Závěr Markova evangelia

There is no doubt among scholars that our bestpreserved ending of the Gospel of Mark is 16:8. During the second half of the 20th century the predominant view was that Mark 16:8 is the evangelist’s intended ending and various proposals were made to explain how Mark 16:8 functions as an appropriate ending of the Gospel. The present paper aims to call into question this majority opinion and to demonstrate that 16:8 is not the evangelist’s intended ending. Several arguments support this view. First of all, Mark, by means of the two prophetic announcements about Jesus meeting the disciples in Galilee in Mark 14:28 and 16:7, creates an expectation that he will report on this meeting. Secondly, it is scarcely conceivable that Mark would conclude his gospel without giving an account of the appearance of the risen Jesus, which was an integral part of the early Christian preaching. Finally, the fact of the various endings of the Gospel of Mark in the manuscript tradition and the empty space after this verse (the rest of the second column and the whole third column being left blank) in Codex Vaticanus may indicate that the scribe had questions as to exactly how Mark ended and that he considered the Gospel of Mark to be incomplete.