Mark 16:9-20

[Achilles6129]

Should Mark 16:9-20 (the ending of Mark's gospel) be accepted as authentic or not?

Here are a few quotes:

The last twelve verses of the commonly received text of Mark are absent from the two oldest Greek manuscripts (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus)...Clement of Alexandria and Origen show no knowledge of the existence of these verses; furthermore Eusebius and Jerome attest that the passage was absent from almost all Greek copies of Mark known to them...Not a few manuscripts that contain the passage have scribal notes stating that older Greek copies lack it, and in other witnesses the passage is marked with asterisks or obeli, the conventional signs used by copyists to indicate a spurious addition to a document

The traditional ending of Mark, so familiar through the AV and other translations of the Textus Receptus, is present in the vast number of witnesses...The earliest patristic witnesses to part or all of the long ending are Irenaeus and the Diatessaron

Both quotes are from Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., pp. 102-103.

According to William L. Lane, author of the NICNT commentary on Mark, the longer ending must have been in circulation by the middle of the second century (pp. 603, 605).

Also, towards the conclusion of his Gospel, Mark says: "So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God."

Quote from Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., 3.10.5 (about 180 AD).

Could the longer ending possibly have been written by Luke (see Mk. 16:9 + Lu. 8:2), Paul, or possibly Peter? Was it originally lost but later discovered and then added back into the gospel?

And what implications does this have for Christianity if the longer ending is not genuine? Can we still depend on the statement made by Christ about "them who believe" in the longer ending?

 

[granpa]

it appears to be a vision

 

[Achilles6129]

it appears to be a vision

It is not written quite like a vision.

 

[granpa]

Vision hypothesis - Religion-wiki

 

[Achilles6129]

Is that something that you wrote yourself?

 

[granpa]

No

 

[Erik Nelson]

"The Original Ending of Mark: A New Case for the Authenticity of Mark 16: 9-20" by Lund

you can preview the introduction for free on Amazon.com.