Philip Jenkins on Mark’s Original Ending

Philip Jenkins on Mark’s Original Ending May 6, 2014

Ben Witherington shared a comment by Philip Jenkins, making an argument similar to what B. H. Streeter made 90 years ago, and which I myself have made before, concerning the likelihood that the original ending of Mark has become lost, and that traces of it can be found in John 21 and the Gospel of Peter. (See in particular my Bible and Interpretation article on the topic, as well as the blog posts linked to above.)

That seems more likely to me than Witherington’s own suggestion that the original ending of Mark is preserved in Matthew. Matthew’s introduction of Jesus into the story in Jerusalem, right after the women have been told to deliver a message that he is going to Galilee, is awkward and more likely to be a departure from what Mark contained.


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