Did Tertullian's text contain Mark 16:9-20? Tertullian was cited in favor of the inclusion of 16:9-20 in the second edition of the GNT (p. 196). And in 1969, Kurt Aland (unless I have misunderstood him, which is a real possibility), expressed the view that Tertullian used Mark 16:9-20, in his "Bemerkungen zun Schluss des Markusevangeliums" essay.
In the fourth edition of GNT, (p. 189) Tertullian is not cited for inclusion or non-inclusion. Hort stated that there was “strong negative evidence” indicating that Tertullian’s copies of Mark did not contain 16:9-20, mainly because Tertullian fails to explicitly quote Mark 16:16 in De Baptismo. But Tertullian similarly declined to use Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:4, Galatians 3:27, and First Peter 3:21 in De Baptismo, even though these passages would have similarly strengthened his case. To the extent that the evidence from De Baptismo does not require us to suppose that Tertullian’s copies lacked those verses, it does not require us to conclude that they lacked Mark 16:16.
Possible uses of material from Mk. 16:9-20 in Tertullian's writings include a statement In Against Praxeas, ch. 2 ("We believe [Jesus] to have suffered, died, and been buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father") and a phrase in An Answer to the Jews, ch. 5.
But the strongest evidence that Tertullian knew Mark 16:9-20 is found in his composition Scorpiace, written c. 204, which was not mentioned by Hort. This composition contains what appears to be an allusion to Mark 16:18. In chapter 1, after introducing his subject by using imagery from Luke 10:19, Tertullian describes how Christians, applying their faith, can stomp on scorpions, smearing the heel with the animal. He then states, “We often aid in this way even the heathen, seeing we have been endowed by God with that power which the apostle first used when he despised the viper’s bite.” The apostle to whom Tertullian refers here is St. Paul, whose encounter with a viper is described in Acts 28. The power to tread upon serpents and scorpions is mentioned in Luke 10:19, along with a promise of complete invulnerability to harm.
In the last chapter of Scorpiace (ch. 15), Tertullian likens true faith and sound doctrine to a protective potion against poison. In the process of supporting a point that baptism is necessary and commendable, he describes the martyrdoms of Peter, Stephen, James, and Paul -- presenting them as instances of “baptism of blood” -- and claims that if a false teacher (such as Prodicus or Valentinus) had stood by Paul and urged him not to undergo martyrdom, so that it would not appear that God is bloodthirsty, Paul would have replied, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense to me. It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’”
Then: “But even now it will be appropriate that he hears this. For if anyone in faith will drink this [protective] draught of ours, before being hurt by these poisons which he [i.e., the false teacher] poured forth long ago, or even immediately after being hurt by them, they [i.e., the poisons, i.e., the false teaching] will not be able to readily injure any of those who are weak.”
The final phrase, in Latin, includes vocabulary strongly reminiscent of the parallel-phrase in the Latin text of Mark 16:18, et si mortiferum quid biberint, non eis nocebit.
The Old Latin text from Codex o (a supplement to Codex n) is, “. . . et si aliquid mortiferum quis biberint non illos nocebit.”
Also, in Tertullian’s Apology ch. 21, concluding a summary of the ministry of Christ, Tertullian writes, “He passed forty days with certain of His disciples in Galilee, a region of Judaea, teaching them what they were to teach. Afterwards having commissioned them to the duty of preaching throughout the world, He was taken up into Heaven enveloped in a cloud.” Hort dismissed this as a summary of Mt. 28:19 and other passages; however, while these passages share the same subject-matter, part of it parallels Mark 16:15 more than any other passage.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
