WWUTT 2243 The Unusual Ending of Mark (Mark 16:14-20)

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There is a longer ending to the Gospel of Mark, about 12 verses long, that was not originally written by Mark.

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But we can see where these verses may have come from, from other places in the New Testament, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. That we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We are finishing our study of the Gospel of Mark today, as we wrap up that section commonly referred to as the

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Marken Appendix. These are the 12 verses at the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark, probably labeled in your

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Bible as having not appeared in the earliest manuscripts. If Mark didn't write this, then where did it come from?

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And if we cross -reference these verses that we read at the conclusion of Mark, might we find them elsewhere in the

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Gospels? Let's consider that as I read the whole appendix today. I just looked at verses 9 -11 yesterday, or 9 -13.

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Let's go all the way through verse 20. So I'm reading the closing 12 verses to the Gospel of Mark.

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This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Now after he had risen early on the first day of the week, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

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She went and reported to those who had been with him while they were mourning and crying. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

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After that, he appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking on their way to the countryside, and they went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either.

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Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen.

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And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

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And these signs will accompany those who have believed. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, and they will pick up serpents.

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And if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

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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.

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And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

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Now this appendix is broken up into three parts. We looked at part one yesterday, and that's the initial appearances of Jesus that we have in verses 9 through 13.

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First of all, the testimony of the women, Jesus appearing then to the two that were walking on the road to Emmaus, at least we understand it was the road to Emmaus according to Luke's gospel, and then their report, and the disciples did not believe them.

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So you have two reports, and those reports are rejected. Then in the next section we have, which is verses 14 to 18, you have this constant contrast between belief and unbelief.

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Those who believe will be saved, those who do not believe will not be saved, and Jesus even rebukes the disciples, the 11, for their unbelief.

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And then in the final section, verses 19 to 20, that's Jesus ascending into heaven, and then the disciples going out and preaching the gospel.

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This is what is referred to as the long ending of the gospel of Mark. There's actually a second ending, and if you'll hold on until the end,

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I will read to you the shorter ending of the gospel of Mark. That one is not included in as many

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Bibles as the longer ending is included. So let's look at the longer ending for now.

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There are two theories about this ending, about what is called the Marken appendix. The first theory is that the original ending to the gospel of Mark has been lost.

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The second theory is that Mark 16, 1 through 8, is exactly the way that Mark intended to finish his gospel.

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So first let's consider that first theory. Was the original ending of the gospel of Mark lost?

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It seems to be a very brief and unusual conclusion, with Mark saying that the women who came to the tomb and saw that it was empty, they encountered the young man in white who said he is not here.

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He has risen. Go tell his disciples. And it says they went out from that place and they told no one.

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But as I relate to you on Monday, I think that's exactly the way that Mark intended to conclude his gospel.

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It fits everything else that we have read in this story. We may not think of it as being the best ending, but it goes right with everything that Mark has said over the course of his gospel.

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It's exactly the style, exactly the flavor, the character that we have expected from his account.

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So that first theory, the belief that there was another ending, but scribes just didn't copy the whole thing for whatever reason.

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And so somewhere along the line, somebody decided that they needed to help Mark out. Mark did not conclude this in the right way.

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And so this needs a little bit of help. Let's give it a true conclusion to the gospel of Mark.

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And that's why we have the Mark in appendix. Now, how old is this appendix? Well, even in third and fourth century manuscripts, the appendix is not included.

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So you're talking about in the 200s and in the 300s, which is those are the earliest copies of the gospel of Mark that we still have access to.

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Mark ends with verse eight. There's nothing else after that. So even of manuscripts that we have in the third and fourth century, there's nothing after verse eight.

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However, because of references that we have from the patristic fathers, we can theorize that the longer ending to Mark existed as early as the second century.

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That's really early, even though we don't have any manuscripts from that period. There are references from the early church fathers to the

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Mark in appendix that it did exist at least as early as the second century. So it would have been after the lifetime of John Mark when it was written, of course.

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But it was at least early enough with somebody going, you know, Mark just didn't do this well. We can help him out.

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We can do this a little bit better. And there was a longer ending that was added as early as the second century, even though we still have manuscripts from the third and fourth century that don't have the longer ending to the gospel of Mark.

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So it wasn't until sometime later that it officially became text to be included at the end of Mark's gospel.

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But then as we continue to study these manuscripts centuries into the future, we are able to look back to a greater library of manuscripts and have been able to conclude that Mark was not the author.

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He did not write verses nine through 20, or at least what we have is verses nine through 20. And so therefore, this was not divinely inspired.

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It was not what the Holy Spirit meant for Mark to write down. And we see things in here in this appendix that are unique to this appendix that are not anywhere else in the

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New Testament. And I think it is right for us to dismiss it as not being divinely inspired.

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It's historical, but it was not given by the Holy Spirit to Mark to write down.

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So we can't consider it as divine, especially some of the weirder parts here in the middle. And I'll get to that here in just a moment.

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Things that we don't see cross -referenced elsewhere in the New Testament. Now I fall, as you can probably tell by the way

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I'm talking, I fall on the side of believing that Mark ended the gospel the way that he meant to end it.

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There isn't a missing ending. It's supposed to finish at verse eight. That's what Mark wrote. And I kind of demonstrated that on Monday, why it fits.

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We've had this in so many Bibles for so many hundreds of years now, well over a thousand years, that I don't think it's necessary to print a new translation that cuts out the

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Mark in appendix. I think it's still good to have it there for reference. I am content with it being labeled as this text.

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These 12 verses nine through 20 were not included in the earliest manuscripts. There's another set of 12 verses in the

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New Testament that also was not included in the earliest manuscripts. And that's what's called the

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Percopae adultery, the story of the woman caught in adultery, which commonly falls in John chapter eight.

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There's evidence in the past of it even being included in the gospel of Luke at one point. So this was an anecdotal account of something that happened in the life of Jesus that was floating around trying to find a home in one of the gospels, but was not actually written by one of the gospel writers.

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This really is a testimony to the manuscript evidence that we have, that we're able to see that Mark didn't write this ending.

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And John did not originally write the Percopae adultery, the story of the woman that is caught in adultery that is brought before Jesus.

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So it is a testament to the reliability of the manuscript library that we have access to.

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We can look back and see with certainty what should be included, what should be regarded as divinely inspired scripture and what should not be.

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So as we come back to this text here, picking up where we left off yesterday, let's look at verse 14.

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So again, in verses 9 to 13, you have the first two appearances of Jesus or testimony of his appearance, and that testimony is not believed.

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The testimony of Mary Magdalene, the testimony of the two disciples that were walking on the road to Emmaus. So now

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Jesus is going to rebuke the disciples for not believing, and you have the contrast between belief and unbelief that is here in verses 14 to 18.

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So let me begin reading here in verse 14. Afterward, he appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table, and he reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen.

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Now this is taken from John's gospel when Jesus appeared with them twice.

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The first time he appears to the 10 of them without Thomas, that's in verses 19 to 23, and then

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Jesus appears to Thomas in verses 24 to 29. So something of that account has been taken or has been lifted from John's gospel and placed here with Jesus appearing to them and rebuking them for their unbelief.

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Then in verse 15, he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

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That's taken from the great commission that we have at the end of Matthew chapter 28.

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So whoever wrote the Mark and appendix, whoever thought they had to help out Mark with a longer ending to his gospel had given kind of a brief version of the great commission here in verse 15.

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Then in the next verse, verse 16, he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

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Now that statement is unique to Mark's gospel. It's drawing from other places, but there's nothing in the

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New Testament that explicitly says whoever has been baptized shall be saved. So that particular statement has led to a little bit of confusion where you have some denominations,

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Church of Christ, for example, that will say you have to be baptized if you haven't been baptized and you are not saved.

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Many Lutherans believe this too. I don't know if it's all Lutherans. I know some Lutherans that believe you have to be baptized to be saved.

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There's one Lutheran that I know of, a very prominent Lutheran, as a matter of fact. I won't say his name just because I won't be able to recall this story accurately.

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But I remember him teaching once about carrying, he would carry some bottles of water in the back of his car, in his trunk.

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And the reason why he kept those bottles of water in his trunk is in case he happens upon something like an accident or somebody is in serious danger or they're near death or something to that effect, he's got some emergency bottles of water on him that he can baptize them real quick to be sure that they're going to enter into eternal life.

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So there are Lutherans that believe that way as well. And of course, there are some other sects that also believe this.

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You must be baptized in order to be saved. And a lot of that is taken from Mark 16, 16.

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Those who have been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. Now we all must be baptized in the

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Holy Spirit. Our water baptism is an outward expression of that which has happened inwardly.

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We still must be baptized by water. That is an act of obedience. Jesus said to do it, so we should do it.

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But the but there's nothing in the water that has any salvific property. Again, it is the

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Holy Spirit who saves us. And our water baptism is a demonstration of that which has happened to us by his spirit being washed, cleansed with water, born again, as Jesus talks about in John chapter three.

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So now here in verse 17, it says, and, and these signs will accompany those who have believed in my name.

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They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. Now casting out demons. We saw that earlier in the gospel of Mark when

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Jesus commissioned the 12 to go out and he gave them the authority to cast out demons.

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We see that they will be given that authority with the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

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The apostle Paul talks about in second Corinthians 12, 12, the signs of apostleship were clearly demonstrated among you.

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And those signs of apostleship would have been the miraculous things that apostles were given to do to confirm the word that they preached was from the

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Lord. We also have this in Hebrews two verses one through four, therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.

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For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

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It was first declared by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the

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Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. So there in Hebrews two, in Hebrews two, it is also being said that miracles are the confirmation of the word is having been given by God.

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The specificity of some of these miracles lifted from those places where we have a list of the spiritual gifts like first Corinthians chapter 12, for example, where it mentioned speaking in new tongues.

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Some of this also would have been taken from the book of Acts because of course at Pentecost, the disciples go out into Jerusalem, they speak the gospel in everybody's tongue so that they might hear and understand what it is that the disciples are saying.

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And you can tell by the reaction of the crowd in Acts chapter two, that what they are observing is clearly miraculous in their eyes.

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These are Galileans, they are uneducated men, and yet each one of them speaking a different language.

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How is it that these men know these incredible things and we can hear what they're saying in our own respective languages?

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So it even appeared to them there at Pentecost that the disciples were doing something miraculous.

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This wasn't gibberish, it wasn't nonsensical talk. There was substance to it as the

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Holy Spirit had given them this power and ability to speak the gospel in a language that they did not previously know.

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The gift of tongues is always something miraculous. It's not somebody doing Kundalini or Bata Bata Bata or speaking some nonsense language that doesn't have any structure to it, you can't translate it to mean anything.

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That's not speaking in tongues, that's just gibberish, it's just nonsense. So the speaking in tongues gift was clearly a spiritual gift and it's from those other mentions of speaking in tongues that we have in the

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New Testament that someone wrote that into verse 17. But then verse 18 is a little unusual, and they will pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.

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They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Now laying hands on the sick, that's certainly true. Peter and John did that at the temple to the lame man.

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So laying hands on the sick, Peter raised the dead, Philip performed miracles, the apostle

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Paul of course did very many miracles. So miracles, healing the sick especially, was something that was done by the apostles.

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But what about these other things? Picking up serpents. I have a feeling that that statement was taken from the end of Acts when

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Paul had been shipwrecked on the island of Malta. If you'll remember, he was gathering sticks for a fire and there was a serpent that jumped out and bit him on the hand and he shook the serpent into the fire and all the people there were watching

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Paul, they thought he was surely a dead man because this was a very deadly snake so he was going to start to swell up and die by the venom, by the poison that was in that snake.

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But it didn't affect him. And they knew that God's power was upon him.

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So it might be that. And that's probably what the writer had in mind when he stuck this verse in there, they'll pick up serpents.

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And then the next part though, this is absolutely unique to the Mark and Appendix.

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It doesn't appear anywhere else in the New Testament. They will drink deadly poison and it will not hurt them.

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Now it's possible that there was something anecdotal in the first or second century about one of the apostles or probably one of the disciples of the apostles who did this very thing.

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Perhaps somebody tried to poison them. They put poison in their drink and that saint drank the poison but it did not affect them.

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It did not harm them. Maybe there was something anecdotal going on at that time that this longer ending of Mark would have been written.

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And that's why they included that in here. But it is, again, something that has been the source of much confusion.

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You've probably heard debates that have been done by Muslims against Christians to try to prove that the

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Bible is false. I think there was an atheist that did this too, wasn't there? There was the debate a few years ago with James White and Jeff Durbin against those two atheist guys.

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And one of them brought antifreeze or something like that. He said, if you really believe in Jesus, if you believe his word is true, you'll drink this antifreeze and it won't harm you.

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Well, that was born out of a misinterpretation of Mark 16, 17, believing the statement or sorry, verse 18.

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Believing the statement that is here is something divinely inspired and is therefore a guarantee to anybody, not just apostles, but anybody that if you drink poison, it won't harm you because you have the

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Holy Spirit. That would not have been what was intended by the person that wrote the Mark and Appendix. And it certainly wouldn't.

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It's certainly not something that is included in scripture either. So of anything that's in the

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Mark and Appendix verses nine through 20, that's the one thing that is the most outside the bounds of anything else that we have written in the

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New Testament. This concept of if you drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. Whether that was included because of something anecdotal or not, we're not sure.

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But yeah, anyway, it's in there. And of course, you know that the picking up serpents, they'll be able to pick up deadly serpents.

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You know that there's a whole cult that is spun off of this, right? The snake handlers in the

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Bible Belt portion of what is that kind of in the Ozarks out in Kentucky, some of those places where they do this, the snake handling churches.

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And there are people who have died from this very tragically. But again, that is a misunderstanding, a misinterpretation of what was written here in Mark 16.

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Whoever wrote the Mark and Appendix did not intend that for any person, just for the apostles.

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But we also understand that this was not divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. So next you have now we have that final section with Jesus ascending to the father and the disciples actually going out and preaching the gospel.

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And this is verses 19 and 20. 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.

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We have that at the end of Luke, Luke 24. And also his ascension is mentioned at the beginning of Acts chapter one and verse 20.

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And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

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That seems to also be taken from Hebrews two. And of course, is kind of an abbreviated version of the whole

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Acts of the Apostles, the book of Acts chapters one through 28, abbreviated right here in the last half of verse 20.

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So this is the Mark and Appendix. This is the long ending to the gospel of Mark, these 12 verses and verses nine to 20.

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There's a shorter ending. There was another ending that was included to Mark, and we have record of that as well.

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The shorter ending is not included in as many Bibles, but I have the shorter ending right here.

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So after verse eight, after you read Mark 16 verses one through eight, some manuscripts, not the oldest manuscripts, but yeah, the earliest, some manuscripts include this shorter ending.

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And it goes like this. And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions.

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And after that, Jesus himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable preaching of eternal salvation.

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That's it. That's the short ending to Mark. And you can pretty much sum that up in a single verse.

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So remember, you have the angel telling the women, go and tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee.

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There you will see him just as he told you. So you have this statement tacked on at the end of Mark's gospel.

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They probably reported all these instructions. The women reported these instructions to Peter and his companions.

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And after that, Jesus himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable preaching of eternal salvation.

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So in keeping with the instruction of the angels, the women went and reported this to the disciples and Peter, according to the short ending.

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But like I said, I think that Mark 16, one through eight is the right conclusion to the gospel of Mark.

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And if you study Mark and you see the way that he wrote, how often he uses amazed and astonished and immediately and he's writing this action story and he's hitting all the high points, then it makes total sense that Mark ends the way that it ends.

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And as I had pointed out on Monday, it's kind of an open ending as if to say to you now the women were too afraid and they didn't go tell anybody.

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But how about you? If you are amazed and astonished by what you've read, will you not immediately go and follow

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Jesus and tell others to follow him as well, repeating the gospel message to them who would believe unto salvation?

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And so that is what we are supposed to glean from the gospel of Mark. Jesus is that savior.

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He is the one who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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All who believe in him will not be condemned. We will be saved unto eternal life with Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, with God, our father in heaven forever. And so turn from your sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live and take the message of his gospel to the world. For there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ.

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Now, just like there was some scribe in the past that felt like Mark needed help with his gospel.

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We have some interpreters today who do the same thing. Do we not? Ever since Mark's gospel was written, there have been people that have been trying to help him out with telling this story as they do this with other scriptures to the

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Chosen, the very popular show about Jesus and his disciples. The creators of this show seem to act like they can tell a better story.

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The gospel messages, yeah, they need a little more help, so let's spice it up a little bit. Let's add some flair to it.

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Let's give some backstory to these characters. Let's add some things in here. The Bible doesn't say we'll even tell our own story.

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The writer and director of the show, Dallas Jenkins, has said that very thing, that they're telling their own story. It's kind of like a fan fiction version of Jesus and his disciples, what it is that they're doing.

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You have many other liberal scholars out there who will try to say, well, Jesus didn't really mean that, or the gospels didn't really mean this, and they will remove some parts of the gospel.

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Thomas Jefferson, you know, there was a Thomas Jefferson Bible in which he took out parts of the

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Bible that he didn't like, stuff that was too hard to believe and was left with something else that for him was his own version of Jesus, a false

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God rather than the true God of the Bible. Jefferson didn't love him. He liked his Jesus better.

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So we've seen this throughout the ages. People that have come along and have felt like they needed to help the Bible along.

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But what we have written down for us in the pages of scripture is true. It is for us unto salvation, for those who believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Don't doubt any of this, but learn it, believe it, live by it, and share it with others.

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For it is only by this word that they, too, can be saved. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read, for this study that we've done in Mark's gospel, and I pray that you would bless our hearts as we continue to read these things, to have them imprinted on our minds and our hearts, and not just hear a great story, but it even changes our lives to live according to what it is that we have read.

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We believe that Jesus is the Savior, that he is God incarnate, that he died on a cross and rose again from the dead, that he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf, and is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

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We believe this unto salvation, and may we have boldness and courage to share this message with others so that they, too, may believe and be saved.

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Thank you, Lord, for your kindness to us in Christ our Savior. It's in his name we pray.

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Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

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New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.