Mark 16:9-20

Ending of Mark 16:9–20

99.8% (1,653) of Greek manuscripts include vv. 9–20. They include majuscule and minuscule manuscripts such as Codex Alexandrinus (5th c.), C, D (damaged, the text up to 16:15a survives), G, K, M, S, W, Y, Δ, Ρ, Σ, 33, 35, 157, 700, etc. Over 1,000 Greek lectionaries—manuscripts in which the text is arranged in segments assigned to days of the ecclesiastical calendar—also include Mark 16:9–20.

Evidence from the church fathers in favor of Mark 16:9–20 is even earlier than the oldest manuscript evidence. Irenaeus wrote book three of Against Heresies when Eleutherius was bishop of Rome (174–189)—at least a century before Vaticanus was produced. Irenaeus wrote, “Also, towards the conclusion of his Gospel, Mark says, ‘So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God” (3.10.5). Irenaeus’s copy of Mark obviously included Mark 16:9–20, since he is quoting here from Mark 16:19.

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tatian—all attest that 16:9–20 was part of Mark’s Gospel. The Diatessaron’s inclusion of these verses is further shown by Codex Fuldensis (546) in Latin and by the use of Mark 16:15 in the commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron by Ephrem Syrus (c. 360).

Another text, known as the Epistula Apostolorum (before 150), provides a fourth witness. Having been published in 1895, it was unknown to Hort.

In the 3rd and 4th centuries::

Hippolytus (235)

Vincentius of Thibaris (256)

De Rebaptismate (258)

Pagan Hierocles (305) used 16:18 in a jibe issued at believers

Syriac writer Aphrahat (337)

Acts of Pilate

Latin commentator Fortunatianus (350)

Epiphanius (375

Ambrose (385)

Apostolic Constitutions (380)

Palladius (late 300s)

Augustine (430)

Greek copies mentioned by Augustine

Old Latin chapter summaries (3rd–5th c.)

Freer Logion, an interpolation placed between 16:14 and 16:15 (found only in Codex Washingtonianus, but also mentioned by Jerome).

Metzger assigned the Freer Logion to the second or third century.

5th century: Macarius Magnes (410)

Pelagius, Philostorgius (425)

Marius Mercator (430)

Marcus Eremita (435)

Armenian translator Eznik of Golb (440)

Prosper of Aquitaine (450)

Nestorius, as cited by Cyril of Alexandria (440)

Peter Chrysologus (440)

Leo the Great; and Saint Patrick (ca. 450).

Syriac Peshitta

Curetonian Syriac (fragmented; it has 16:17–20),

Vulgate, which Jerome stated he prepared by consulting ancient Greek copies (in 383).

The Gothic version (mid-4th c.),

Codex Argenteus (from the 6th c.), also includes Mark 16:9–20 (including verses 12–20, thanks to Franz Haffner’s discovery of its final page in 1970 in Speyer, Germany).

THE SYRIAC

Peshitto 2nd century, Curetonian Syriac 3 century. Both are older than any Greek MS. in existence, and both contain these twelve verses.

Philoxenian 5th Century

Jerusalem 5th Century

JEROME (A.D. 382), who had access to Greek MSS. older than any now extant, includes these twelve verses; but this Version (known as the Vulgate) was only a revision of the 2nd century VETUS ITALA, contains these verses.

THE GOTHIC VERSION A.D. 350

THE EGYPTIAN VERSIONS: Memphitic (or Lower Egyptian, less properly called "COPTIC"), 4th or 5th Century

THEBAIC (or Upper Egyptian, less properly called the "SAHIDIC") 3rd

THE ARMENIAN 5th

ETHIOPIC 4th

GEORGIAN 6th

THE FATHERS. Whatever may be their value as to doctrine and interpretation yet, in determining actual word or their form, or sequence their evidence, even by an allusion, as to whether a verse or verses existed or not in their day, is more valuable than even manuscripts or Versions. There are nearly a hundred ecclesiastical writers older than the oldest of our Greek codices; while between A.D. 300 and A.D. 600 there are about two hundred more, and they all refer to these twelve verses.

PAPIAS (about A.D. 100) refers to v. 18 (as stated by Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. iii. 39).

JUSTIN MARTYR (A.D. 151)

IRENAEUS (A.D. 180)

HIPPOLYTUS (A.D. 190-227)

VINCENTIUS (A.D. 256)

The ACTA PILATI (cent. 2) quotes vv. 15, 16, 17, 18 (Tischendorf's ed., 1852, pp. 243, 351).

The APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS (cent. 3 or 4) quotes vv. 16, 17, 18.

EUSEBIUS (A.D. 325)

APHRAARTES (A.D. 337), a Syrian bishop, quoted vv. 16-18 in his first Homily (Dr. Wright's ed., 1869, i. p. 21).

AMBROSE (A.D. 374-97), Archbishop of Milan, freely quotes vv. 15 (four times), 16, 17, 18 (three times), and v. 20.

CHRYSOSTOM (A.D. 400) states 19, 20 are "the end of the Gospel".

JEROME (b. 331, d. 420)

AUGUSTINE (fl. A.D. 395-430)

NESTORIUS (cent. 5) quotes v. 20

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA (A.D. 430)

VICTOR OF ANTIOCH (A.D. 425)

Only manuscripts missing Mark 16:9-20 is Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, and the twelfth-century GA 304.

Special thanks to James Snapp JR. and Will Kinney for their research and scholarship.