How do we know if a passage in the New Testament was “originally” in the New Testament?   Scholars are widely agreed, for example (there is not a whole lot of serious debate about the matter) that the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection at the end of  Mark’s Gospel (the last twelve verses of Mark 16) were not originally there.  The Gospel ends with the announcement that he has been raised and will meet his disciples in Galilee (so that, contrary to what a lot of people say – there definitely *is* a resurrection in Mark); but no one sees him.   That makes Mark very different from the other Gospels.

So too the famous story of the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 – arguably the most famous story from the life of Jesus in the entire New Testament, but almost certainly not originally there.  It was added later.

So how ‘bout *other* passages?  How can we know?

I’m addressing this question because …

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