Gospels before the Book by Matthew Larsen

Author:Matthew Larsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Many Endings of the Incomplete Gospel according to Mark

Porphyry describes a critic and poet named Zoticus engaging in the act of polishing and improving a text.41 Zoticus found a piece of writing and revised it, likely because he considered it unfinished yet full of potential. He corrected it where it was unpolished. He altered the shape of the poem. He produced The Atlanticos. It would surely be reductive of a modern critical scholar to label as forgery or adulteration what Porphyry himself regards as a sign of artistry by a skilled critic and poet. Similarly, as we saw in chapter 2, Hirtius added another book to Caesar’s unfinished commentarii about his war in Gaul because he knew the genre of commentarii/hypomnēmata invited such revision and because he thought Caesar’s notes needed a better conclusion. The different versions of Esther show how a fluid tradition can grow and evolve, both textually and ideologically.42 Irene Peirano Garrison notes persuasively how Servius often preferred the “better” or “improved” text of Virgil, emended by later editors and correctors, over the “original” unfinished one left by Virgil himself.43

The Gospel according to Matthew was not the only attempt to fill in what was lacking in the Gospel according to Mark. In fact, if we acknowledge the openness of the Gospel according to Mark, it should come as no surprise that the manuscript tradition contains a wide variety of options for how the story ends. The different endings of the Gospel according to Mark illustrate the openness of the textual tradition and offer a variety of examples to maintain vitality in the gospel tradition by expanding the text with new endings.44 Most text critics think the Gospel according to Mark “originally” ended at 16:8 with these words about the women at the tomb:45

And after they went out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and entrancement (ekstasis) had taken hold of them. They did not say anything to anyone, for they were terrified (ephobounto gar).

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