Mark 16

He has risen!

Mark 16

Mark 16:1

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. (use)

Mark 15:46

And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. (use)

Job 19:26

And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, (use)

Just a little reminder today. Dead people - don't come back to life.

Roberts, A., 2021. Tweet. Twitter.
roberts-2021-reminder~a1

Mark 15:47

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (use)

Actions and claims of Jesus

Mark 1:1

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (use)

Mark 2:5

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." (use)

Mark 2:7

Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? (use)

Mark 3:11

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." (use)

Mark 4:41

And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (use)

Mark 5:19

And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." (use)

Mark 5:41

Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." (use)

Mark 6:12

So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. (use)

Mark 7:15

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. (use)

Who is Jesus?

Mark 8:29

And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." (use)

Mark 9:31

for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise." (use)

Mark 10:34

And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. (use)

Mark 11:28

and they said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?" (use)

Mark 12:27

He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong. (use)

Mark 13:10

And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. (use)

Mark 14:62

And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." (use)

These abundant historical references leave us with little reasonable doubt that Jesus lived and died. The more interesting question - which goes beyond history and objective fact - is whether Jesus died and lived.

Gathercole, D.S., 2017. What is the historical evidence that Jesus Christ lived and died?
gathercole-2017-what~a1

Mark 16:6

And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him". (use)

Mark 16:5

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. (use)

Mark 16:7

But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. (use)

Mark 16:8

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (use)

There is no way around it. The ending of Mark's Gospel is disappointing.

Johnson, E., 2020. Commentary on Mark 16:1-8.
johnson-2020-mark16~a1

...there was not sufficient time between the crucifixion and the report of Jesus resurrection for a myth to become popular. In addition, the resurrection eyewitnesses were still alive and available to be questioned about the facts surrounding the resurrection.

Driscoll, M., 2021. Alive 21 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
driscoll-2021-alive~a6

Acts 2:32

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (use)

At best the historian can say that there were men and women in the first century who earnestly believed that they had seen the raised Christ … The historian cannot say that the raised Jesus was seen in a vision without himself becoming a man of faith. Nor can he account for the certainty with which the early Christians held to the conviction that they had seen Jesus.

Carnley, P., 1987. The Structure of Resurrection Belief.
carnely-1987-structure~a1

1 Corinthians 15:4

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (use)

For a variety of reasons, contemporary scholars widely conclude that after his death, Jesus' followers at least thought that they had seen appearances of the risen Jesus.

Habermas, G.R., 2006. Experiences of the risen Jesus: The foundational historical issue in the early proclamation of the resurrection. Dialog, 45(3), pp.288-297.
habermas-2006-experiences~a1

I conclude that the hypothesis that Jesus rose from the dead is not only the best explanation of the relevant historical bedrock, it out distances its competitors by a significant margin and meets the criteria for awarding historicity.

Licona, M.R., 2008. The Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus - Historiographical Considerations in the Light of Recent Debates.
licona-2008-historicity~a1

One may claim that RH {resurrection hypothesis} lacks plausibility, since it is generally accepted that the dead do not return to life. However, what is generally accepted is that the dead do not return to life by natural causes. RH and the early Christians have not asserted that Jesus returned to life by natural causes but by a supernatural one. In fact, the statement could be turned around as follows: If a supernatural being wanted to raise Jesus from the dead, RH is the most plausible explanation for the relevant historical bedrock.

Licona, M.R., 2008. The Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus - Historiographical Considerations in the Light of Recent Debates.
licona-2008-historicity~a6

The fact of Jesus' resurrection is a matter of history. What it means can only be understood by what the Bible tells us.

Guzik, D., 2012. Enduring Word.
guzik-2012-ew~mk-16a

The resurrection meant not just that a church was founded, it meant that the world was different: the church exists to articulate this difference, to show the world to itself.

McCabe, H., 1968. The Resurrection is not a religious event.
mccabe-1968-resurrection~a1

Mark 16:8

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (use)

Mark 16:9

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. (use)

LE vs SE

Providence from God has permitted its inclusion from very early and substained it.

In relation to content there is a significant issue that the Longer Ending draws upon parallel material in the other Gospels.

Head, P., 2022. A case against the longer ending of Mark.
head-2022-caseagainst~a3

Mark 16:9

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. (use)

Mark 16:11

But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. (use)

Mark 16:12

After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. (use)

Mark 16:15

And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." (use)

Mark 16:18

they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. (use)

Mark 16:19

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. (use)

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 sits on the right hand of God; Mark 16:19

Irenaeus. 180. Against Heresies.
irenaeus-180-against~b3c10s5

...it is not found in all copies of the gospel according to Mark: accurate copies end their text of the Marcan account with the words of the young man whom the women saw, and who said to them: “Do not be afraid; it is Jesus the Nazarene that you are look- ing for, etc. ...” ”, after which it adds: “And when they heard this, they ran away, and said nothing to anyone, because they were frightened.” That is where the text does end, in almost all copies of the gospel according to Mark. What occasionally follows in some copies, not all,... {Eusebius 300AD}

Pearse, R., 2010. Eusebius Gospel Problems And Solutions 2010.
pearse-2010-eusebius~a1

Vaticanus (325AD) and Sinaiticus (after 325AD) both end v8 and are Alexandrian text type

These features indicate that Vaticanus and Sinaiticus were both made by copyists who were aware of additional material after v. 8 and decided not to include it.

Snapp, J., 2022. A case for the longer ending of Mark.
snapp-2022-casefor~a2

There is good evidence that the earliest form of the Gospel of Mark, as translated into Latin, Syriac, Sahidic Coptic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Armenian, and Georgian, all consisted of the text of Mark ending at 16:8.

Head, P., 2022. A case against the longer ending of Mark.
head-2022-caseagainst~a4

The Shorter Ending (found with the Longer Ending in an interesting range of witnesses) only makes sense as an addition to a text of Mark that ended at 16:8.

Head, P., 2022. A case against the longer ending of Mark.
head-2022-caseagainst~a1

Of course, in part, this agreement highlights the problem of the Longer Ending: it was absent from the earliest manuscripts, it doesn’t fit when it does appear in the later manuscripts, and it has unusual stylistic features; but it was widely adopted as the ending of Mark, is quoted regularly in ecclesiastical writers, and became the almost universal ending of Mark in later manuscripts. This is the textual problem—a combination of external and internal evidence—that scholars are trying to investigate, explore, and ultimately explain and resolve.

Head, P., 2022. A case against the longer ending of Mark.
head-2022-caseagainst~a2

The foibles of some Egyptian copyists do not outweigh the general judgment of the Christian church. It may be auxiliary, but it is still original, authentic, and canonical. In this, it is like various other passages in the Bible such as Deuteronomy 34:5–12, Joshua 24:29–33, Proverbs 30–31, Jeremiah 52, etc.

Snapp, J., 2022. A case for the longer ending of Mark.
snapp-2022-casefor~a1

This article argues that Mark’s ending has been crafted in order to invoke a predictive inference that encourages the interpreter to imagine events beyond the concluding scene of the narrative.

Iverson, K.R., 2022. A Postmodern Riddle? Gaps, Inferences and Mark’s Abrupt Ending. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 44(3), 337–367.
iverson-2022-postmodern~a1

...include the verses, but with a word of caution explaining they may not be original. That keeps us honest about ancient Christians whose Bibles ended Mark at 16:8.

Hixson, E., 2020. Was Mark 16:9-20 Originally Part of Mark's Gospel?
hixson-2020-was~a

And the uncertainty itself will be wholesome if it reminds us that saving faith is not to be reposed in niceties of criticism, but in the living Christ, the power and wisdom of God.

Nicoll W., 1923. Expositors Bible Commentary.
nicoll-1923-exp~mk-16

Topics and Themes

About Jesus

Miracles

Questions

Key Verse

Mark 16:6

And he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. (use)