The originalsWe do not have the original copy of mark. We don’t have the book as mark wrote it. He wrote it out by hand, and we don’t have that. We don’t know who Mark was, don’t know if his name was mark, don’t know when exactly he was writing (likely around year 70). Very hard to date these booksDon’t know where Mark was writing (maybe Rome)Don’t have the original for any of the books of the new testament. Don’t have the originals from any book from the ancient workThe surviving copies (with examples)We have copies of the copies of the copies of the copies of the originals. Don’t have originals or the early copies is problematic when people copy long texts by hand, they make mistakes. So if what you have are copies made of copies of copies, people are making mistakes along the way. All of them have mistakes in them, how do you know if what you are reading is a mistake or the original?Age: the earliest copy of any of the books of the NT is like all of our old copies made of papyrus (ancient writing material) #52 (p52). Dates probably to around 125+-25 years. Little piece of the gospel John. This copy is the size of a credit card; the oldest copy we have of mark is from the year 200/225. About 100 years after Mark was originally written. From John chapter 18. Wasn’t written on a scroll, but on a book (codex) where you write on the front and the back. 2nd to 16th centuryNumbers: far more manuscripts of the NT than any other ancient book. Have something like 5,600 copies of the NT in Greek. Counting everything from little fragments to massive manuscripts.KindsP52 (don’t know where it was found)—Written on a codexP66-pretty complete pageYear 350 start getting manuscripts not on papyrus but on animal skin—parchment. Ex. Codex Vaticanus- gospel of MatthewMs.7-cursive handwriting rather than doing it in block letters.Quality: how good are these various manuscripts? Some copyists better than other copyists. They have different abilitiesSome scribes were pretty good and got almost everything correctSome scribes were really lazy and terribleFirst full copy of mark from 350 years after it was originally written. Problem b/c when people copied things they made mistakes because they were inattentive or unskilled. If you are copying something that already has mistakes, you are going to copy the mistakes and you are going to make mistakesChain reaction. Only time mistake gets fixed is if someone tries to correct a mistake, but may correct it incorrectlyHow do you know what is? Hope the scribe was being attentive **problem with the NT**Results: Reconstructing the OriginalsScholars have devised ways to this particular study to figure out what the originals were/what they were saying. Difficult because there are so many differences in the manuscripts and written in so many languages. More differences in our manuscripts than there are words in the new testament. We don’t know how many differences there are. Good news most differences are completely insignificant, immaterial and don’t matter for anything except that scribes can spell no better than college students. Some of the differences matter a lot. In some of those places, we are not sure what the original said. (in hundreds of places)Scholars try to reconstruct the originalsExamples in mark where there are differencesII. The Textual History of Marks GospelThe Origin of the textIts circulationOur surviving witnessesSome curious variationsMark 1:41- Sympathy or Anger? you have great story of Jesus and the lepper. Lepper comes up to Jesus and the Jesus says im willing to be clean and he is clean. In other manuscripts, it says Jesus is getting angry (not compassionate) and reaches out his hand and make it clean. Likely to change it from angry to compassionate (likely to change it to make better sense).Mark 15:34- Forsaken (left behind) or Mocked? Passage is filled with pathos. Jesus has been condemned to death and he is in shock b/c he is silent the entire time. Says something at the end “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me”. Just reading Mark, Jesus feels forsaken at the end and why god has forsaken him. Stands in contrast with the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus is not silent and is in complete control of the situation. Most people smash the gospels together the Jesus says 7 things in the last crucifixion you have therefore written your own gospel. In some manuscripts, he cries out “my god, my god, why have you mocked me”. Jesus feels that god is insulting/making fun of him. Which is the original meaning? Mock reading makes sense in the context (roman soldiers are mocking him, people walking by are mocking him, and at the end, he says God why have you mocked me?). what he argues in the book is that Jesus feeling forsaken on the cross makes sense in marks gospel because he cries out and he dies and the curtain in the temple is written in half. Curtain is screen that separates holy of holy’s and the rest of the people. Reader understands why he must die-so people can have access to god. Jesus doesn’t understand why. Scribe changed it to mock because everyone else is mocking him. Point-if you want to know what mark means, have to know what he says. If you don’t have the original words, how do you know what he says.That’s why you have scholars to figure this thing outLast gospel of mark: How did Marks Gospel End? Buried by Joseph in a tomb, and roll a stone in front of it. On third day, women go to the tomb, the stone is rolled away, and young man is inside. One many says to Mary Magdaline and her companion, you are looking for Jesus, he is not here-he has been risen from the dead. Mark 16:8-The women fled from the tomb and they didn’t say anything to anyone for they were afraid. **that’s where it ends. That’s the end of the book. How could it end there? Scribes that were copying the copy got to that ending and said how could it end there? b/c they knew in other traditions the disciples saw Jesus alive after the death. Scribes added 12 versus, usually put in brackets saying its not the original ending. In the 12 versus, they go tell disciples and they do see Jesus there and he says ….. sounds like a more satisfying ending. Not original ending. Oldest manuscript we have don’t have that ending, end in 16:8. Words used that never occur elsewhere in mark, looks like by different author who is using different vocab. Rough grammatical transition between versus 8-9. Two explanationsOne