Some thoughts on the “Longer Ending of Mark:”
1. It doesn’t matter whether or not Mark wrote it, its still scripture.
2. It seems that, of the whole ending, the only part that seems strange to our ears is vss. 17-18. while reading this today , I found it less strange than I had before. Although I’m not sure that I recommend drinking poison, I think that this passage fits in the general framework of the gospel story. If we read Jesus as ushering in the Kingdom - the era when God rules righteously over his people, a kingdom characterized by peace (free of the fracturing of the fall), then the things described in this passage wouldn’t be a big deal for the citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom.
2a. It must be said that the disjunction between the vision of Mark 16:17-18 and the reality that we experience is likely the impetus for much of Paul’s writings. That and the fact that the Messiah of the Old Testament came, then died and then left.
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