Chapter 16 – One God Translation

Mark

   16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices[321] so that they could go and anoint Jesus. 2 Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3 They were wondering, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 But when they arrived and looked, they saw that the very large stone had already been rolled away. 5 They went into the tomb and saw a young man sitting to the right, wearing a long white robe, and they were amazed. 6 “Do not be amazed,” he said to them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. 7 Take a look at the place where they laid him. Now go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there just as he told you.’” 8 They went out and ran from the tomb, because they were shaking and terrified. They did not say anything to anyone because they were afraid. [322]
    9 When he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it.
    12 Later he appeared in a different form[323] to two of them as they walked on their way to the countryside. 13 They went away and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
    14 After that he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating. He reprimanded them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen. 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel[324] to the whole creation. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized[325] will be saved,[326] but anyone who does not believe will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: In my authority they will cast out demons, they will speak in new languages, [327] 18 and they will pick up snakes. If they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”
    19 Then the lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. [328] 20 They went out and preached the Gospel[329] everywhere, while the lord worked with them and confirmed the Gospel-word by the accompanying signs. [330]

Mark

[321]

Others had bought spices before the Sabbath began.

[322]

The rest of Mark (16:9-20) is not found in some of the major early manuscripts.

[323]

The Greek morphe, “form,” means outward appearance and it is the word used of the historical and visible Jesus. It certainly does not refer to an invisible, so-called “preexistent,” imagined Jesus in Phil. 2:6. The NIV translation there, “being in very nature God,” is a seriously misleading departure from the meaning of the Greek text in the interest of promoting a pre-human and thus non-human Jesus.

[324]

The saving Gospel should constantly and invariably be defined with reference to Jesus’ own initial definition and preaching of the Christian Gospel in Mark 1:14-15. The Kingdom of God in Mark is without exception the Kingdom of God which has not yet come, and was expected by Joseph of Arimathea (15:43). Churches have continuously reduced this Messianic Kingdom to some sort of ethics “in the heart” or to a present “social gospel.” The Messianic Kingdom of God expected and predicted by all the prophets, especially Daniel, needs to be reinstated at the heart of the saving Gospel; otherwise the Church will continue to reject Jesus, by rejecting his Gospel while claiming to “accept” him. The vague prospect of an afterlife as a disembodied soul, at death, has replaced the Kingdom of God destined to come on earth, as understood and preached as Gospel by the earliest communities of Christians.

[325]

In water, for the reception of the spirit. Water baptism is commanded as necessary obedience to Jesus throughout the NT (Mt. 28:19-20). “In one spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). This is the NT pattern throughout. There are never “two levels” of faith. Each believer must grow in grace in knowledge.

[326]

Acts 8:12 is the model of the early church’s theology of initiation into the body of Messiah. The essential information about the Gospel of the Kingdom and the identity of Jesus Messiah and the One God was required for initiation into the Church by water baptism.

[327]

Fulfilled in a spectacular way in Acts 2 when the Apostles “began to speak in other languages,” under the influence of the spirit. This was a demonstrable miracle to show where God was at work, and not intended to bridge the language gap, since Peter was able to communicate with them in his sermon in Greek, as the international language. Subsequent claims to the same “gift of languages” are not convincing and those who practice them in most cases never “pray to interpret” (1 Cor. 14:13). There must always be a verification of the miracle of real, intelligible language and communication, as in Acts 2. The phrase “speak in tongues” is misleading and does not reflect the Greek “speak in languages.”

[328]

As the adoni, my lord, not Lord, of Ps. 110:1. Adoni is in all of its 195 occurrences never the title of Deity. It defines the risen Messiah Jesus as the supremely exalted human being, certainly not a “second God” in a Trinity, which is a post-biblical development under the influence of Greek philosophy.

[329]

Of the Kingdom and the things concerning Jesus (Acts 8:12).

[330]

Miracles are of course possible any time God wills, but Heb. 2:3-4 notes that the accompanying signs were a special feature of the first generation of believers. See 2 Cor. 12:12 for miracles as the accrediting signs of Apostles. We do not today have Apostles at the level of the twelve. The miraculous must be carefully verified and not accepted gullibly, especially since the miraculous can be counterfeited (2 Thes. 2:9; Mt. 7:21-23).