The Appendices to the Gospel according to Mark. 371 



Considering that the true relation of these Syriac texts is indicated 

 by the order Ss, T, Sc, Sp, we conclude : 



1. The Old Syriac as represented by Ss is to be dated as early 

 as the middle of the second century. It must have been made from 

 a form of text which concluded Mark at 16 : 8, since the lack of the 

 twelve concluding verses "can orly be a Greek variant and must 

 therefore represent the original form of the Old Syriac," (Burkitt 

 in the Guardian, Oct. 31, 1894). Burkitt would date Ss about the 

 beginning of the third century. Whichever date be adopted Ss 

 furnishes us with a witness which confirms the testimony of N and 

 B that an early form of Mark concluded the Gospel with the eighth 

 verse. 



2. Our present evidence implies that the Longer Conclusion was 

 introduced into the Syriac versions through Tatian, who found these 

 twelve verses in the Greek MSS used at Rome in 172 A.D., and there 

 fore included them in his Diatessaron. 



3. The Old Syriac soon became affected by the popular Diatessaron. 

 Both consciously and unconsciously the scribes who copied the former 

 would be influenced by the versions publicly read in the churches. 

 In a later revision of the Old Syriac it was brought into closer con- 

 formity with the current Greek text, and also probably to the Dia- 

 tessaron, and the Longer Conclusion was added, as is shown by Sc. 

 Probably this occurred about the beginning of the third century, 

 though it may not have been accomplished until the middle of that 

 century. Sc is therefore a witness to the Greek text as read at 

 Antioch about 200 A.D. 



While it is conceivable, as has been suggested, that in Sc or its 

 archetype the Shorter preceded the Longer Conclusion, as in L and 

 the uncials of the double conclusion, this does not seem probable. 



4. The Peshitto, a revision of the Old Syriac made by Rabbula 

 in 411 A.D. to conform it to the current Greek text preserves for us 

 the text of Antioch about 400 A.D. It testifies that prior to the 

 fifth century the Longer Conclusion had become an accepted part 

 of the Gospels in the Syriac Testament, as well as in the Greek MSS 

 known in this region, for G. H. Gwilliam, who collated over forty MSS 

 for his edition of the text of the Gospels in the Peshitto declares : 



"Inter vv. 8, 9, interpungimus c. codd, mult.; in manu prima 

 exarati, statim sequuntur, aeque et in omnibus, quibus postremum 



5. Mar, folium non deest ; nee in eis unquam invenimus signum in 

 textu, nee notam in margine, nee scholion subscriptum, quae 

 posteriorem cap. xvi partim in suspicionem vocent." 



(Tetraevangelium Sanctum, Oxford, 1901, p. 312, note.) 



