Week 38 - The Gospel of Mark

In this episode, David and Sophie take on the Longer Ending of Mark (16:9-20), the passage that most scholars agree was added later by a different hand. They explore why it doesn't sound like Mark: no "immediately," no spare prose, new language like "the Lord Jesus" that never appears in the rest of the gospel. Sophie argues that the addition serves to institutionalize what Mark intentionally left open, introducing a commission, signs of authority, and a binary saved-or-condemned framework that feels foreign to the riddle and puzzle Mark spent fifteen chapters building. She is particularly sharp on what the Longer Ending does to Mary Magdalene, pulling in the "seven demons" detail from Luke to pathologize her and then having the disciples dismiss her testimony, undoing the dignity Mark's original ending gave her as lead witness. David offers a generous historical reading, suggesting the early church may have felt Mark needed these additions once it became clear Jesus was not returning immediately. The conversation opens into larger questions about scripture, trustworthiness, the Jesus Seminar, and what it means to take the text seriously without demanding inerrancy, closing with Sophie's reflection from the Gospel of Mary: "Do not lay any rules beyond what I have given you."