I must admit one of my few perversions is keeping an eye on some of the Christian apologists. The real insult here is not pointing out our ignorance. I will freely stipulate for the record to not knowing everything! (How dull the world would be with nothng left to learn.) No, the real insult is that we won’t be informed about the particular issues he raises in his piquant video.
The video is short and just skims the surface so I won’t spend too much time on it other to highlight what to me seems a rather flabbergasting oversight in its argument.
There are real reasons to suppose that Mark 16:8 was the original ending of the gospel. But to properly appreciate the argument you must accept that Mark is not flat newspaperish reportage but a sophisticated literary composition. But it is interesting to consider the possibility of a “lost” ending. Subsequent generations of believers were obviously so troubled by the text that they created the spurious endings that survive in our manuscripts.
But to use that as a way to reconcile the contradiction between Mark and the spurious endings, and the other gospels, about whether or not the women at the tomb were silent or whether they informed the disciples, raises a fascinating blind spot on the part of Testify.
Is he really saying that the original ending of Mark – divinely inspired, inerrant scripture remember – was lost? Really? What’s up with that? Is claiming that God’s Word was lost more palatable than accepting a weird but powerful ending that does in fact contradict the other gospels?
What’s the oldest evidence that Mark originally had the long ending?
The longer ending of the Gospel of Mark is present in virtually all of the surviving manuscripts. However the two oldest and best manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, lack the longer ending. Supporting their testimony is the fact that we have a bunch of Latin, Syrian, Georgian, and Armenian manuscripts that end in with Mark 16:8. The best reason to reject the longer ending is tht it directly contradicts what went before.
8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The Intermediate Ending of Mark
And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. Amen.
The Long Ending of Mark
9 Now after 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 out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping.
BDEhrman
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