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Journey of a Passage

Mark 16:9–20

The ending of Mark

The two oldest complete copies of Mark end at 16:8. Most later copies continue to verse 20. Here is the evidence on both sides.

Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Copied or printed directly
  • Revised edition (documented)
  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Related (shared ancestry)
  • Modern edition based on it
  • Uncertain connection
Greek manuscripts
  1. Mark's original Gospelc. AD 65–75
  2. Codex Vaticanus4th centuryRelated witness to Codex Sinaiticus
  3. Codex Sinaiticusmid-4th centuryDescends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel
  4. Codex Washingtonianus (W)4th–5th centuryDescends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel
  5. Codex Alexandrinus5th centuryDescends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel
  6. Codex Regius (L)8th centuryDescends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel
Early writers
  1. Tatian's Diatessaronc. AD 170Uncertain relationship to Gospel copies of his day (lost)
  2. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.10.5c. AD 180Uncertain relationship to a copy of Mark he knew (lost)
  3. Eusebius and Jeromec. AD 320; c. 400
Latin
  1. Codex Bobbiensis (Old Latin)c. AD 400Translated from a Greek copy of Mark (lost)
  2. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Greek and Old Latin copies of Jerome's day
Printed Greek
  1. Erasmus' Greek New Testament1516Copied or printed directly from later Greek manuscripts in Basel
  2. Received Text (Textus Receptus)1516–1633Revised edition of Erasmus' Greek New Testament
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from Received Text (Textus Receptus)
  2. Modern Bibles (NIV, ESV, NASB)todayModern edition based on critical Greek editions that weigh all the manuscripts

Every witness, in order

  1. c. AD 65–75

    Mark's original Gospel

    – No copy survives

    The original does not survive. How Mark first ended is the question this page examines.

  2. c. AD 170

    Tatian's Diatessaron

    ❝ Quotes or alludes to part of itUncertain relationship to Gospel copies of his day (lost)

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    A harmony that wove the four Gospels into one story. The original is lost; later translations and commentaries of it include material from the longer ending, but how closely they reflect Tatian's own text is debated.

  3. c. AD 180

    Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.10.5

    ❝ Quotes or alludes to part of itUncertain relationship to a copy of Mark he knew (lost)

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Quotes one verse, Mark 16:19, saying "towards the conclusion of his Gospel, Mark says." He does not quote the whole passage, but it shows that some copies he knew had at least this verse at the end of Mark by the late 2nd century.

    Source: Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.10.5 (New Advent) ↗

  4. c. AD 320; c. 400

    Eusebius and Jerome

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts contained

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Eusebius wrote that the accurate copies of Mark ended at 16:8; Jerome later repeated this. Yet Jerome included the longer ending in his Vulgate.

  5. 4th century

    Codex Vaticanus

    ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Related witness to Codex Sinaiticus

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Ends at 16:8, but the scribe left an entire blank column after it, the only such gap in its New Testament, which some take as a sign he knew of more text.

    Page of Codex Vaticanus
    Historical manuscriptImage credit

    Pictured: a different page of the codex.

  6. mid-4th century

    Codex Sinaiticus

    ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Ends Mark at 16:8, followed by a decorative line and the title "According to Mark."

    Page of Codex Sinaiticus
    Historical manuscriptImage credit

    Pictured: a page of Matthew in the same codex.

    Source: Codex Sinaiticus online ↗

  7. c. AD 400

    Codex Bobbiensis (Old Latin)

    ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Translated from a Greek copy of Mark (lost)

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Shorter ending only: the women report briefly to Peter, and Jesus sends out through them the proclamation of eternal salvation.

    The only manuscript with the "shorter ending" alone, instead of verses 9–20.

  8. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Greek and Old Latin copies of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Includes 16:9–20. Through the Vulgate, the longer ending was read across Western Christianity for a thousand years.

  9. 4th–5th century

    Codex Washingtonianus (W)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Includes 9–20 with an extra passage after verse 14, the "Freer Logion," found in no other manuscript.

  10. 5th century

    Codex Alexandrinus

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Includes verses 9–20, as do the large majority of later Greek manuscripts.

    Page of Codex Alexandrinus
    Historical manuscriptImage credit

    Pictured: the opening of John in the same codex.

  11. 8th century

    Codex Regius (L)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Mark's original Gospel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Gives both the shorter ending and the longer ending, each introduced with a note that some copies have it.

  12. 1516

    Erasmus' Greek New Testament

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Copied or printed directly from later Greek manuscripts in Basel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    The first published Greek New Testament. Erasmus worked mainly from a few medieval Greek manuscripts available in Basel (for the Gospels, chiefly a 12th-century copy now called GA 2), not from the great early codices. Those manuscripts include 16:9–20.

    Source: Andrew J. Brown, ed., Novum Testamentum ab Erasmo recognitum, Opera Omnia of Erasmus (ASD VI-1 to VI-4, 2008–2013); Basel University Library manuscripts Erasmus used, digitized (e-manuscripta.ch) ↗

  13. 1516–1633

    Received Text (Textus Receptus)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Revised edition of Erasmus' Greek New Testament

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    The family of printed Greek editions that grew out of Erasmus' work: his later editions, Stephanus (1550), and Beza (1565–1604). The name comes from a 1633 Elzevir edition.

  14. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Received Text (Textus Receptus)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Prints 9–20 as part of Mark without comment. Its New Testament was translated from the printed Received Text editions (chiefly Beza and Stephanus), not from any single ancient manuscript.

  15. today

    Modern Bibles (NIV, ESV, NASB)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Modern edition based on critical Greek editions that weigh all the manuscripts

    How the site knows this: Checked in a published edition.

    Most still print 9–20 but set them off with brackets or a heading and a note such as: "The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20." They have not removed the passage.

    Source: NIV ↗; ESV ↗

What changed, and why

Why many scholars think Mark ended at 16:8

  • The two oldest complete copies end there.
  • Eusebius and Jerome said the best copies they knew ended there.
  • The style and vocabulary of 9–20 differ from the rest of Mark.
  • Other endings (the shorter ending, the Freer Logion) suggest scribes felt a need to supply one.

Why others defend the longer ending

  • Irenaeus quotes verse 19 as coming from the end of Mark's Gospel around AD 180, earlier than any surviving manuscript of Mark 16.
  • The vast majority of manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic include it.
  • Ending a Gospel with "for they were afraid" seems abrupt; the original ending may have been lost early and these verses preserve early tradition.
  • Vaticanus' blank column may show its scribe knew a longer text.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedCodex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus end Mark at 16:8.
  • Independently documentedIrenaeus quoted Mark 16:19 around AD 180.
  • DisputedMark originally ended at 16:8.

    Source: Metzger, Textual Commentary on the Greek NT, 2nd ed. (1994), pp. 102–107

Sources

  • Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (1994)
  • Black (ed.), Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views (2008)
  • Codex Sinaiticus online ↗

Related lessons

  • The Great Codices →Christians adopted the book form early, and in the 4th century produced the first great Bibles bound in single volumes.
  • Why Our Bibles Differ Today →Why Catholic and Protestant Bibles have different books, why modern Bibles have footnotes, and why translations read differently.