The Appendices to the Gospel according to Mark. 391 



manifested) and he reproached their unbehef and their hardness of 

 heart, because they believed not those who saw him having risen. 

 And said he to (them), Go into all the world and preach the gospel 

 to all the creation. He who will believe and be baptized will be 

 saved ; he who will not believe will be condemned. But these signs 

 will follow those who will believe : they will cast demons out in m\- 

 name ; they will speak in languages ; and they will take up serpents 

 in their hands ; even if they should drink a deadly potion it will not 

 hurt them ; they will place their hands upon those who are sick, and 

 the}^ (will) recover (lit. rest). But the Lord Jesus after his speak- 

 ing to them was taken up to the heaven, he sat (on the) right of God. 

 (But they, when they had (come out), preached (everywhere), the) 

 Lord helping them, confirming the word (through) the signs which 

 follow them. 



According to Markos, it is finished. 



Horner says that the curved brackets mean that the fragment is 

 imperfect in the verse. 



The testimony of this recently discovered Sahidic fragment con- 

 taining the double ending of Mark is of far greater weight and signi- 

 ficance than would at first sight appear. Since as yet but a mere 

 handful of Sahidic fragments containing the closing verses of Mark 

 is known, ^ — ^Horner seems to cite only 50, the Bodleian fragment and 

 1.02, together with the Greek of Paris 129, — that one of them should 

 possess the double ending is surprising. It may indicate not a pe- 

 culiar, but a relatively common form of the Gospel in this version. 

 As has been noted, Horner declares that there is great unanimity of 

 reading in the fragments found. It certainly indicates far more than 

 would be implied by the discovery of an additional Greek MSS of this 

 form, and we believe approximates in significance, though not of 

 course in importance, to the discovery of the Sinaitic Syriac, so far 

 as its bearing upon the version to which it belongs is concerned.^ 



While the MS containing the double ending is assigned to the 

 eleventh century, it seems quite probable that an earlier archetype 

 had a form of the text in which the Gospel ended with the Shorter 

 Conclusion ; which may have been early introduced into this version 

 and obtained wide currency, for aught we know. 



This supposition receives a slight confirmation from the Arabic 

 gloss which accompanies the insertion of the Shorter Ending in Brit. 



^ It is known that there is a Coptic (probably Sahidic) MS with a double 

 ending among the recently acquired J. Pierpont Morgan MSS. 



