The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. MarkBurgon, John William
Religion
The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark
Burgon, John William
Bible. Mark XVI, 9-20 -- Criticism, Textual
It is, however, only needful to read through the Homily in question to see
that it is an attempt to weave into one piece a quantity of foreign and
incongruous materials. It is in fact not a Homily at all, (though it has
been thrown into that form;) but a Dissertation,—into which, Hesychius,
(who is known to have been very curious in questions of that kind(100),)
is observed to introduce solutions of most of those famous difficulties
which cluster round the sepulchre of the world’s Redeemer on the morning
of the first Easter Day;(101) and which the ancients seem to have
delighted in discussing,—as, the number of the Marys who visited the
sepulchre; the angelic appearances on the morning of the Resurrection; and
above all the seeming discrepancy, already adverted to, in the Evangelical
notices of the time at which our LORD rose from the dead. I need not enter
more particularly into an examination of this (so-called) “Homily”: but I
must not dismiss it without pointing out that its author at all events
cannot be thought to have repudiated the concluding verses of S. Mark: for
at the end of his discourse, he quotes the 19th verse entire, without
hesitation, in confirmation of one of his statements, and declares that
the words are written by S. Mark.(102)
I shall not be thought unreasonable, therefore, if I contend that
Hesychius is no longer to be cited as a witness in this behalf: if I point
out that it is entirely to misunderstand and misrepresent the case to
quote _a passing allusion of his to what Eusebius had long before
delivered on the same subject_, as if it exhibited his own individual
teaching. It is demonstrable(103) that he is not bearing testimony to the
condition of the MSS. of S. Mark’s Gospel in his own age: neither, indeed,
is he bearing testimony _at all_. He is simply amusing himself, (in what
is found to have been his favourite way,) with reconciling an apparent
discrepancy in the Gospels; and he does it by adopting certain remarks of
Eusebius. Living so late as the vith century; conspicuous neither for his
judgment nor his learning; a copyist only, so far as his remarks on the
last verses of S. Mark’s Gospel are concerned;—this writer does not really
deserve the space and attention we have been compelled to bestow upon him.
VI. We may conclude, by inquiring for the evidence borne by
VICTOR OF ANTIOCH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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