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"How We Got the Bible: Transmission and Translation" with Pastor Sean Finnegan. Session 12: Two Uncorrected Corruptions (John 7:53-8:11 and Mark 16:9-20)

There are four different endings of the Gospel of Mark found in the ancient manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts end at Mark 16:8 and do not include the verses after verse 8. There are three possible explanations for Mark ending at verse 8. The author may have intentionally ended the gospel here in an open-ended “cliffhanger” fashion. The gospel may have never been finished. The last leaf of the manuscript may have been lost or damaged.

Even though most translators would deny John 7:53-8:11 a place in the canon, virtually every translation of the Bible has this text in its traditional location. There is a marginal note in modern translations that says something like, “Most ancient authorities lack these verses.” But readers often ignore such a weak and ambiguous statement. It’s ambiguous because many readers might assume that in spite of the “ancient authorities” that lack the passage, the translators felt it must be authentic or they wouldn’t have included it in the Bible. How, then, has this passage made it into modern translations? There has been a longstanding tradition of timidity among translators. One 20th century Bible translation did relegate the passage to the footnotes, but when the sales were rather lackluster, the passage was moved back to the main body of the text for subsequent printings. The NET Bible translation includes the text in its traditional place, but with reduced font size (so that it will be harder to read from the pulpit) and a lengthy footnote explaining the textual complications and doubts about its authenticity.