Mark 16:9–20: The Longer Ending

Complete textual-variant dossier

Adverse canonical and preservation entailment established

Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.

1Passage and issue

Passage

Mark 16:9–20

Issue

The Textus Receptus receives Mark 16:9–20 as the Gospel’s canonical conclusion. NA28 and UBS6 / intended NA29 keep the words visible in double brackets while judging the passage secondary rather than part of Mark’s original inspired text.

Variant class

Larger passage / omission / alternate endings

2Textus Receptus

Greek reading

Textus Receptus reading to be source-verified.

Authorized Version

Authorized Version reading to be source-verified.

Edition note

The received Greek passage is represented by the Authorized Version as Mark’s canonical conclusion. The AV is the faithful derivative rendering used by the project, not the source of the Greek reading.

Historical annotation witness

Erasmus’s Annotationes

Erasmus’s printed Greek text, his Latin annotation, and the Research Center’s evaluation are distinct evidence. Each edition remains separately identified because Erasmus revised the Annotationes across his five editions.

Not yet assessed. No inference about Erasmus’s silence has been made. A Latin annotation and translation will appear here only after an edition and exact locus have been verified.

The Erasmus annotation audit has not yet been completed for this locus. Do not infer from this status that Erasmus was silent.

Westminster and Dutch annotation witnesses

Westminster Annotations

Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.

Dutch Annotations

Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.

3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale

NA28 baseline reading

NA28 prints Mark 16:9–20 within double square brackets, signaling the editors’ judgment that the passage is a very early secondary addition rather than part of Mark’s original text.

Translation or explanation

The critical edition retains the passage for its antiquity and textual importance but marks the whole unit as text whose originality is rejected.

Metzger’s report of the UBS committee

Metzger distinguishes four endings and reports the committee’s judgment that the earliest ascertainable form ended at 16:8. The committee emphasizes omission in Vaticanus and Sinaiticus and several versional witnesses, the awkward transition after verse 8, and vocabulary/style judged non-Markan. It nevertheless printed verses 9–20 in double brackets because the longer ending is ancient, widespread, and important in the textual tradition, with early patristic support including Irenaeus and the Diatessaron.

Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., printed pp. 122–126.

ECM / CBGM evidence and editors

The ECM Mark and digital ECM provide the current apparatus and coherence evidence for variation units in Mark. CBGM calculations inform genealogical relationships; human editors define local stemmata and decide the printed text. The passage-level secondary judgment is an editorial conclusion, not an output generated autonomously by software.

4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision

UBS6 / intended NA29 continues to treat Mark 16:9–20 as a double-bracketed secondary unit. Two internal main-text revisions move toward the TR, but neither revision changes the edition’s adverse judgment about the canonical status of the whole ending.

Unit	NA28 baseline	Published UBS6 / intended NA29 main text	Source and verification
NA29-084	[δέ]	om.	M1 M1 p.1 — Workbook-transcribed; printed NA29 collation pending. TR comparison: The UBS6/intended-NA29 form agrees with the TR at this unit.
NA29-085	κύριος Ἰησοῦς	κύριος	M1 M1 p.1 — Workbook-transcribed; printed NA29 collation pending. TR comparison: The UBS6/intended-NA29 form agrees with the TR at this unit.

Two distinct comparison layers

Local wording

Not applicable to this card

Canonical status

Disagrees with the received text

Why the distinction matters

NA28 and UBS6 / intended NA29 retain Mark 16:9–20 for historical and textual reference while enclosing the unit in double brackets and judging it secondary rather than part of Mark’s original text. Physical visibility therefore does not equal canonical inclusion.

UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.

5Doctrinal and four-point analysis

Effect class

Cumulative doctrinal effect

Exact proposition affected

The risen Christ appeared to witnesses, commissioned gospel preaching, promised accompanying signs, ascended to God’s right hand, and confirmed the apostolic word.

Doctrinal analysis

Reassigning Mark 16:9–20 to a secondary writer removes Mark’s narrated resurrection appearances, worldwide commission, baptism-and-belief statement, promised signs, ascension, and summary of apostolic confirmation. Those doctrines are taught elsewhere, so the critical judgment does not formally deny them; it removes a substantial inspired witness and changes the canonical shape of the Gospel.

Documented historical doctrinal use

Whitaker’s canon discussion and the passage’s long lectionary, patristic, translation, and preaching history document public ecclesiastical reception. The treatment of Mark 16:9–20 therefore affects not merely twelve propositions but the church’s historical recognition of a complete canonical ending.

Controlled source-list matches

Doctrinal significance and Westminster use

This passage is listed in one or both controlling research files. Their claims are reported with exact source identity and confessional use; list membership does not by itself establish the original reading or the Research Center’s final entailment.

Doctrinally significant variant listMark 16.9 – 20

Doctrinally Significant Variants Itemised

Anonymous compilation — supplied source file pp. 14–15

Doctrine or doctrinal consequence identified by the source

The fact that there is no patristic support for the shorter ending of Mark as found in Sinaiticus and Vaticanus tends to prove that the shorter ending of Mark 16 is a contrived one invented by arbitrary Alexandrian scribes. On the other hand, the abundance of patristic citations of verses from the Longer Ending of Mark as universally found in the continuous manuscripts of the Byzantine Text abundantly attest to the its being the authentic passage that was passed down from the autographs, and which was known by the early preachers of the Church.

Source-reported readings and witness argument

Received reading reported

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 10 And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. 12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. 14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mar 16:9-20 Authorised Version)

Critical reading reported

[omit] [COMMENT: The Critical Text supplies a different and drastically shorter ending in vs 8, and omits vss 9 – 20. SECOND COMMENT: Interestingly, Tischendorf in the text of his Eighth Edition accepted the longer ending as authentic, even though he favoured the Egyptian Text generally. He recognised that the shorter ending of Mark cannot be correct. THIRD COMMENT: BibleWorks, in its verse comparison module, counts the Byzantine Text and the Critical Text as being in agreement in Mark 16.9-20 with respect to its percentages of agreement between the two texts, because if fails to account for doubly-bracketed passages (and thus, none of the words in the Byzantine Text are highlighted to show that those words do not appear in the Alexandrian Text. This in turn reinforces the fact that Dr White's figure of 95% agreement between the Byzantine and Alexandrian texts, using BibleWorks to calculate this figure, cannot be correct.]

Manuscript and patristic support reported by the source

The omission of Mark 16.9-24 is supported by Codices Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and their allies, but it is also generally not included in the Byzantine lectionaries as well (though this omission on the part of the Byzantine lectionaries is likely a tradition relating to the church calendar, and thus is no comment on whether the verses are authentic or not). The inclusion of the verses is supported by all the Byzantine continuous manuscripts dating back to the 5th century (Codex Alexandrinus). Chrysostom plainly refers to vs 9 as does also Tertullian (3rd century), as does Tatian in his Diatessaron (2nd century) as well. Fathers who cite vs 19 include: Tatian (2nd century) and Irenaeus: indeed, Irenaeus specifically tells us he is quoting the last chapter of Mark, and then cites the words of vs 19 verbatim). Tatian cites vs 20 verbatim, and the verse is likely also alluded to by Justin Martyr. Also vs 18, which predicts specific miracles which would be done at the hands of the apostles is found in the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, a work of the fourth century. Conversely, there is no patristic support for the shorter ending of Mark.

Editorial qualification: The compilation’s doctrinal inferences and witness claims are reported as its argument, not silently adopted as verified fact. Exact entailment is retained: weakening an explicit statement is not automatically a formal denial of the doctrine.

Westminster proof-text listMark 16:9-20

A List of Omissions and Changes Found in the Critical Text to Verses Used as Proof Texts in the Westminster Standards

Seth Stark — supplied source file pp. 39–41