Talk:let him who is without sin cast the first stone

Let it be noted, most modern versions of the Bible have some kind of disclaimer like this in John’s Gospel as well as the end of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16.9-20). My English Standard Version (ESV) Reference Bible says “Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20” right before the end of Mark (I actually prefer the ESV’s language over the NIV’s because the ESV simply refers to earlier manuscripts rather than making a value judgment regarding their reliability). It’s also set apart in the ESV as different by use of double brackets, like this: “Now when he rose early on the first day of the week…worked with them and confirmed the messages by accompanying signs.”

So the question is, what does this mean?

You may already know that the New Testament was originally written in the Koine Greek language. We do not have the original manuscripts, which is a good thing, because with our proclivity to worship things instead of God, the original manuscripts would be definitely be an irresistible temptation to idolatry. What we do have are thousands of manuscripts in Greek. These manuscripts fall into two “families” of manuscripts: the Byzantine (centered in Eastern Europe) and the Alexandrian (centered in Northern Africa). For the vast majority of church history, the best and most numerous manuscripts were in the Byzantine family. But in 1844 ancient manuscripts were discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mt. Sinai by archaeologist Constantin von Tischendorf.

Examined by scholars, these manuscripts were discerned by some to be the oldest and most reliable manuscripts. On the positive side, although they represent an entirely different chain of history and, therefore, line of copyists, their contents were remarkably similar to the manuscripts in the Byzantine family. On the negative side, however, there were some differences. Some scholars estimate the difference to be as much as 5%. In most cases, single verses were missing in the Alexandrian texts (when compared to the Byzantine texts). This explains why in modern versions you might be reading along and notice that your Bible has a verse 4 and a verse 6, but no verse 5 in between (see John 5 in the NIV or ESV). As previously mentioned, a couple of entire passages were absent (from John 8 and Mark 16).

For some Bible readers, these differences can be disconcerting. If the end of Mark is not inspired Scripture, then what happened to the ending? Did it somehow get lost? Or does Mark his Gospel end abruptly, with the disciples in fear (see Mark 16.8)?