Mark 16:18 — Community Reflections

MARK 16:18 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well — the snake-handling and deadly-poison promises are sometimes taken as prescriptive (handling snakes as a test of faith) but are more likely descriptive of protection in the mission context (Acts 28:3–5, Paul's snake survival). The healing by hand-laying extends the apostolic healing ministry throughout the community.

Church Fathers on Mark 16:18

Mark, when about to finish his Gospel, relates the last appearance of our Lord to His disciples after His Resurrection, saying, 'For the last time He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat.'
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation

But He appeared when all the eleven were together, that all might be witnesses, and relate to all men what they had seen and heard in common.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

But how was this done 'the last time?' The last occasion on which the Apostles saw the Lord upon earth happened forty days after the Resurrection; but would He then have upbraided them for not believing those who had seen Him risen, when they themselves had so often seen Him after His Resurrection? It remains therefore that we should understand that Mark wished to say it in few words, and said 'for the last time,' because it was the last time that He shewed Himself that day,…
Augustine · 4th century

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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