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 little deeper in this subject of
poison, since Christians love bringing it up.
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!
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 mentioning
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.
