If you have an academic Bible, you might find a footnote at
the end of Mark 16:8 saying something to the effect that the earliest Greek manuscripts
of Mark’s Gospel end right here. A young man in a white robe (probably an
angel) has just told the women to go tell the disciples about their discovery
of the empty tomb, and then we read this: “So they went out and fled from the
tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to
anyone, for they were afraid” (verse 8). The women who have been such
faithful witnesses to Jesus’ death and burial, now decide it would be best not
to tell anyone about his resurrection. It’s a truly perplexing conclusion to an
already mysterious Gospel.
The conclusion is so odd that some scholars have imagined
that the original copy of Mark was mutilated somehow and that the last pages
were either lost or destroyed. And at least one scholar has proposed that Mark
died before he had the opportunity to conclude his Gospel, presumably with the
women following through and delivering the news of Jesus’ resurrection to the
disciples. Again, if you have a study Bible, you may also note that there are
two additional endings that scribes later added to Mark’s Gospel. One is simply
called “The Shorter Ending,” and the other is called “The Longer Ending” (Bible
scholars aren’t always known for their creative titles).
These additional endings, which were almost certainly not
part of the original Gospel, illustrate that some of the earliest readers of
Mark found the conclusion somewhat disappointing and decided to craft more
satisfying resolutions. But what if Mark intended to conclude his Gospel in
this way?
Earlier in this Lenten series, we encountered the Messianic
Secret motif in Mark’s Gospel. It’s that theme where people recognize Jesus,
but then he silences them so that his identity won’t be revealed. At the end of
the very first chapter of Mark’s Gospel Jesus heals a leper and then commands
that the leper tell no one about it, so that Jesus can maintain his secret
identity, but the man “went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread
the word” (1:45).
In light of the Messianic Secret motif in general and this
story about the leper in particular, there’s a wonderful irony to Mark’s
conclusion. Whereas the leper in Mark’s opening chapter wouldn’t be silenced
even when Jesus commanded him to tell no one, the women in the concluding
chapter, after they discovered the empty tomb and were ordered by an angel to share
the good news with the others, ran away in silence and told no one.
Perhaps
in some way this ironic conclusion is inviting us into the silence and
secrecy that shroud Mark's account of the resurrection. |
