Mark Ending

The true ending of the Gospel of Mark without the subsequent vandalism of its text, as depicted by Annibale Carracci, The Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ, circa 1597-98.

The Mark ending — the final chapter 16 to the Gospel of Mark — is the most spectacular in all of history and literature, in its original form. But it has been polluted by liberal vandalism with liberal denial, similar to soot obscuring a great work of art. The soot on an Old Master's painting can be removed to restore the artwork to its original splendor. Similarly, the sensational original ending to the Gospel of Mark can be restored, as depicted by this Master's painting -->

Appreciation of the original ending to the Gospel of Mark can help overcome addiction, and motivate to achieve. This real ending, stripped of the liberal denial, is a phenomenal collision of disbelief and faith, with faith prevailing. It is also a surprise encounter and uniting of masculinity and femininity.

There is extensive scholarly commentary demonstrating that verses 16:9–20 are not authentic: they are not in the earliest manuscripts and consist of doubtful doctrine.^[1] But equally important is to recognize and remove the liberal claptrap inserted as the last clause of verse 16:8. The second half of 16:8 is not authentic, and obscures the powerful original ending by Mark in a pure translation.

Authentic ending[edit]

The authentic ending of Mark is an unexpected encounter by three women looking for Jesus at the tomb, and an angel taking the form of a young man. It is best translated as follows (Mark 16:2-8a):

Mark 16:8 (ESV) is the following translation, with the added unauthentic ending in italics:

This tacked-on phrase "and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" is contradictory with the instruction by the angel in the immediately preceding verse, and contradictory with Mark recording what the women saw. The angel said at Mark 16:7 :

The phrase "and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" lacks authenticity and has the style of liberal claptrap. It is implausible; it is unjustifiably weak in its portrayal of these women; and it undermines what the angel has just instructed them to do: tell the disciples and Peter. Of course these women told others as the angel—a young man displaying strength—asked them to do. Moreover, this event would not be in the Gospel of Mark unless the women told others.

Early manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark have a variety of endings, which reinforces the likelihood that there were improper additions to this Gospel.

The insertion of the liberal claptrap at the end of 16:8 apparently caused most English translations to mistranslate the authentic first part of the verse as "fled" -- an act of fear -- when the proper translation is "ran back." See Mistranslation of Mark 16:8.

Unlikely ending as to meaning[edit]

The final words in many manuscripts of Mark 16:8 are “ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ,” meaning “for they were afraid.” But it is implausible that the bold Gospel of Mark originally ended that way. Most scholars have recognized that implausibility, but rather than remove this implausible ending they instead use it to argue for inclusion of another unlikely ending, Mark 16:9-20, which is not even in the earliest manuscripts of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus.

Unlikely ending as to Greek syntax - the last word of 16:8 cannot be the real ending[edit]

The last word in the reported verse 16:8 is "γάρ", which is a post-positive term in Greek such that it is usually the second word in a sentence. "γάρ" is a conjunction meaning "for", "since", or "because", with the reason to follow. It is exceedingly unlikely that the word "γάρ" would be the last word in a book.

As one commentator observed about the implausibility of "γάρ" as an ending:

Having "γάρ" as the last word of a book is as unlikely as having "since" or "because" as the last word of a book. Scholars have scoured all of Greek writings for any example of this, and the only instance they found was a volume that was part of a larger collection of works.^[3]

Flawed, never-used-elsewhere Greek grammar[edit]

The Greek grammar for Mark 16:8b is flawed: "to no one nothing they spoke,"^[4] which reinforces the likelihood that this phrase was a later, non-authentic addition. In Greek the phrase is a nonsensical "οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν," both of which are variations on "nothing" so illogically it is the functional equivalent of "nothing nothing." Neither Mark nor any other biblical author uses that phrase anywhere else, and it is unlikely to have been written by anyone knowledgeable of Greek. It is impossible to translate coherently.^[5]

Misuse of conjunction in the added clause[edit]

καί (pronounced kahee) is the most common conjunction in the New Testament, but it is never used in an adversative manner: it never means "however" or "but".^[6] Yet that is how it is used in this doubtful phrase at the end of Mark 16:8, adversative to the command preceding it that the women "tell Peter and the disciples of Jesus" that Jesus will visit them.

Inconsistent with Mark's bold opening[edit]

Mark's opening is the boldest of all the Gospels: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Mark 1:1

Yet liberals claim the ending is one of fear. This Gospel is brief, and the ending would be as strong as its opening. The last phrase of being too fearful even to speak to friends is very anomalous, and a fake addition.

Uncharacteristic use of the concept of fear by Mark[edit]

Mark uses variations on the Greek word for fear -- ἐφοβοῦντο -- about a dozen time through his Gospel, but none of his other uses is about any women being afraid of Jesus. Rather, the Gospel of Mark is notably for its boldness, and for describing the fear by Herod, Pharisees and others in positions of power of Jesus and the people.

Variations in Mark 16:8[edit]

The verse for Mark 16:8 in Codex Sinaiticus is different from that in Biblehub and other sources based on early manuscripts. Codex Sinaiticus has the nonsensical double word ("οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν"), while Biblehub does not and instead ends with only οὐδενὶ, which is Strong's 3762 (meaning: no one, none, nothing), which Biblehub translates in brackets as "[a word to anyone]."

Similarly, many scholars argue that the last two words in Mark 16:8 are areἐφοβοῦντο γάρ (“for they were afraid”),^[8] but that is merely because that is the ending of that verse in both the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus.^[9] There are no other early manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark to check this against. As explained above, this is a highly unlikely Greek syntax with which to end a book.

Other analysis[edit]

Mark would not have had any way of knowing whether the three women spoke to others afterwards, and thus would not have made that assertion in the illegitimate last clause of verse 16:8.

Christian Publishing House provides a detailed analysis, which explains omissions particularly of verses 16:9-20 in virtually all of the early manuscripts.^[10]

Surprisingly, Wikipedia's analysis of "Mark 16" is reasonably good, yet omits discussion of the likely illegitimate insertion at the end of verse 8 discussed above.^[11]

A discussion on stack exchange tries to make sense of the nonsensical, added ending of the falsely added phrase saying that women told no one (even more absurdly, no man).^[12]

"The transition from verse 8 to verse 9 is awkward," explains another in-depth analysis.^[13]

Appears copied from later-written Gospels[edit]

It is known that the Gospel of Mark was written before the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John, but sentences in Mark 16:9-20 appear to be copied from them, such as the statement about demons and Mary Magdalene which Mark is unlikely to have known.

See also[edit]

• Conservative Bible Project
• Scholarly analysis concludes that this ending was not written by Mark

References[edit]