Basic HTML Version
The longer ending to Mark's Gospel, is however, quoted
extremely early. Mark
16:19
is quoted as a
P!ff
or Mark
1
S
account by Irenaeus in Against
Heresies~Bk. ,~,6)
between
182
and
188
A.D. There are allusions to it
1n
even earlier
writ~s,
although not as a true quotation. Not only did
Irenaeua accept it as a part of Mark's Gospel when arguing with
"heretics," but, says Hastings: "No writer before Eusebius is
known to have rejected them, and their presence in all later
MSS (manuscripts) shows that the successors or Eusebius, in
spite of his great authority, did not follow his judgment
1n
the
matter." (Eusebius was the court favorite and the church
historian in the days of Emperor Constant1ne.)
Thesa _facts _po1nt plainly to the great antiquity of
the longer ending as preserved
1n
the common English. versions.
But were they 1nspired?
Let us consider now the common 1dea that the real
end1.ng of Mark was lost. Since the B1ble expla1ns that the Word
or the Lord endures forever, are we to assume that so important
a matter as the resurrection was allowed to perish? Notice
chapter
36
of Jeremiah, verse 23. Here one of the scrolls con–
ta1n1.ng the inspired words or the Lord was cut with a penknife
and cast into a fire and totally destroyed. Did God leave 1t
to some copy1st to guess what it might have contained?
No~
Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah, was ordered to write
1n
a new
scroll "all the former words that were in the first roll" (verse
28). So one of the basic principles is that God
1
s inspired Word
.£!!!!.
~
perish.
Now turn to Mark
16.
Since God does not allow His
Word to perish, it is logical that there never were added
verses now lost.
end1ng.
The answer is definitely that it 1s an
INSPI~D
If these last verses of' Mark's Gospel are left out,
the book does not come to an orderly conclus1on as does every
other book
1n
the Bible. Human writings are t'1lled with error,
but the-siDle re-foolproof, comalete, inspired, and
~holly
!£eserved through
the
power of od. These verses are an
spired part of the Word of God.
LETTER ANSWERING DEPARTMENT
93~
CopJtialu
19H •
J.adio
Ch~mb
ol
God