zaphod pog

Greetings all!

I am curious to know if anyone (especially theists) have any idea why Mark, the oldest of the Gospel texts, was completely silent on the divine conception as well as any post-resurrection appearances of Jesus? In the earliest manuscripts of Mark verses 9-20 in chpt. 16 aren't to be found. It seems a bit strange that later writers would be compelled to embellish the Marcan texts with such tales of virgin births and resurrection legends...

Kosh

For the same reason that early Batman shows didn't reveal that the Joker had killed his parents. Re-make writers invented it....

Mageth

If you remake an action/horror/sci-fi flick, you're pretty much compelled to put in some new, more amazing stunts/special effects. Look at the remake of Dawn of the Dead that opens today - the new zombies are fast. The mob always clamors for more, more, more!

And I bet if someone makes a new version of "the passion of Christ" twenty or thirty years from now, Jesus will suffer even more!

Vorkosigan

Evan Powell argued that Mark did have such a section, and that parts of it have become John 21.

Look here on this site and scroll down to the center "The Missing Ending of Mark"

Vorkosigan

Layman

I agree that our present ending of the Gospel of Mark is not original to the text. But it also seems that there was a longer ending that was lost early in the manuscript tradition. In any event, Mark clearly believes in the resurrection.

Here is my article on this subject:

http://www.geocities.com/christianca...rk_Ending.html

Steven Carr

As Mark has Jesus's family astonished that he starts behaving the way he does (after 30 years of their observing his near Christ-like behaviour) it would seem that Mark did not know of these stories of Jesus being given gifts and Mary being visited by Gabriel.

Mark also has to go out of his way to explain why nobody knew Jesus was the Messiah while he was alive, while also torn by the fact that he must show Jesus doing some amazing things.

As a result the behaviour of the disciples in Mark becomes totally bizarre, and the storyline twists and turns between Jesus doing miracles and drawing crowds, and Jesus keeping his status secret.

Vorkosigan

An interesting article, Layman, very well written. It's too bad there's no way to know. Are there citations to currently non-existing endings of Mark that you know of?

Vinnie

Literary purposes which are very consistent with the rest of Mark on a theological level.

Vinnie

Layman

You are right that we are just dealing with likelihoods, which is why I state "Confirmation of any theory is unlikely to be forthcoming. However, it seems, on balance, that an ending at verse 8 is unlikely."

Unfortunately, any references to the non-existing ending, if there was one, are very theoretical. Gundery finds evidence of it in Matthew. I have heard others claim there is evidence of it in Luke. I tend to think that, given that Luke and Matthew do not seem to be based on the same core resurrection appearance narratives, that Mark's ending was lost prior to their being written. It's been a while since I looked into it, though, so I may not be doing the arguments of Gundery and others justice.

Amaleq13

How would something like that happen?

If we assume there was originally more to Mark's story, isn't it more likely to have been intentionally deleted and replaced than "lost"?