Believe it or not, there is actually some debate about how Mark really concluded his Gospel account. When the Bible was originally assembled (truly it is more like a library of many books than a single book on its own) Mark 16:9-20 were included. Since that time older manuscripts have arisen that do not include those verses, which is why every Bible printed today has a parenthetical note around them. These verses were probably not originally written by Mark but were later added by scribes who felt that Mark left questions unanswered. How did Mark end it? He ended with an empty tomb (i.e. a resurrection), an angel giving a message, and women on a mission to spread the news of what had happened. Should this shatter your faith? Absolutely not! The message of the Bible is still the same, the account of Jesus is still the same, and God's story of redemption is still the same. What's incredible about the Bible is that across the many copies of scripture available, there are only about 400,000 variants in the New Testament records, and over 70% of those variants are spelling errors. The Bible is the most reliable history book known to man! For more information on this, I encourage you to pick up The Case for the Real Jesus, by Lee Strobel. I'm in the midst of reading it, and it's a great book.
About Seth
Seth is a pastor, author, and speaker who lives in Batesville, Indiana. He is married to Kari, and they have two daughters, Madelyn and Noelle.
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