To Affirm Inspiration and Authority of Mark 16:9–20

WHEREAS, The Holy Scriptures of the prophets (Old Testament) and apostles(New Testament) are the foundation of Christ’s Church on earth, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20); and

WHEREAS, The Scriptures, along with the Lutheran Confessions, which are normed by the Holy Scriptures, are the unalterable rule and norm of all doctrine and practice for and in all her congregations, and by which all roster ed ministers are pledged before God to conduct their office; and

WHEREAS, Scripture is never a matter of private opinion or interpretation but is given by the Holy Spirit through holy men whom that same Spirit moved, inspired (2 Peter 1:20–21; 2 Tim. 3:16–17), and gave their very words; and

WHEREAS, The Gospel according to St. Mark is a universally accepted Gospel in the New Testament canon of Scriptures and was never included among the so-called antilegomena, that is, those books the inclusion of which some church leaders spoke against when the canon was accepted by the Christian church; and

WHEREAS, Two ancient Greek texts of the Holy Scriptures, rediscovered in the 19th century and originating from the fourth century (namely, Codex Sinaitic us and Codex Vaticanus), contain texts of the Gospel of Mark with unusual truncations (that is, visually abnormal endings when compared to the appearance of other endings of books in the same codex), excluding the last 12 verses, Mark 16:9–20, as they appear in our Bibles; and

WHEREAS, This truncation is unheard of before the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea (A.D. 339) in the fourth century (and later those of Jerome [A.D. 420], apparently quoting him) and his comment about texts that exclude this section does not preclude his own acknowledgment of that text as authoritative, nor Jerome’s omitting it in his Latin translation of the Bible, and since 19th- century scholarship that began to be critical of the inclusion of these 12 verses as well as Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch has been well countered by the arguments of scholarship supporting the church’s and Bible’s claims of its own origins by such scholars as John Burgan (A.D. 1813–88) and expressed carefully and exhaustively by modern scholars such as Nicholas Lunn (see Nicholas P. Lunn, The Original Ending of Mark: A New Case for the Authenticity of Mark 16:9–20 [Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014]); and

WHEREAS, Churchmen, such as Eusebius and Jerome, being aware of these texts and their omission in some manuscripts, and living much closer to the historical context of their appearance, yet neither speaking against their inclusion, nor themselves excluding these texts as authoritative from their own use and quotation, were in a much better position to evaluate their authenticity than the musings of modern scholars of Scriptures, let alone un believing scholars who have a record of attacking the veracity of the sacred text; and

WHEREAS, Exclusion of the last 12 verses of Mark by textual critics renders this Gospel incomplete and prone to erroneous interpretation as compared to the other Gospels, because the resurrection would be thus promised by the Lord (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34) without witness of its fulfillment, because Christ’s personal promise of the Holy Spirit and commissioning His disciples to preach to the world would be missing, and because lacking both a birth and a resurrection narrative Mark’s Gospel would invite a Gnostic interpretation; and

WHEREAS, Mark 16:16 is the authoritative statement in Scripture on Baptism,chosen by Luther to teach about the efficacy of Baptism in his Large and Small Catechisms, and is a cornerstone of the doctrine of Baptism that is memorized and used to affirm baptismal regeneration in all our congregations; and

WHEREAS, Footnotes flagging words and sections of modern Bibles as missing in ancient versions serve no purpose for laymen, except to undermine their confidence in God’s preserving the text of His Word, but only invite them to believe the Bible is flawed and inaccurate; and

WHEREAS, Our Synod was warned in the events of the Seminex walkout in 1974 that reason is not to be used to silence or to replace the Word of God by its judgments (magisterial use of reason), but is to be used to draw out from Scriptures what God is saying in it (ministerial use of reason); and

WHEREAS, The Synod affirmed that all Scriptures are inspired by God and not subject to private interpretation (LCMS CTCR, The Inspiration of Scripture [March 1975]), but to the interpretation the Holy Spirit gives in scriptural context, by which the Holy Spirit gives faith and salvation when and where He will; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod affirm in convention that all of the Gospel according to St. Mark (including Mark 16:9–20), as it appears in over 95 percent of the Scriptures and biblical versions witnessed in all the history of the church, is not to be demoted to the status of anti lego men on but affirmed as inspired and authoritative; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod exhort Concordia Publishing House to include in this section of their published Bibles and commentaries: “Though afewancient texts omit these verses, they are well attested in the vast majority of ancient New Testament texts and to the present day”; and be it finally

Resolved, That the Synod exhort our seminaries thoroughly to train future pastors in the arguments employed to support inclusion or exclusion of Mark 16:9–20 in the sacred text and to further remind them both of Christ’s promise that Scripture would not be broken (John 10:35) and that His Word would never pass away (Matt. 24:35) as well as the scriptural admonitions and curses against adding or subtracting from God’s Word (Deut. 12:32; Rev. 22:18–19).