{"id":244,"date":"2005-08-16T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-08-16T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T14:00:34","slug":"wacky-scripture-tmpmark-169-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/wacky-scripture-tmpmark-169-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Wacky Scripture? -tmp(Mark 16:9-20)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently someone asked me a question about verses that “sound really weird”. I could understand
\nthe concern—especially when you find yourself listening to some
\ncharismatic speaker (repeatedly) justifying his position from one verse
\nin Scripture. Sure, its bad form to do that sort of thing, but it still
\nleaves you wondering—what’s the deal with those verses in italics or
\nbetween the brackets in your Bible and do we need them?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The passage that stoked the question was {{Mark 16:17, 18}} where the
\nwriter is speaking about authenticating signs by those who have
\nbelieved that consisted of exorcising demons, speaking in tongues,
\npicking up snakes, unhurt by drinking poison, and healing the sick.
\nThese verses have been used by charismatic circles to support the use
\nof miraculous gifts as a sign of belief (although I haven’t heard of
\nmany who go and do the drinking poison bit).<\/p>\n

Mind you, people have come up with their positions from less
\n“controversial” portions of Scripture so there really is no reason to
\nsay a position is wrong simply because the evidential passage is
\ncurrently contested. I personally would argue from the general teaching
\nof Scripture before questioning single verses (as you’ve seen with my
\nposition against Calvinism and Arminianism). <\/p>\n

So, for those of you who don’t know, there is a debate regarding
\nthis portion of Scripture (and several others {{John 7:53-8:11}}, {{1 John
\n5:7}} and bits and pieces of other verses scattered here and there) if
\nthey were located in the original manuscripts. The last two hundred
\nyears or so has seen the rise of Biblical Textual Criticism that has
\nput the Scriptures under intense scrutiny to decipher authorship,
\ndating, commonality and so on. We are greatly in debt for the intense
\nwork that has been (and continues to be) done in scholarly circles in
\nregards to textual criticism. The subject and study thereof is a
\nlifetime’s work so forgive my superficial overview of what’s going on
\nwith these portions. <\/p>\n

In the case of the Mark passage, the early Church fathers never
\nreferenced these verses. It was soon discovered that they never had
\nthese verses in their studies. Scholars looked back and discovered that
\nthis longer ending appeared somewhere in the first half of the second
\ncentury. Now, this doesn’t mean it wasn’t in the original—until a
\nperson starts looking at things like the writing style, the content,
\nthe vocabulary (a bunch of the original vocabulary used here is not
\nfound anywhere else in the book of Mark), and the emphasis on signs not
\nfound in any of the other gospel accounts. Upon examining these things
\nserious doubt was cast on Mark’s authorship of this portion. Some do
\nsupport Markan authorship but many<\/a> still contest it.<\/p>\n

This being the case some Bibles put contested portions in brackets, in
\nitalics, annotate it and in other cases (1 John 5:7 ESV, NASB, MSG,
\nHCSB) merely delete it. Open up a commentary and you’ll appreciate the
\ndiscussion right away.<\/p>\n

Regarding {{Mark 16:9-20}} and authorship—does this invalidate the
\npassage as a whole? I don’t think so. Many of the things found in this
\nportion specifically are found in other accounts: Mary and the tomb ({{Mk
\n16:9-11}} and {{Lk 24:1-12}}), the appearance to the two on the road ({{Mk 16:11, 12}} and
\n{{Lk 24:13-32}}), The Appearance to the 11 ({{Mk 16:14}} and like all the Gospels ) The Great Commission ({{Mk
\n16:15, 16}} and {{Matt 28:19,20}}), the Ascension of Jesus ({{Mk 16:19}} and {{Acts 1}}) The
\nPreaching of the Gospel ({{Mk 14:20}}a and all of {{Acts 28:4-5}}). The miraculous signs have
\nall the markings of the Old Testament prophets and indeed are evidenced
\nwhen Paul is bit by a serpent and doesn’t die.<\/p>\n

Why are portions like this even in the Bible? Well, there’s a whole
\nmess of reasons. In the case of the Old Testament it’s a whole long
\ndiscussion of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of some Hebrew Old
\nTestament manuscript normally called the LXX and done over several
\nyears by different people here and there) having information that the
\nMasoretic Text (a complete Hebrew Manuscript of the Old Testament that
\nhas been shown to be pretty accurate based on findings of earlier dated
\nfragments) may or may not have and if the translators were using the
\nGreek version as a commentary (or not). Little mistakes can be
\nattributed to a sleepy copier but big portions like the Mark passage
\nand others could be some helpful Scribe trying to shed light on
\nthings—but causing a bit more trouble in the process. Sometimes, we
\njust don’t know if the portions are original or not and then there’s
\narguments about it.<\/p>\n

Should these portions be deleted from Scripture? For a while, I
\nthought yes. Now, I think it depends. If the portion is clearly not
\npart of the original manuscripts and the context is already saying the
\nsame thing then yes, delete it. But there’s other reasons passages like
\nthis should stick around.<\/p>\n

Firstly, they have played a role in history. There’s plenty of
\nscholarship work done on the passages and in movements can be
\nattributed to them. The history alone, I think, is worthwhile enough to
\nkeep the verses (in brackets or something else).<\/p>\n

Secondly, portions like this are still great to interpret in
\ncontext. A couple of things that you’ll notice that it don’t contradict
\nany major doctrine. You also get motivated to study the surrounding
\npassages to see if it flows with the progression of thought in the
\npassage. <\/p>\n

Thirdly, you get motivated to study the rest of Scripture to
\nproperly understand this portion. By studying the passages in light of
\nthe other gospels and the general teaching of Scripture you might find
\nthat it’s not so much a mandate for snake handling and poison drinking
\n(which I find immensely comforting) but it could apply to something
\nelse (perhaps authenticating the ministry of the Apostles).<\/p>\n

Lastly, in some cases we really might not know. That being the case,
\nit’s sometimes “better safe than sorry” to keep the passages and let
\nthe arguments have their say.<\/p>\n

-r-<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently someone asked me a question about verses that “sound really weird”. I could understand the concern—especially when you find yourself listening to some charismatic speaker (repeatedly) justifying his position from one verse in Scripture. Sure, its bad form to do that sort of thing, but it still leaves you wondering—what’s the deal with those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stump"],"yoast_head":"\nWacky Scripture? -tmp(Mark 16:9-20) - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/wacky-scripture-tmpmark-169-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wacky Scripture? -tmp(Mark 16:9-20) - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently someone asked me a question about verses that “sound really weird”. 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