03. THE LAST TWELVE VERSES OF

THE SECOND GOSPEL.

I.

THESE LAST TWELVE VERSES ORIGINALLY DID

NOT FORM PART OF THE SECOND GOSPEL.

THE Revisers make this statement with reference to St. Mark xvi. 9 (margin): "The two oldest Greek MSS., and some other authorities, omit from verse 9 to the end."

Archdeacon Farrar, in the "Expositor" for October 1882, states that "Mark xvi. 9-20 formed no part of the original Apostolic autograph."

Ebrard ("Gospel History," p. 547) says that "the peculiar characteristics of Mark's style are not to be found in the section."

The late Dean Alford (quoted by Dean Burgon, "Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark," p. 136) says that these verses are "an addition to the narrative." Bishop Barry ("Teacher's Prayer Book," p. 98b), calls them "obviously a postscript to the narrative." To this distinct testimony may be added the important fact that the Roman Catholic Church regards these concluding verses of St. Mark as deutero-canonical.

Dr. Hort ("Westcott and Hort's Greek Testament," vol. ii., Appendix, p. 28) refers to "the eminent critics who have treated of this, at first sight, difficult variation," and states that "the variation itself is, moreover, almost unrivalled in interest and importance, and no other that approaches it in interest and importance stands any longer seriously in need of full discussion." II.

THE FOLLOWING FACTS RESPECTING THE AUTHOR APPEAR FROM AN EXAMINATION OF THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE.

(a.) The Author was a Jew familiar with the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Almost all the words of which he makes use are to be found in the LXX., e.g.— δυσιν (instead of δυοιν, dative of δυο, Winer, p. 74), 3 Kings ii. 32.

μορφη. Isaiah xliv. 13.

βυπτιζειν, 4 Kings v. 14.

κατακρινειν, Esther ii. 1.

φανερονν, Jeremiah xl. 6.

σαββατον, 4 Kings xi. 7. (Hebraistic.)

δαιμονιον, Psalm xcv. 5. (Hebraistic.)

ἀρρωστος, Malachi i. 8.

πανταχον, Isaiah xlii. 22.

σημειον, Deuteronomy xxxiv. 11. (Hebraistic.)

σκληροκαρδια (peculiar to LXX.), Deuteronomy x. 16.

Some occur in the Apocrypha (in ancient times included in the LXX.), e.g.— ὀνειδίζειν, Wisdom ii. 12.

βλαπτειν, Tobit xii. 2.

παρικολονθειν, 2 Maccabees ix. 27.

Reference to Schleusner's "Lexicon Veteris Testamenti" will establish these assertions beyond the possibility of contradiction. The only word which is not thus to be found in these Jewish writings is θανασιμος, which is used by Hippocrates, Sophocles, Euripides, and Polybius. Turning to the phrases, we find that πενθειν και κλαιειν—a thorough Hebraism, an instance of Hebraistic parallelism or reduplication like προσευχη και δεησις (Ps. liv. 1) and τρεμειν κα φοβεῖσθαι (Dan. v. 19)—occurs in Nehemiah viii. 9.

μετα ταυτα, 2 Chron. xxxii. 9.

ἀνελημφθη (ὡς) εἰς τον οὐρανον, 4 Kings ii. 11.

ὁ Κυριος—μετα το λαλησαι, Job xlii. 7.

βεβαιουν—λογος, Ps. cxviii. 28.

πορευεσθαι—ἀπαγγελλειν, 1 Kings ix. 6.

(An example of the construction πορευθεισα ἀπηγγειλε occurs in Gen. xlv. 28, πορευθεις ὀψομαι).

ἐπιτιθεναι χειρας ἐπι, Num. xxvii. 23; 4 Kings οἱ μετ' αὐτου, Ezek. xxxviii. 22. [v. 11.

ἐν τῷ ὀνοματι μου, Ps. lxxxviii. 24.

ὁ μεν οὖν, Esther ix. 1.

πορευεσθαι (ἐκπορευεσθαι) εἰς ἀγρον, 1 Kings xx. 11.

Verse 19 is entirely composed of phrases which occur in the LXX. :— ὁ Κυριος—μετα το λαλησαι, Job xlii. 7.

ἀνελημφθη εἰς τον οὐρανον, 4 Kings ii. 11.

ἐκαθισε ἐκ δεξιων, Ps. cix. 1; 1 Kings xx. 25.

The phrase καλως ἐχειν is not to be found in the LXX. (although its correlative κακως ἐχειν occurs in Ezekiel xxxiv. 4, and also in the New Testament). It is used by Xenophon in the "Memorabilia." Dr. Robert Young ("Lecture on the New Testament," part i. p. 4) says that the writers of the New Testament "were men of Jewish extraction, who wrote in a style of composition that no one of a later age could ever successfully attain to, namely, Hebraistic thoughts in a Greek dress." There is, then, distinct evidence that the writer of these verses was a Greek-speaking Jew, who naturally expressed his ideas by means of the words and phrases of that version of the Scriptures with which, from childhood, he had been familiar, having heard the lessons, taken from the Law and the Prophets, regularly read in the Synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath. (b.) The Author was a Christian—a Jewish Christian.

This is evident from the fact that he insists on Christian baptism and on faith in Christ (ver. 16), while he twice refers to Christ as ὁ Κυριος (vers. 19, 20), a title (= the Lord) given throughout the LXX. to Jehovah. (c.) The Author wrote for GENTILE readers.

The mere fact that these verses were added to the Second Gospel would seem to show this; for “internal evidence is very full as to the class of readers for whom Mark compiled his Gospel; the Gentile Christians are clearly pointed out” (“Alford’s Greek Test.,” vol. i. Proleg. p. 35). The emphatic words in ver. 15, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” are another proof of this.

B

Dr. Townson ("Discourses on the Gospels," vol. i. p. 168) observes that :—

"In the conclusion of St. Mark's Gospel it is more openly signified that the observance of legal ordinances was no longer required. St. Matthew thus reports the words of our Lord to His Apostles: 'Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost' (Matt. xxviii. 19). Here indeed is a silence about circumcision as a rule of admission into the Christian Church, but no clear releasement from it; for baptism might not abrogate circumcision, but be joined with it, according to the practice of the Jews, who administered both to a proselyte from Paganism. "But St. Mark having related the injunction of Christ to the Apostles of preaching the Gospel to every creature, adds, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved' (ver. 16); which in just construction is a promise of salvation without circumcision and the ceremonies of the Law." The fact that the author of these verses, although himself a Jew, wrote for the Gentiles, is of special importance as giving us a clue to his identity. St. Paul found only three Jewish Christians at Rome who helped him in his work for the GENTILES, Mark being one of these three (Col. iv. 10, 11). Cf. Gal. ii. 12. (d.) The Author wrote especially for the Gentile Christians at ROME.

Dr. Davidson says (p. 149, quoted by Dean Burgon, "The Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark," p. 151):—"Not only was the document intended for Gentile converts, but there are also appearances of its adaptation to the use of Roman Christians in particular." The Dean adds: "Just so; and I venture to say that in the whole of the 'document,' Dr. Davidson will not find a more striking 'appearance of its adaptation to the use of Roman Christians' . . . than this," namely, the phrase "πρωτη σαββατον in verse 9," this being the "Greek equivalent for 'primâ sabbati'"—the phrase afterwards used by Jerome in the Vulgate—and being “introduced for the benefit of his Latin readers.”

(e.) The Author must have been possessed of literary ability.

This seems clear from his having compressed the history of many years, and such a history—obviously of great importance—the Rise and Progress of a New Form of Religion—into a few verses. Not every one in that age was an author; not every author could have furnished so clear a summary of such a mass of matter—the essence of the doctrinal teaching of the Third Gospel and of the whole narrative of the Acts being condensed and compressed into twelve short verses. Cf. pp. 30-38, 78. (f.) The Author wrote many years after the first preaching of the Gospel.

This is sufficiently established by his own narrative, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. . . .

And they went forth and preached everywhere" (vers. 15 and 20). Many years must have elapsed before verse 20 could have been written.

(g.) The Author wrote in the Apostolic Age.

That these verses were added in very early times is proved by the fact that they were recognised in the second century by the Old

Latin and Syriac Versions, by Papias (a disciple of St. John), by Justin Martyr, by

Irenæus, and by Tertullian. They were also not unknown to the Coptic and Sahidic Versions, and to Codices A and C (Dean Burgon,

"The Revision Revised," p. 423).

Dr. Hort says ("Greek Test.," vol. ii., Appendix, p. 51) that the section "is apparently older than the time when the Canonical Gospels were generally received; for, though it has points of contact with them all, it contains no attempt to harmonise their various representations of the course of events;" and again

(p. 46), "The conclusion to be drawn from the documentary evidence alone is that verses 9-20 are a very early* interpolation, early and widely diffused and welcomed."

Let me add the following quotations from Dean Burgon's "brilliant monograph," as Dr. Scrivener terms it:—

"The existing Lectionary of the great Eastern Church must needs be in the main a work of extraordinary antiquity" (p. 199). "All the twelve verses in dispute are found in every known copy of the venerable Lectionary of the East. Those same twelve verses—neither more nor less—are observed to constitute one integral Lection. . . . It is found that, from the very first, St. Mark xvi. 9-20 has been everywhere, and by all branches of the Church Catholic, claimed for two of the Church's greatest Festivals—Easter and Ascension" ("The Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark," p. 210). The late Dr. Tregelles says ("Printed Text of New Test.," p. 258), "It has also been

* The italics are not in the author quoted.

urged with great force that the contents of this section are such as to preclude its having been added at a post-apostolic period,* and that the very difficulties which it contains afford a strong presumption that it is an authentic history: the force of this argument is such that I do not see how it can be avoided." (h.) The Author must have been possessed of Apostolic authority, or at least he must have obtained Apostolic sanction.

How else could this account, which he added to the Second Gospel, have been (in the words of Dr. Hort quoted above), "early and widely diffused and welcomed"? The Apocryphal Gospels were written early, but they were not widely diffused, and evidently they were not widely welcomed. It is true that these verses were added for the use of the Gentiles; but the Gentiles were closely connected with the Mother Church at Jerusalem and the Apostles. * The italics are not in the author quoted.

(See Acts viii. 14; xi. 22; xv.; xvi. 4; and consider the presence of St. Peter at Corinth, 1 Cor. i., and at Antioch, Gal. ii.) This, too, was a time when "commendatory letters" (2 Cor. iii. 1; viii. 23) were demanded of Christians travelling from church to church. If persons were not received and welcomed without testimony, how could writings be received and welcomed without testimony? How then could anything be added to or taken from the written Gospel in Apostolic times without Apostolic sanction? Compare Prebendary Row ("Bampton Lectures," 3rd edit., pp. 284, 285):—

"The importance of one element in the historical inquiry has been greatly overlooked both by the opponents and defenders of Christianity: I mean the existence of the Church as a visible society, and the guarantee which this affords of the accurate transmission of the facts on which it was founded." "The facts of its Founder's life first brought the Society into being; an acquaintance with them was essential to that continuous growth which it has exhibited from the first dawn of its existence to the present hour."

And again, p. 287: "It would have been in the highest degree difficult, not to say impossible, during the brief interval between our Lord's ministry and the end of the first century, to have imposed on any community of Christians a mass of legendary matter of a character wholly different from those facts," &c. I will venture to add that this important observation holds good with regard to any matter; and that it is clear that nothing could have been permanently added, without full and proper sanction, to the authorised Christian documents, and to the commonly-received accounts current in the Church. Dr. Tregelles (p. 258, quoted above, p. 23) says that "the very difficulties which this section contains afford a strong presumption that it is an authentic history."

If, then, this last section of St. Mark is "authentic"—if it was "early and widely diffused and welcomed"—if it "could not have been added at a post-apostolic period," I do not hesitate to assert that, in the peculiar circumstances of the early Christian Church, it could only have been added to the Second Gospel by Apostolic authority. And it is obvious that this Apostolic authority—in the case of the Second Gospel (written for, and circulating amongst, Gentile readers)—must have been derived from the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul. III.

THERE IS A CLOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LAST TWELVE VERSES OF THE SECOND GOSPEL AND THE WRITINGS OF THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRD GOSPEL AND THE ACTS.

(a.) The phraseology of these verses has a marked resemblance to the phraseology of the Third Gospel and the Acts.

Most of the words in these twelve verses are to be found in the Third Gospel or the Acts (many of them in both), including ὄνοι (for ὄνων, dative of ὄνο, Luke xvi. 13; Acts xii. 6), βλαπτειν (peculiar to Luke (ch. iv. 35) amongst the writers of the New Testament), and σαββατον (in the sense of "a week," Luke xviii. 12). Ἀπιστειν, ἀναλαμβανειν, παρακολουθειν, the simple το εὐαγγελιον (Mark also) are peculiar to these verses, Luke, and Paul. Reference may be made to Schmoller's "Concordance to the Greek Testament." The following phrases in these verses are used by the writer of the Third Gospel—some nowhere else—others only by St. Paul :— μετα ταυτα, Luke xvii. 8.

οἱ πιστευσαντες, Acts iv. 32.

ἐκβαλλειν δαιμονια, Luke xiii. 32.

ἀναλημφθηναι εἰς τὸν οὐρανον, Acts i. 11.

ἐν τῷ ὀνοματι (of Christ), Luke x. 17.

μετ' αὐτοῦ γενεσθαι, Acts xx. 18.

ἐπιτιθεναι χειρας ἐπι, Acts viii. 17.

οἱ ἑνδεκα, Luke xxiv. 9 (of the Apostles).

ὁ μὲν οὖν, Acts xii. 5.

οἱ λοιποὶ (of those who were with the eleven Apostles).

πενθειν καὶ κλαίειν (Hebraism), Luke vi. 25.

καθημαι ἐκ δεξιων, Luke xxii. 69.

καθίζειν, Luke iv. 20.

ὁ Κυριος (of Christ, later than the ὁ Ἰησοῦς, "the Christ known after the flesh" (2 Cor. v. 16) of Matthew and Mark), Luke xvii. 5.

πορευθέντες—ἀπαγγελλειν, Luke vii. 22.

λαλεῖν γλωσσαις, Acts xix. 6.

πιστευσαι—σωθηναι, Luke viii. 12.

κἀκείνος, Luke xi. 7.

ἐκείνος, used absolutely ("The use of ἐκείνος in vers. 10, 11, and 13 (twice), in a manner synonymous with ὁ δε, is peculiar" (Davidson), quoted by Burgon, p. 166), Acts xxi. 6.

μετα το σιγησαι (λαλησαι), Acts xv. 13.

I cannot help thinking that the pen that wrote, in Acts xv. 13, μετα το σιγησαι, may well have written, in Mark xvi. 19, μετα το λαλησαι.

That the pen that wrote, in Acts xii. 5, ὁ μεν οὖν Ἱετρος, may well have written, in Mark xvi. 19, ὁ μεν οὖν Κυριος.

That the pen that wrote, in Luke x. 17, τα δαιμονια ὑποτασσεται ἡμιν ἐν τῷ ὀνοματι σου (of Christ), may well have written, in Mark xvi. 17, ἐν τῷ ὀνοματι μου (of Christ) δαιμονια ἐκβαλουσι. That the pen that wrote, in Luke xvii. 14, πο- ρευθεντες ἐπιδειξατε, may well have writ- ten, in Mark xvi. 15, πορευθεντες κηρυξατε.

That the pen that wrote, in Luke i. 2, οἱ ἀπ' ἀρχης γενομενοι (cf. Acts xxvi. 4), may well have written, in Mark xvi. 10, οἱ μετ' αὐτοῦ γενομενοι.

And that the pen that wrote, in Luke xxiv.

9, of the holy women at the Sepulchre, ὑποστρεψασαι . . . ἀπηγγειλαν . . . τοις λοιποις, may well have been the same pen that wrote of them, in Mark xvi.

13, ἐξελθουσαι ἀπηγγειλαν τοις λοιποις.

(b.) The Author of the Third Gospel and the

Acts was familiar with the subject-matter of these verses.

1. Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils

(ver. 9).

St. Luke (or the Acts).

Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils

(Luke viii. 2).

(This statement is not to be found elsewhere.)

2. And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.

And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not (vers. 10, 11).

The eleven (ver. 14).

3. After that He appeared in another form, unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And

And they told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary

Magdalene . . . and other women . . . who told these things unto the Apostles.

And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not (Luke xxiv.

9 11).

It is St. Luke alone of all the Evangelists who records the appearance of Christ to the two disciples as "they went they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them (vers. 12, 13).

Bengel thought that they first believed and then doubted; other commentators have supposed that they first doubted and then believed; others again have explained the variation by supposing that some believed and some doubted. (Compare

Matt. xxviii. 17, "But some doubted;" and John xx. 24,

25, "Thomas said, 'I will not believe.'") Alford says that the statement here is not consistent with Luke xxiv. 33, 34.

Dean Burgon maint uns, however (see the note p. 71), that "there is really no inconsistency whatever between anything which St. Mark here says and what the other

Evangelists deliver. . . . If sufficient critical skill were brought to bear on the highlyelliptical portion of narrative contained in these twelve verses . . . any apparent inconsistency . . . would be found to be imaginary."

St. Luke (or the Acts).

that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs" (Luke xxiv.

13).

4. Afterwards He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them who had seen Him after He was risen (ver. 14). (See the note p. 71, and compare, as indicating the mental attitude of the Apostles, the words in Luke xxiv. 11: "And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.") Compare also Luke xxiv. 37, 38, 41, wherein the writer of the Third Gospel implies that all incredulity was not at an end: "But they were terrified . . . and supposed that they had seen a spirit. . . . Why are ye troubled? . . . And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered." . . . And ver. 45, "Then opened He their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures." 5. And He said unto them (the eleven), Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (ver. 15).