all the disciples left in utter speechlessness.

Second, it served as a powerful call to action. The abundance of names and lists of relatives within this book implies that when Mark was first written, these people were still alive and were known to the community. The way Mark ends his book almost demands its original audience hunt down these eyewitnesses and ask them what happened. The story demands resolution, Mark leaves us with questions we simply must answer—first, because our brains are wired for narrative and we innately want resolution, but most importantly, because of all the claims that Mark has made thus far concerning Jesus! If this man really is the Son of God, if he really is the promised Messiah, what does his resurrection mean? Is this the end of the world? Is judgment here? Will the rest of the dead be raised? Mark’s ending says implicitly what John’s Gospel says explicitly: come and see!

But if this is the case, what’s the deal with the longer ending? Where did it come from? What purpose did it serve? First, consider a few of the oddities within Mark 16:9-20: Verse 9 breaks from the narrative in verse 8 and moves from the women to Jesus, jumping back in time. No such time jumps occur anywhere else in this gospel. The audience is given another introduction of Mary Magdalene, though she had already been mentioned three times in Mark. Much of the vocabulary in these verses isn’t used anywhere else in Mark, including the title “the Lord Jesus.” Most notably, none of the four Gospels contain a description of the apostles’ signs; only Acts records these. Much of what 9-20 includes is either direct quotation or paraphrase of verses elsewhere in the New Testament.¹

For these reasons scholars almost unanimously agree verses 9-20 are later additions to Mark’s original gospel. Of the hundreds of early manuscripts we have of Mark, none of the earliest contain this longer ending. Our earliest complete manuscript of Mark ends at verse 8. Even early church fathers like Eusebius comment on 9-20 not being original to the book of Mark. The King James Version (and NKJV) include no break or disclaimer with these verses because the KJV translation was based off of medieval manuscripts; later translations of Scripture had access to more and earlier manuscripts and added the disclaimer in light of new evidence.²

Who added it? We’re not sure. When was it added? Probably some time in the second century. Why was it added? That’s a great question…

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To read the full article, visit www.washingtoninst.org