There are 4 narratives of Jesus’ life in the new testament: the gospels, which are supposedly written by Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Historical scholars today say without hesitation that all of these books were not written by who they say they are and are in fact anonymous. Not only that, but whoever wrote Mathew and Luke (hereafter using their given names for convenience), they both copied Mark line by line and expanded on it. Mathew and Luke included virgin birth narratives and included more miracles and parables. One thing they also add is Jesus’ Resurrection, which by contrast is announced by a man at the end of Mark but then abruptly ends.
Jesus Resurection is proof of his divinity to Christians
What makes this more remarkable is that John includes a resurrection appearance, but Mark is the only one that doesn’t. Scholars also are very confident crowning the title of earliest Gospel to Mark written approximately 40 years after Jesus’ death. What do we make of this? The oldest narrative of Jesus doesn’t include a virgin birth and most strangely, doesn’t show the risen Jesus. Below is how the narrative ends in Chapter 16 Verse 8:
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Today a casual reader can look at this ending and say, that’s not a way to end a book? The women don’t tell anyone the tomb is empty and it just says they ran away? But if you were to open any bible from the early middle ages to the 18th century you would instead find a more fitting ending. There are 12 more verses in this ending, in which Jesus appears to his disciples and the 11 Apostles (12 minus Judas), he tells them to:
...proclaim the good news to all creation. The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned
He also states that they will be imbued with new powers by casting out demons, be able to drink poison and not get sick, and handle snakes without getting hurt. He then ascends to heaven and sits at the right hand of god, sometimes an “Amen” is thrown in for good measure.
This entire ending was added in by later scribes who themselves said you cannot end the Gospel this way. Our oldest versions of Mark don’t have this ending and instead end at 16:8. Codex Vaticanus (kept in the Vatican library) and Codex Sinaiticus (discovered in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt which is another great story) both do not contain this ending. Because of this, if you open up a standard bible today, you will see some kind of note explaining that this ending was not part of the original narrative and Mark ends at 16:8. Someone should tell the Appalachian snake handlers that those passages weren’t in the Gospel originally.
The ending in Codex Vaticanus ends at 16:8 and then a large 'According to Mark'
Scribes had a problem with this ending, but so did scholars when it was realised and they came up with several explanations. Maybe the ending got lost? The original autograph copy which would’ve been a large scroll might’ve lost the last part to wear and tear, or to fire, or to rats? Others say maybe Mark didn’t get to finish his Gospel because he got a heart attack. Some guessed that maybe it was taken out. In the 21st century most scholars have come to a consensus that none of these happened and that Mark (their real name we will never know) intended to end his Gospel in 16:8. Here is their argument.
If you read Mark, he writes kinda sloppy greek with urgency fairly often. “Then this happened”, “Immediately this happened”, “On the next day this happened”. So ending what feels like the middle of a paragraph could just be Mark's style of writing.
He also creates a kind of literary device called the “messianic secret” where Jesus continually tells his disciples not to tell anyone who he is or about the miracles he performed, but word spreads anyway. People are confused, even his closest companions don’t realise that he is the Son of God and the Messiah! One of them even says “who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”. We the readers know the answer, we read it in the first verse. But his closest companions just don’t get it, all the way through the Gospel. Until chapter 9. Jesus asks the 12 “who do people say that I am?”. They say John the Baptist, Elijah (Old Testament prophet), an angel, or some other prophet. Jesus then says “but who do you say that I am?”. Then Peter states “you are the Messiah”, Jesus tells him not to tell anyone, then reveals that he must go to Jerusalem to be crucified but 3 days later rise from the dead. This is the major turning point of Mark's narrative. His companions don’t understand, the Messiah is supposed to come in power, overthrow the Romans, and bring back the Kingdom of Israel/God. But Jesus rebukes them and tells them not to reveal his mission. He says that he will die, be risen, many will follow his teachings, there will be false prophets, families will be torn apart from his message, there will be famine and earthquakes, and great wars. Until some sacrilegious abomination will happen (in the Temple in Jerusalem it seems), THEN Jesus will return with angels in glory and reconstitute the whole world. This is supposed to happen within a generation.
Alot of the messianic secret was probably not historical but Mark invented it for a reason. You have to remember that these books were meant to be read out loud by a gathering of Christians in someone's house. They expected Jesus’ to return any day, and so does Mark. He is trying to speak to his fellow Christians through his Gospel. He even has a line saying “let the reader understand” to really hammer home his message. Why? Here is what we think.
Rubble in situ from the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in Jerusalem
In the year 66AD (Jesus died approx 30AD), the Jews revolted against Roman rule and they responded by crushing the revolt, and completely destroying the Temple in 70AD leaving behind only the western or “wailing” wall that is still there today. Before they destroyed Jerusalem they went through to other areas like Jesus neighbourhood in Galilee north of the Temple. Maybe that is when Mark is written? When the Jews revolt, when the Romans are marching through Jewish land, when it seems like all hope is lost, Mark is telling his listeners that Jesus is going to come back any minute. Be ready, have faith, remember who he is and what he told us. This is why Mark is written kinda sloppily, with urgency, and ends with no resurrection appearance. It’s to harden the faith of his fellow Christians and to remind them, at the very end of his Gospel:
'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'"