MARK 16:9-20

We just had a discussion about this portion of scripture being omitted from the Alexandrian mss (textus corruptus). Providentially, we had Dr. Phil Stringer in today to do a mini-KJB seminar. He used this passage in the morning sermon.

He recounted how as a young bus kid, he simply believed the Bible. Then he read Scofield's note on this passage and began to have questions. Then he went to Bible college and heard some claims about the passage and began to doubt. So he studied it himself.

First he looked at the text.

Mark 16:8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.

That would be a horrible place to end a gospel - the apostles afraid because Jesus had died.

Mark 16:9 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.

Not only does the disputed passage begin with the minor doctrine of the resurrection (must be a minor doctrine since the modern versions do not affect any serious doctrines, right?) but it details many of the people who WITNESSED Jesus AFTER the resurrection (obviously another insignificant doctrine).

Then he checked the manuscript evidence. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus omitted the passage, but one of them had a blank space the size of the omission, indicating the reading was there at one point.

Then he checked the next 15 claimed oldest mss. 15 of 15 included the reading. Then he broadened his search and checked the next 300 oldest versions. 300 of 300 include the passage.

So of the 317 of the supposedly oldest mss, the passage was included in 315 of them. And based on that - they remove it from modern versions, or place footnotes doubting its authenticity.

Nah, it's removed because Satan doesn't like what it says. And his crowd and his versions remove it.