The Gospel of Mark: It’s Greek To Me

The Gospel of Mark:  It’s Greek To Me

Brett A. Todd

It may be Greek to you, but the Gospel of Mark was not originally written in English, it was written in Greek.  It was written by some person we don’t know, and whoever this person was, he never met Jesus.  Imagine trying to write a biography on a historical figure you never met.  Well, that’s what the author of the Gospel of Mark did.  Some 40 years after Jesus' death, he sat down and wrote a story about a guy he didn’t even know.

To date, the earliest existing Greek manuscript we have of Mark was written somewhere between 150 and 250 AD (or maybe even 350 AD). No, we do not have the original Gospel of Mark.  The original Gospel of  Mark is long gone.  Where was this early existing manuscript found?  It wasn’t found on the shelves of some ancient library, as some might assume, but it was found in an Egyptian garbage dump.

                  80 to 250-year span

Mark’s Gospel.................................................................................Earliest Copy of Mark

As already noted, this Greek manuscript copy of Mark is dated 150 to 350 AD, this means there is a span of 80 to 250 years between Mark's original Gospel and the earliest copy of Mark we now possess.  That’s a long span of time which potentially poses a big problem.  Let me explain:

During this time span, individuals who wanted a copy of Mark's Gospel had to make copies that were made from other copies of copies of copies.  And each time they made a copy they were copying other people’s mistakes while creating their own mistakes, leaving out and adding words to what the original Gospel of Mark said. One Evangelical scholar tells us that there are over 500,000 mistakes in the New Testament alone.  Granted, most of these mistakes don’t make a whole lot of difference when it comes to what Christians believe, but it does leave the question of what the original Gospel of Mark might have looked like and what it might have actually said?  What was added and what was taken out?

We already know that the passage in Mark 16:9-20 was added to Mark’s story.  Someone didn’t like how the Gospel of Mark ended, so they added verses 9-20.  Again, Mark didn’t write these words, someone added them.  It can also be easily argued that parts of Mark were either removed or at least left unfinished.   So again, what did the original story of the Gospel of Mark look like?  We don’t know and we may never know. 

What difference does all of this make?   Indeed, the Bible is a guide of some sort for millions of Christians around the world; however, it is not perfect.

In our next study, we will ask whether or not Jesus got angry at the leper who asked Jesus to heal him (Mark 1:41).