DRINKING POISON?

Mark gives no accounts of anyone seeing Jesus as Matthew, Luke, and John later report. In fact, according to Mark, any future epiphanies or “sightings” of Jesus will be in the north, in Galilee, not in Jerusalem.

his original ending of Mark was viewed by later Christians as so deficient that not only was Mark placed second in order in the New Testament, but various endings were added by editors and copyists in some manuscripts to try to remedy things. The longest concocted ending, which became Mark 16:9-19, became so treasured that it was included in the King James Version of the Bible, favored for the past 500 years by Protestants, as well as translations of the Latin Vulgate, used by Catholics. This meant that for countless millions of Christians it became sacred scripture–but it is patently bogus. You might check whatever Bible you use and see if the following verses are included–the chances are good they they will be, since the Church, by and large, found Mark’s original ending so lacking. Here is that forged ending of Mark:

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Even though this ending is patently false, people loved it, and to this day conservative Christians regularly denounce “liberal” scholars who point out this forgery, claiming that they are trying to destroy “God’s word.”

The evidence is clear. This ending is not found in our earliest and most reliable Greek copies of Mark. In A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzger writes: “Clement of Alexandria and Origen [early third century] show no knowledge of the existence of these verses; furthermore Eusebius and Jerome attest that the passage was absent from almost all Greek copies of Mark known to them.” The language and style of the Greek is clearly not Markan, and it is pretty evident that what the forger did was take sections of the endings of Matthew, Luke and John (marked respectively in red, blue, and purple above) and simply create a “proper” ending.

Note

Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd edition, (Hendrickson Publishers, 2005), 123. Metzger also states: “The last twelve verses of the commonly received text of Mark are absent from the two oldest Greek manuscripts (? and B), 20 from the Old Latin codex Bobiensis, the Sinaitic Syriac manuscript, about one hundred Armenian manuscripts, 21 and the two oldest Georgian manuscripts (written a.d. 897 and a.d. 913).”

Christians often claim that drinking poison and its effects will not harm this is a sign of true faith. They say Prophet Muhammed Pbuh was poisoned and its effect was harmful towards him. As you can see Christians making such a claim towards Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, only puts them in a bigger problem. It is a well-known fact, that the ending of Mark is concocted say’s a lot about the authenticity and preservation of the Gospels. Let’s dwell a bit deeper in this subject of poison, since Christians love bringing it up a lot.

Now we’ve established that Mark’s ending starting from verse 9 – 20 was later added. Let’s see if their false claim lives up to its words. Lets pretend for arguments sake Mark 16:18 was not a later concocted addition and it really was written by Mark. What does the text say? It say’s a true believer will DRINK POISON, NOT EAT RATHER DRINK. Note eating is different to drinking, the verse is specific on what method of test is to be used. There are other verses found in the Bible which specifically says poisonous food (Psalm 69:21, Deuteronomy 29:18, Hosea 10:4 the distinction is made.

Now interestingly the same cannot be applied to Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, as his food was poisoned not drink. Note Mark explicitly says Drink poison not eat. What’s more interesting about this poison found in Mark is, the Greek word used for poison is πίωσιν (piōsin) which means drink.  θανάσιμόν (thanasimon) means deadly, so the actual text rendered in english would say “and if deadly θανάσιμόν (thanasimon) anything they drink πίωσιν (piōsin)”.The word poison is not found only deadly and drink, of course the translators would say poison as that’s the only substance that can kill a person, but if we are to be specific then poison is not used, then why use it? In modern Greek δηλητήριο dilitírio means poison. The bible also uses the word poison such as snakes venom ἰὸς (ios) Roman 3:13, James 3:8. We can see from the Greek texts Mark does not use the same word as Paul does

We can be clear that Marks poison was not intended to mean actual drinking poison, rather drinking anything deadly this could even be excess of salt mixed in water or mixer of alcohol  or even sewage water not necessarily poison we can think of many types of poison, which doesn’t have to be actual poison in a bottle which can be purchased from many illegal drug stores. 

Another claim busted!

The famous incident from the life of Khalid ibn Waleed is an extraordinary feat in Tawakkul:

Khalid ibn Walid (RA) once besieged an enemy fort in Syria. When the total blockade had taken its toll upon the people inside they sent their chief to Khalid ibn Walid (RA) to negotiate for peace. When this man came into the presence of Khalid ibn Walid (RA) it was noticed that he was carrying a small bottle. Khalid ibn Walid (RA) enquired from the emissary what it contained. He replied that it was concentrated poison and that if the negotiations failed he would drink it and die rather than return to his people with news of failure. Uppermost in the minds of the companions was the objective to preach Islam, so Khalid ibn Walid (RA) found an ideal opportunity to further this aim.

He asked the emissary: “ are you sure that you will die instantly by swallowing the poison?” The emissary said: “ I have no doubt what so ever. This poison is so strong that no one has so far been able to describe its taste for the moment anyone sips it he dies. He does not live long enough to even describe how it tastes. There is no question I will die instantly once it enters my mouth.”

Khalid ibn Walid (RA) asked for the bottle and taking it in his hands said: “Nothing in this world can hold any effect unless Allah gives it efficacy.” He took the name of Allah and made this supplication: “In the name of Allah and with the mention of which there is not a think in the heaven or on earth that can do harm. And he is the All-Hearing and All-Knowing.”

Saying this he turned to the emissary and said: “I shall swallow this poison and you see if I die or not.” The emissary, astonished, exclaimed: “You are torturing yourself. The poison is so strong and swift even if a small amount manages to enter the mouth you will perish. And here you are threatening to swallow all of it.” Khalid ibn Walid (RA) said: Inshallah, nothing will happen to me.” And with that he swallowed the whole bottle down and Allah did indeed take away the poison’s effect. The emissary seeing the truth of Allah’s power submitted himself to Allah and embraced Islam.”

Mufti Taqi Uthmani Discourses on the Islamic Way of Life. P.34. (THE FIQH OF DA’WAH A Commentary on 40 Hadiths Page 96-97)

Notice from the above narration, how Khalid ibn Walid (RA) swallowed a whole bottle of poison and nothing happened to him by the permission of Allah, Allah Swt saved him. The above narration is solid proof that Muslims have passed the test of faith. Now going back to Mark’s verse on taking deadly drink and surviving, there is no mentioned on whether if one was poisoned without him knowing? It says if deadly anything they drink which tells us that the believer should take the deadly drink willingly to prove he is a true believer. Which unfortunately none of the disciples attempted to do, not even Paul himself.  

We read from the above narration how Khalid ibn Walid (RA) willingly swallowed the poison to show that Allah Swt would save him, and how he has 100% faith in Allah Swt. Why do we not find such test of faiths by any of the disciples, or everyday Christians What are they afraid of? Truly we have no come across a single Christian who has willingly drank poison live in public how come.