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MARCH 21
9 Now when He rose early on the first day of world and preach the gospel to every crea-
16
the week, He appeared first to Mary ture. He who believes and is baptized will be
Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven saved; but he who does not believe will be con-
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demons. She went and told those who had demned. And these signs will follow those
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been with Him, as they mourned and wept. who believe: In My name they will cast out
11 And when they heard that He was alive and demons; they will speak with new tongues;
had been seen by her, they did not believe. 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink
12 After that, He appeared in another form to anything deadly, it will by no means hurt
two of them as they walked and went into the them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they
country. And they went and told it to the rest, will recover.”
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but they did not believe them either. 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them,
14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat He was received up into heaven, and sat down
20
at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief at the right hand of God. And they went out
and hardness of heart, because they did not and preached everywhere, the Lord working
believe those who had seen Him after He had with them and confirming the word through
risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the the accompanying signs. Amen.
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DAY 20:Were the last 12 verses of Mark 16 originally in the Gospel?
The external evidence strongly suggests these verses were not originally part of Mark’s
Gospel.While the majority of Greek manuscripts contain these verses,the earliest and most reliable
do not. A shorter ending also existed, but it is not included in the text. Further, some that include
the passage note that it was missing from older Greek manuscripts,while others have scribal marks
indicating the passage was considered spurious. The fourth-century church fathers Eusebius and
Jerome noted that almost all of the Greek manuscripts available to them lacked vv. 9–20.
The internal evidence from this passage also weighs heavily against Mark’s authorship. The
grammatical transition between vv. 8 and 9 is abrupt and awkward.The vocabulary in these verses
does not match the rest of Mark. Even the events and people mentioned in these verses appear in
awkward fashion. For example, Mary Magdalene is introduced as if she were a new person on the
scene rather than someone Mark had mentioned three times (v. 1; 15:40,47). Clearly, Mark16:9–20
represents an early attempt to complete Mark’s Gospel.
While for the most part summarizing truths taught elsewhere in Scripture,these verses should
always be compared with the rest of Scripture, and no doctrines should be formulated based solely
on them.Further,in spite of all these considerations of the likely unreliability of this section,it is pos-
sible to be wrong on the issue.It is good to consider the meaning of this passage and leave it in the
text, just as with John 7:53–8:11.

Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these
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MARCH 21 cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and
bars, besides a great many rural towns. And we
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utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king
of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men,
Deuteronomy 3:1–4:49 7
women, and children of every city. But all the
“Then we turned and went up the road to livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as
3 Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out booty for ourselves.
against us, he and all his people, to battle at 8 “And at that time we took the land from the
Edrei. And the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear hand of the two kings of the Amorites who
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him, for I have delivered him and all his peo- were on this side of the Jordan, from the River
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ple and his land into your hand; you shall do to Arnon to Mount Hermon (the Sidonians call
him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir),
who dwelt at Heshbon.’ 10 all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all
3 “So the LORD our God also delivered into Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the
our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his peo- kingdom of Og in Bashan.
ple, and we attacked him until he had no sur- 11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of
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vivors remaining. And we took all his cities at the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead
that time; there was not a city which we did not was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the
take from them: sixty cities, all the region of people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and
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