What about the ending of Mark? (Mark 16:9 - 20)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church exploring the background, context, meaning, and significance of the account of Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Mark.

Transcript

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Hey, how are you doing? Tim here, and we are diving deep into the book of Mark. So I want to touch on uh we've talked about the resurrection. Now I want to touch on the ending of the book of Mark, because this may this may raise some questions for you. Um so we get to the end of the book of Mark, and it ends in verse 8, and then probably your Bible says something like the earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9 through 20. And you might be thinking to yourself, what is going on here? And it's exactly what it says. The most uh ancient manuscripts we have of the book of Mark end at verse 8. And even when you kind of look at the language and the themes of 9 through 20, it doesn't seem to match up well with the rest of the book of Mark. It seems to be a summary of what happened in the other gospel resurrection accounts, and then added on to the book of Mark. And so uh there are very few scholars who see Mark 9 through 20 as an authentic part of the original gospel. Um and so the question, uh the question, like what is going on with this? The big scholarly question is was is Mark 16, 8 the original ending to the book of Mark? Or was there some other original ending that has been lost? That's a fat it's a fascinating question. Uh you know, these scrolls, it'd be possible for some part to get ripped off and lost, and um or I suppose there's a world in which Mark the author is he something happens to him before he finishes that you know he meant to do include more and he just never finished. I suppose that's another uh another kind of scenario. Um but you know, was there either intended to be more of an ending, or was there more of an ending that somehow got it got lost, or is this how um Mark intended to end it? Um it's an interesting debate because it ends on such a you know, I think part of the the reason it gets debated so strongly is the way Mark even ends. You know, the risen Jesus is never actually seen by the characters, and then the last thing that we're told is trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Boom. Which is a very like non-triumphant way to end the gospel, right? It's fear, confusion, and silence is where the gospel ends. And so there's there's this debate over um uh was there something else here um or was this it? Now I am, you know, I've spent a lot of time in Mark, and I'll give you my opinion, um, but I am not uh you know, I'm not an expert on biblical manuscripts, and um this is I feel this is there are things in the Bible I feel much more strongly about than this, but I will I will give you my two senses. Uh my two sense is that yes, um the end of the book of Mark, uh we no longer have it. Um the it you know, it seems as I look at different commentators, um the there seems to be for a certain type of commentator, there seems to be an attraction to the idea of this is verse 8 is really how the book of Mark ended, that maybe is less based on like historical evidence and more of kind of like it's cool that it ends with like bewilderment and fear and silence. And it's it it in in this sense it's kind of a modern way to end a book. Um you know, it's like yeah, it ends in it ends in murkiness and like what are they gonna do? It's like cliffhanger, and and we as readers are invited into the story, and and that I think that's all true. And um, but it but it seems to me less based on like strong historical evidence and more kind of just an attraction to the idea of this slightly paradoxical end of the book of Mark. Uh what seems um more historically plausible to me, I mean, throughout um like throughout the book of Mark, Jesus has been saying, I'm gonna be raised, I'm gonna be raised, I'm gonna be raised. Um the good news is going out into all the world. Like it it it seems to me that um if I you had asked, like, what do you think probably happened at in the original ending of the mark? I'd probably say it was probably some of this kind of the stuff we saw in Matthew that that um that Jesus appears to the women, he settles their fears, he reissues the command to go tell the disciples, they end up encountering um Jesus in Galilee where they get the final words. That would be my my hunch of of probably something that was originally in the book of Mark. So um that is how that is how I make sense of that. Now it raises a really fascinating question, uh, which could be unsettling for some of us. If the Gospel of Mark originally had more words into it, like how is it that God would allow some part of it not to get passed on to us? And I think this is where we get into um, and I said this, you know, about a different topic in one of the earlier episodes. We have to accept Scripture as it comes to us and as God allowed it to come to us, not how we think God should have done it. The reality is um the process of scripture coming to us was a very human process. And this and sometimes I think this is we have instincts against this, but like the Christian, like both the Jewish and Christian scriptures are very different than what other religion. I'm thinking like um uh Mormonism and Joseph Smith, where it's kind of these golden tablets that he alone sees, or um uh Mohammed, the Prophet Muhammad having like privately getting words dictated to him in a cave. The the the the the scriptures are not magic tablets floated down out of heaven. It is much more human than that. It was you know Luke saying that he interviewed eyewitnesses, Mark basing it off the eyewitness testimony of Peter and others. Like it is it is a very human practice, these these people doing research, writing it down and then passing it on. Okay, you um Christian community, make copies of this and pass it on and preserve it, and and you, Christian community, make copies of this, pass it on. And then the Christian church together recognizing which one of these books were authoritative scripture, um, and and collecting them together, saying God is speaking to us through these collected books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul's letters, Revelation, you know, this is God's ongoing word to us. Um and uh and I think sometimes the humanness of that makes some of us uncomfortable. Um and it's never human alone. And I and I do think this is why the analogy of the incarnation of Jesus and uh the scripture, there's something helpful like um we uh Jesus was fully God and fully human. Um scripture is fully God's word to us and fully human words written down by real people in times and places. And to be able to hold on to that and pass on through time by real humans, I think is an important understanding. And really it's uh it says something central about who God is, a God, uh the God of the incarnation, a God who comes down, a God who works through real people in real times and real places. It's part of who God is and how God works in the world. Um and so, um is it as nice and neat as crystalline tablets floating down out of heaven? Uh no, it's not. It's messier than that. It's it's more incarnational than that. It's um it's Mark writing the stories down and passing them on, and very potentially at some point, some back end of the scroll getting ripped off. And yet, um the Holy Spirit has preserved through human history everything we need uh for faith in God and in the resurrection of Jesus. And praise God that um for uh that that um we have all that we need to trust in the resurrection of Jesus. Why God allowed it to happen this way? Alright, and maybe, you know, like I said to the beginning, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Mark ended it kind of on this really interesting kind of cliffhanger. That's possible too. Um but either way, I think we can trust. Uh the Holy Spirit has given us what we need to know the living God. Does God answer all our questions? No. Uh, if you think God's going to answer all the questions you have, not in this lifetime. Does God give us what we need to walk in faith with Him, to walk in obedience with Him? Yes. And thank God for that. Grace and peace.