DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
The two oldest substantially complete Greek Bibles, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, end Mark at 16:8 — with the women fleeing the empty tomb, afraid. Verses 9-20 appear in later copies, though Irenaeus already quotes from them in the late second century, so the ending is older than the manuscripts that leave it out.
Why it’s interesting
The earliest recoverable Mark may have ended not with a triumphant appearance but with trembling and silence — whether by design or because an original ending was lost is debated. Later scribes found 16:8 abrupt: the manuscripts preserve more than one attempt to round it off, including a shorter ending alongside the familiar longer one.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.