How did Mark End his Narrative?

Abstract

The best explanations of Mark’s perplexing ending at 16:8 with the women’s disobedience to the angelic commands make v. 8b part of his motif of the male disciples’ failure to understand Jesus adequately during his ministry. That is questionable and anyone who is not persuaded but agrees that Mark is not just careless may be driven back to the once popular expedient of supposing that the present text is not how Mark intended to end. The older proposals made Mark intend more. This one suggests that the pre- and immediate post-history of 16:7–8 may have resulted in a combination of two alternative endings.