•MARK’s LAST CHAPTER
• Many scholars believe
that MARK 16 was intended
to end at verse 8.
• Jerome believed it.
• Eusebius said it.
• Is it true?
•WHERE WAS MARK?
• EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
(AD 260-340).
• Well respected and known
throughout time as the
FATHER OF EARLY CHURCH
HISTORY.
• He wrote “HISTORY OF THE
EARLY CHURCH” (Pent-324).
•WHERE WAS MARK?
• EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
(AD 260-340).
• EUSEBIUS also authored some
fascinating commentary on
the book of Psalms and the
prophet Isaiah.
• He was very controversial
and was excommunicated.
•WHERE WAS MARK?
• EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
(AD 260-340).
• Later re-instated, he still was
rumored to have conflict with
the NICAEA creed which was
developed at the Council of
Nicaea in 325.
• He claimed Mark was in Rome
when writing.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• St. Jerome, who was
born Eusebius Sophronius
Hieronymus, was the
most learned of the
Fathers of the Western
Church.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• He was born about the
year 342 at Stridonius, a
small town at the head
of the Adriatic, near the
episcopal city of
Aquileia.
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• His father, a Christian,
instructed him well at
home then sent him to
Rome where the young
man's teachers were the
famous pagan
grammarian Donatus and
Victorinus, a rhetorician.
•Jerome on MARK
• Jerome's native tongue
was the Illyrian dialect,
but at Rome he
became fluent in Latin
and Greek.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Yet in spite of
the pagan and
hedonistic influences
around him, Jerome was
baptized by
Pope Liberius in 360.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Early life quote - “It was
my custom on Sundays
to visit, with friends of my
own age and tastes, the
tombs of the martyrs
and Apostles, going
down into those
•Jerome on MARK
subterranean galleries
whose walls on both
sides preserve
the relics of the dead.”
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• After three years at
Rome, Jerome's
intellectual curiosity led
him to explore other
parts of the world.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• He visited his home
and then, accompanied
by his boyhood friend
Bonosus, went to
Aquileia, where he
made friends among the
monks, notably Rufinus.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Then he traveled to
Treves, in Gaul. He now
renounced all secular
pursuits to dedicate
himself wholeheartedly
to God.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Eager to build up a
religious library,
he copied out St. Hilary's
books and his
commentaries on the
Psalms, other literary and
religious treasures.
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• He returned to Stridonius,
and later settled in
Aquileia. The
bishop had cleared the
church there of the
plague of Arianism and
had drawn many eminent
men.
•Jerome on MARK
• Still a man of unchecked
lust, he writes of his selfimposed punishment:
•“I many times imagined
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
myself watching
the dancing of Roman
maidens…
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
as if I had been in the
midst of them. My face
was pallid with fasting,
yet my will felt the
assaults of desire. In my
cold body and my
parched flesh,
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
which seemed dead
before its death, passion
was still able to live.
Alone with the enemy, I
threw myself in spirit at
the feet of Jesus,
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
watering them with my
tears, and tamed my flesh
by fasting whole weeks. I
am not ashamed to
disclose my temptations,
though I grieve that I am
not now what I then was."
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Jerome added to
these trials the study of
Hebrew, a discipline
which he hoped would
help him in winning a
victory over himself.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Jerome speaks of his
personal frustration:
“I turned to this
language of hissing and
broken-winded words.
What labor it cost me,
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
what difficulties I went
through, how often I
despaired and
abandoned it and
began again to learn,
both I, who felt the
burden,
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
and they who lived with
me, can bear witness. I
thank our Lord that I now
gather such sweet fruit
from the bitter sowing of
those studies.”
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• The church at Antioch
was greatly disturbed at
this time by party and
doctrinal disputes and
called on Jerome, the
most learned of them, to
give his opinions.
•Jerome on MARK
• He wrote for guidance
to Pope Damasus at
Rome. Failing to receive
an answer, he wrote
again…
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• "On one side, the Arian
fury rages, supported by
the secular power; on the
other side, the Church (at
Antioch) is being divided
into three parts, and each
would draw me to itself.”
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• About 380, Jerome
went to
Constantinople to study
the Scriptures under the
Greek, Gregory of
Nazianzus, then
bishop of that city.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Two years later he went
back to Rome with
Paulinus of Antioch to
attend a council which
Pope Damasus was
holding to deal with
the Antioch schism.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• Appointed secretary of
the council, Jerome
acquitted himself so well
that, when it was over,
Damasus kept him there
as his own secretary.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• At the Pope's
request he prepared a
revised text, based on
the Greek, of the Latin
New Testament, the
current version of which
had been disfigured.
•Jerome on MARK
• “Wrong copying,
clumsy correction, and
careless interpolations.”
• He also revised the
Latin psalter.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• Christianity has spread
primarily through Greek.
• Syrian and Latin were
the main languages of
the world in 4th - 5th
centuries.
•384, Jerome completed
the Gospels.
•Jerome on MARK
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
• In 404, Jerome had
completed his Latin
Vulgate Bible.
• Vulgate was a “Dynamic
Equivalence” translation
NOT a word-for-word or
“Formal Equivocal”.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
• With all his study
Jerome did not feel that
MARK continued past
verse 8 of the 16th
chapter.
•This based upon earlier
translations.
St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
•Jerome on MARK
•That arguments over
the last verses of Mark’s
gospel were stern and
steep does not discredit
it but actually lends
creed to its importance.
MARK 16:1-8
Now when the Sabbath was
past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the
mother of James, and Salome
bought spices, that they might
come and anoint Him.
MARK 16:1-8
2 Very early in the morning, on
the first day of the week, they
came to the tomb when the sun
had risen. 3 And they said among
themselves,
MARK 16:1-8
“Who will roll away the stone
from the door of the tomb for
us?” 4 But when they looked up,
they saw that the stone had
been rolled away—for it was
very large.
MARK 16:1-8
5 And entering the tomb, they
saw a young man clothed in a
long white robe sitting on the
right side; and they were
alarmed.
MARK 16:1-8
6 But he said to them, “Do not be
alarmed. You seek Jesus of
Nazareth, who was crucified. He
is risen! He is not here. See the
place where they laid Him.
MARK 16:1-8
7 But go, tell His disciples—and
Peter—that He is going before
you into Galilee; there you will
see Him, as He said to you.”
8 So they went out quickly
MARK 16:1-8
and fled from the tomb, for they
trembled and were amazed.
And they said nothing to
anyone, for they were afraid.
• There is no bad theology
missing or introduced up to
this point.
• It is comparable to the
gospel of Matthew and
LUKE in theology.
MARK 16:9-10
Now when He rose early on the
first day of the week, He
appeared first to Mary
Magdalene, out of whom He
had cast seven demons.
MARK 16:9-10
10 She went and told those who
had been with Him, as they
mourned and wept. 11 And when
they heard that He was alive and
had been seen by her, they did
not believe.
• This passage adds some
important detail to the
PURPOSES of Jesus’
ministry.
• Jesus restored the voice
credibility of women to
testify of HIM.
MARK 16:12-13
After that, He appeared in
another form to two of them as
they walked and went into the
country.13 And they went and
told it to the rest, but they did not
believe them either.
• Jesus restores the witness
power of the OUTSIDERS
who were not always with
Him or as close to Him.
• This is about the ministry
of the HOLY SPIRIT among
the CHURCH.
MARK 16:14-18
Later He appeared to the eleven
as they sat at the table; and He
rebuked their unbelief and
hardness of heart, because they
did not believe those who had
MARK 16:14-18
seen Him after He had
risen. 15 And He said to
them, “Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every
creature.
MARK 16:14-18
16 He who believes and is
baptized will be saved; but he
who does not believe will be
condemned. 17 And these signs
will follow those who believe:
MARK 16:14-18
In My name they will cast out
demons; they will speak with
new tongues;18 they will take up
serpents; and if they drink
anything deadly,
MARK 16:14-18
it will by no means hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick,
and they will recover.”
• Jesus was still disciplining
HIS DISCIPLES after the
resurrection, and giving
them the HOLY SPIRIT plan
for the CHURCH and their
future assignments.
MARK 16:19-20
So then, after the Lord had
spoken to them, He was
received up into heaven, and
sat down at the right hand of
God.
MARK 16:19-20
20 And they went out and
preached everywhere, the Lord
working with them and
confirming the word through the
accompanying signs. Amen.
• It may be that MARK did
not author these last 9-20
verses. But I believe they
are still scripture because
they are consistent with all
the teaching of the Bible.
• The body of scripture
WORKS TOGETHER.