This evening, while thumbing through my copy of a modern bible I came across the following in the book of Mark chapter 16;

Verses 9 - 20 are not included in two of the best and oldest Greek copies of Mark.

Basically, this means that scholarly opinion is that verses 9 - 20 were interpolated (made up) much later by copy-ists or scribes. It is very likely that early believers questioned the sudden and abrupt ending of the pre-interpolated version and decided to fix it by added their own stuff.

Now, should we consider verses 9 - 20 as inspired?


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Some of my other threads


The Dangers Of Religious Fundamentalism To Intellectualism
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=110955.msg1929006#msg1929006

How Is Salvation Achieved?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-112833.0.html

Only For Those Who Know Their Bibles And Some History: Who Was Jesus?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112697.msg1954632#msg1954632

Only For Those Who Know Their Bibles: Old Testament Stories
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112679.msg1954426#msg1954426

Human Sacrifice In The Bible: Lev 27: 29 & Judges 11
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112584.msg1953340#msg1953340

Please, Please, Please: Christians - Read Read Read Your Bibles
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112578.msg1953311#msg1953311

When Was Jesus Crucified?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112557.msg1952665#msg1952665

On Conversion To A Religion (christianity Or I-slam)
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112547.msg1952353#msg1952353

Faith-healers And Tele-evangelists
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112398.msg1950528#msg1950528

Where Did Sin Originate?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112377.msg1950291#msg1950291

For The Non-beleivers Only, 1
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112262.msg1948957#msg1948957

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https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112259.msg1948919#msg1948919

On The Authenticity Of The New Testament, Part 1
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112240.msg1948631#msg1948631

Has Atheism Got Principle? No
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112216.msg1948180#msg1948180

It Is Biblical To Have Sex (and Lots Of It) Before Marriage
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112139.msg1946940#msg1946940

Should The Old Testament Laws Be Observed In The Modern Era?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112114.msg1946682#msg1946682

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https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=112086.msg1946268#msg1946268

Great Books About Non-belief
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=111928.msg1943935#msg1943935

Who Are The Self-declared Non-believer? Resources For You
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therationa:

This evening, while thumbing through my copy of a modern bible I came across the following in the book of Mark chapter 16;

Verses 9 - 20 are not included in two of the best and oldest Greek copies of Mark.

Basically, this means that scholarly opinion is that verses 9 - 20 were interpolated (made up) much later by copy-ists or scribes. It is very likely that early believers questioned the sudden and abrupt ending of the pre-interpolated version and decided to fix it by added their own stuff.

Now, should we consider verses 9 - 20 as inspired?

You claimed that you made your discovery of the missing verses of Mark "while thumbing through my copy of a modern bible" . . .
That indicates that you have read and clearly remember almost all verses in the two of the best and oldest Greek copies of Mark for you to have realised they were missing from your copy of a modern bible which is basically impossible.

this points to one thing - you are basically copying these "questions" from other sources while dressing them as your own.

Now back to your questions . . . several of the manuscripts that make of the bible were written on parchments many of whom were already partially destroyed before they were found. HOWEVER . . . the early writers were smart enough to have left several copies of their books so that in case one was destroyed there was always one to fall back on. For example . . . 18 copies of the book of Isaiah alone was found among the dead sea scrolls found in the cave of Qumran.

Suppose a scholar just took one of those scrolls ignoring the other 17, any missing portion of that scroll automatically gets labelled as never having existed by hypocrites like you. If another scholar reconstructed the missing parts from the other 17 copies . . . would u assume that those missing parts were fixed by the early christians?

4Him:

you essentially have revealed yourself to be a professional liar.
You claimed that you made your discovery of the missing verses of Mark "while thumbing through my copy of a modern bible" . . .
That indicates that you have read and clearly remember almost all verses in the two of the best and oldest Greek copies of Mark for you to have realised they were missing from your copy of a modern bible which is basically impossible.

this points to one thing - you are basically copying these "questions" from other sources while dressing them as your own.

Now back to your questions . . . several of the manuscripts that make of the bible were written on parchments many of whom were already partially destroyed before they were found. HOWEVER . . . the early writers were smart enough to have left several copies of their books so that in case one was destroyed there was always one to fall back on. For example . . . 18 copies of the book of Isaiah alone was found among the dead sea scrolls found in the cave of Qumran.

Suppose a scholar just took one of those scrolls ignoring the other 17, any missing portion of that scroll automatically gets labelled as never having existed by hypocrites like you. If another scholar reconstructed the missing parts from the other 17 copies . . . would u assume that those missing parts were fixed by the early christians?

What do you mean I am a liar? I copied those words from the bible on the desk right now, although I had known about them being classed as interpolation for about a year. (Robert Ingersoll discussed this in one of his speeches in the 19 century but was not confirmed until the 20 century with the discovery of older manuscipts).

I personally did not do the comparisons, nor would I have been able to as I am not a Greek scholar. So I cannot have been lying as I copied those words verbatim from my bible. Can you prove that I did not get them from my bible?

BTW, it matters little whether I got it from the internet. If I got it from a website, I would have put the link there. I was simply writing from memory and from what caught my eye this evening in the book of Mark. The fact still stands that these verses are known by the majority of NT scholars to be interpolations. I did not claim to be the discoverer of this fact. So you accusations on my character are groundless.

With eyes so blind
How did I see a single thing?
I missed the scenery
Change in front of me

And as for these hands
Well they've got a lot to answer for
They built me a house of sand
On someone else's land

Deep down I knew I was lost
But I kept my fingers crossed
As if that would somehow rescue me

How did I sleep?
How did I sleep?
How did I sleep without You?
Without You

Tired all the time
But there is no rest for the wicked
Under the covers I pretended not to cry

And there You were:
Magnified by the tears
Reaching Your hands to me
Waiting patiently

I never dared to dream
Of the morning my eyes have seen
Awake for the first time: rise and shine

Gamine:

With eyes so blind
How did I see a single thing?
I missed the scenery
Change in front of me

And as for these hands
Well they've got a lot to answer for
They built me a house of sand
On someone else's land

Deep down I knew I was lost
But I kept my fingers crossed
As if that would somehow rescue me

How did I sleep?
How did I sleep?
How did I sleep without You?
Without You

Tired all the time
But there is no rest for the wicked
Under the covers I pretended not to cry

And there You were:
Magnified by the tears
Reaching Your hands to me
Waiting patiently

I never dared to dream
Of the morning my eyes have seen
Awake for the first time: rise and shine

This girl,na so so love love
like your poem.

4HIM,

You have not retracted your accusation of liar. I think this is unacceptable behaviour. Why did you call me a liar?

I have extracted it and hereby tender unreserved appologies.

Can we pls move on to the meat of this topic pls?

4Him:

I have extracted it and hereby tender unreserved appologies.

Can we please move on to the meat of this topic please?

4HIM, many thanks and apologies graciously accepted.


As to the meat of the topic, what I was trying to convey was that we should not really take every single word in the Book at face value. Some of these text have a lot of problems with them, which are not widely known by the general public.

Now, you may dispute that, but you will have to go dispute that with the scholar who work with these material daily. Right here on my desk, I have copy a copy of one of such persons and I read about this all the time. In fact my local library (Manchester University) contains the earliest known version of the manuscript of John (I think it is called P52) and I use to go past it when I used to attend the library regularly. So I have been interested in this kind of stuff for some time.

4HIM

In fact, I have just googled P52 and found it as belonging to my local library (John Ryland University of Manchester University)

@Nwando:

This girl,na so so love love
like your poem.

But gamine is offtrack.

Just like John macCain is offtrack; And I am not
a dem. lol. I want my boy barack to squash every
one of them; her in the primary and him, in the
general.

olabs,do you do valentine?
which one gets the night?
senior of junior Iyawo?

therationa:

4HIM, many thanks and apologies graciously accepted.


As to the meat of the topic, what I was trying to convey was that we should not really take every single word in the Book at face value. Some of these text have a lot of problems with them, which are not widely known by the general public.

spare me therationa, all these over the position of a comma?
The early bible writers where not linguistic neither did they have the luxury of microsoft word with its spell check facility. Pls mistakes are bound to occur.
It is incredible how low pple can get to discredit the bible.

You've had 29 threads to do that and u have failed miserably to anyone that we shld take all these "errors" seriously.

4Him:

spare me therationa, all these over the position of a comma?
The early bible writers where not linguistic neither did they have the luxury of microsoft word with its spell check facility. Please mistakes are bound to occur.
It is incredible how low people can get to discredit the bible.

You've had 29 threads to do that and u have failed miserably to anyone that we shld take all these "errors" seriously.

4HIM,

You do not understand the meaning of the word [b]comma [/b]as used in my other thread in Johannine Comma. It does not mean a punctuation sign check the meaning out yourself.

SOMEBODY TOLD YOU that MARK 16:9-20 were not originally in The Bible, AND YOU BELIEVED THEM?