by jimwalton » Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:20 pm
The answer to your question is no. Mark 16.16-18 is not a correct test for salvation. Mark 16.9-20 are not part of the original Bible but were added later. We disregard them (Oh, some people treat them with interest. Someone inserted them along the way for a reason. But we don't consider them authoritative).
None of the early Greek manuscripts have Mk. 16.9-20. None of them. The two major, early, complete Bibles we have (Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) don't have those verses either. The church fathers don't speak of that section as being part of Mark. Some church fathers at the end of the 2nd century mention it, so it must have existed by then, but they seem to know it wasn't there originally. Many many early fragments don't have those verses at the end of Mark. Eusebius (church historian of the 300s) says Mark ends at v. 8, and so does Jerome, Clement, Origen, Cyprian, and Cyril. Where the verses do exist on manuscripts, they are marked in such a way as to show it was thought to be an addition and not original. In other words, there is massive and consistent evidence that Mark 16.9-20 are not original to the gospel but were added later, and this was widely recognized.
So, we can confidently conclude: (a) These verses are not a correct test for salvation, and (b) No one automatically has those properties (healing, snake handling, other languages, casting out demons, immune to poison).
> It may also be that this passage refers to believers as a group, and the signs will follow the group rather than the individual.
The passage isn't legit, so it has no authority.
> Why is all of this not actually happening in the world today?
Because it's an addition and it has no authority.
The answer to your question is no. Mark 16.16-18 is not a correct test for salvation. Mark 16.9-20 are not part of the original Bible but were added later. We disregard them (Oh, some people treat them with interest. Someone inserted them along the way for a reason. But we don't consider them authoritative).
None of the early Greek manuscripts have Mk. 16.9-20. None of them. The two major, early, complete Bibles we have (Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) don't have those verses either. The church fathers don't speak of that section as being part of Mark. Some church fathers at the end of the 2nd century mention it, so it must have existed by then, but they seem to know it wasn't there originally. Many many early fragments don't have those verses at the end of Mark. Eusebius (church historian of the 300s) says Mark ends at v. 8, and so does Jerome, Clement, Origen, Cyprian, and Cyril. Where the verses do exist on manuscripts, they are marked in such a way as to show it was thought to be an addition and not original. In other words, there is massive and consistent evidence that Mark 16.9-20 are not original to the gospel but were added later, and this was widely recognized.
So, we can confidently conclude: (a) These verses are not a correct test for salvation, and (b) No one automatically has those properties (healing, snake handling, other languages, casting out demons, immune to poison).
> It may also be that this passage refers to believers as a group, and the signs will follow the group rather than the individual.
The passage isn't legit, so it has no authority.
> Why is all of this not actually happening in the world today?
Because it's an addition and it has no authority.