How Did Scribes Change the Gospel of Mark? (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 163 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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episode description

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This episode explores how scribes altered the Gospel of Mark as they copied it by hand—and how scholars can determine, with varying degrees of confidence, what Mark originally wrote.

Bart explains that the earliest surviving manuscript containing portions of Mark is Papyrus 45 (P45), dating to around 200 CE. A complete copy of Mark doesn't appear until roughly 375 CE, meaning the Gospel was copied for centuries before scholars have complete manuscripts to examine. Bart explains how scholars reconstruct the earliest text by comparing Greek manuscripts with ancient translations and quotations from early Christian writers.

The episode distinguishes between accidental and intentional changes. Accidental errors include misspellings, omissions, repetitions, and mistakes caused when a scribe's eye skips from one word to another with a similar ending. But some changes appear deliberate and can have significant theological consequences.

Several fascinating examples from Mark are discussed:

Mark 1:1 — “Son of God”: Some ancient witnesses omit the phrase, raising the question of whether it was accidentally omitted or deliberately added to emphasize Jesus' divine identity.
Mark 16:9–20 — the longer ending: Bart explains why scholars overwhelmingly conclude that the famous final twelve verses—including Jesus' appearances to the disciples, the Great Commission, and the passage about handling snakes and drinking poison—were added after Mark's original ending.
Mark 1:41 — Jesus' reaction to the leper: Some manuscripts say Jesus felt compassion, while others indicate that he became angry. Bart argues that “angry” may be the original reading and explores what that reveals about Mark's portrayal of Jesus.
Mark 6:3 — Jesus the carpenter or the carpenter's son?: The episode examines how scribal changes to this seemingly minor phrase could affect interpretations of Jesus' social status and even his parentage.

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The discussion ultimately emphasizes that textual criticism isn't simply about finding spelling mistakes. Scribal changes can affect how Jesus is portrayed, how a Gospel begins and ends, and how later Christians understood theological questions.

The bonus Q&A covers whether the Gospel writers were influenced by Greek literature, whether Matthew's nativity story was original, whether Jesus claimed to have been born of a virgin, and how scholars determine that Paul's undisputed letters were actually written by Paul.