The Manifestation in Galilee; and the Ascension

S. Mark xvi. 15–20

We are drawing to the close of the Forty Days, and the time for the predicted manifestation in Galilee is at hand. In anticipation of it some of the disciples left Jerusalem, after our Lord appeared to them the second time in the Upper Chamber, and “He showed Himself to them again at the sea of Tiberias;” but the great meeting of which both He and the angels had spoken was yet to come.

Of the scene of it, all we are told is that it was a mountain. It may have been that whereon He had been transfigured, some ridge of Hermon 1 in the distant north; more probably it was “the Horns of Hattin,” from which He had delivered His first sermon at the opening of His mission. Nowhere so well as in the neighbourhood of the Lake could so large a number as five hundred brethren be gathered together.

What charge the Risen Lord had for these has not been recorded. The special commission to preach and to baptize was given to the Eleven; it is prefaced with the same declaration of His authority as had preceded His delegation to them of the ministry of Reconciliation. Then He had said to them: “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you;” now He says, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the Name x of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

It is this commission which S. Mark records, as our Lord may have repeated it, in altered words: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” It is an independent witness, but it can only be rightly understood when read by the light of the corresponding record.

There are three expressions in it which, by reason of much misunderstanding, call for consideration.

To “preach the gospel” finds its true explanation in the words which S. Matthew has preserved, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” It involves the inculcation of faith in the Incarnation, the Resurrection, Remission of Sins, and Sacramental Union with Christ by Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. These doctrines stand out luminous in the injunctions of Christ, and can have no subordinate place in the preaching of His Apostles.

Again, “he that believeth not” has been commonly regarded as a general synonym for any one who does not hold the Catholic faith. But we know that even apart from the wide world of heathendom, there are countless multitudes, who through some of the manifold chances of life — accidents of birth or education, or an invincible ignorance — have been shut out from the influence of the faith as it is in Christ. It can hardly be supposed that our Lord taught the Aoostles that such were guilty in the sight of God.

The original expression translated “he that believeth not,” implies far more than mere negative unbelief. It involves the deliberate rejection of declared truth, and should be rendered “he that disbelieveth.” Yet, further, in this passage it appears to have a distinct reference to those commandments which the Apostles had just before been empowered authoritatively to offer for men’s acceptance. Of such as refused them under these circumstances it may be said, though in an altered sense, “It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”

“He that believeth not shall be damned.” In lapse of time the usage of language often undergoes change and modification, and this word “damned” affords a striking illustration. When the authorised translation was made, it did not necessarily imply anything more than “condemnation;” but later generations have interpreted it as though it expressed an irreversible sentence of eternal death. Notwithstanding, then, an instinctive dread of diminishing the terrible sin of disbelief, we feel constrained to protest against the harshest interpretation, when one that is more lenient is most strictly correct. Condemnation in itself need not refer to the final judgment. While, therefore, the message which Christ bade the Apostles deliver, is to all who receive it “a savour of life unto life,” by putting them in the way of salvation, we are not justified in saying that it will be “a savour of death unto death” to those who reject it, or that they will be finally lost. It may be so, but the words of our Lord, “He that disbelieveth shall be condemned,” do not assert that it must be so.

One further manifestation of Himself was yet to be vouchsafed by our Lord. In anticipation of the approaching Pentecost the Apostles returned to Jerusalem; and there, on the fortieth day from the Resurrection, Jesus found them assembled together, “and led them out as far as Bethany.” There, on the wild uplands overhanging the village, He finally withdrew from the eyes of His disciples. It was while in the act of benediction that He was parted from them, rising from the earth, higher and higher, till “a cloud received Him out of their sight.”

“And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” The co-operation of Christ was in fulfilment of His promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” At first the credentials of their Apostolic commission were attested by the exercise of supernatural gifts. The casting out of evil spirits from the “possessed,” which had been so characteristic of Christ’s work, was continued in His Name. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost filled “devout men out of every nation under heaven” with amazement, “because that every man heard them speaking in their own language.” The venomous viper was shaken from an Apostle’s hand, and fell harmless to the ground; S. John, it is said, and even the disciple Barsabas, drank the cup of deadly poison and felt no hurt; while the very shadow of S. Peter, and clothes of S. Paul, seemed to be endowed with healing virtue, for the confirmation of the faith. But the co-operation of Christ was promised, not for the Apostolic age alone, but for all time. The miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were withdrawn, and the third generation, at the latest, buried the last of “The Twelve;” but other men entered into their labours, and the office has been perpetuated by an unbroken lineage, so that those who minister in Christ’s Church to-day can feel that the voice that sent them forth was but the echo of that which spake on the Galilean hill to the first in the ministerial line.

That Presence Which arrested the attention of an unbelieving age by startling manifestations has been vouchsafed to the Church through all its chequered history in the power of an unseen but undiminished co-operation. In the Church at large it is borne witness to by the influence of Christianity upon the evil spirits of oppression and cruelty, of greed and profligate living. It has shown itself in a thousand ways in the alleviation of sickness and disease, and the tenderer care for the bereft of reason; while in a later age at least the Pentecostal gift of tongues has been virtually repeated, by the translation of the Gospel of glad tidings into wellnigh every spoken language.

In the Ministry, that same Presence has been the inspiring motive -power of Christ’s accredited priests. In baptizing converts or infants into His kingdom, they have felt that, though they saw it not, it was He Who opened the door to let them in. In preparing candidates for Confirmation, it was not upon their own catechetical skill that they depended, but upon the help of Him Who is “the Instructor of babes;” in absolving the penitent, it was, they knew, His voice that sealed the pardon; in presenting the Sacrifice of the Altar, they relied upon the Great High Priest in heaven to win acceptance for it from the Father by uniting it with His all-prevailing intercession.

It is true the Divine co-operation has not been visibly realised with unvarying uniformity; but this was just what He foretold in the terms of His promise, “I will be with you,” not simply “alway,” but “all the days” — days when the brightness of His Presence shone out like the sun in its noonday glory, days when the clouds that concealed It seemed only just fringed with Its light — days of victory, and days of defeat — days when the Church arose like a giant in his strength, and carried everything before her — days also when the hands of Aaron and Hur fell paralysed at their side, and victory inclined to the world. But through all the past vicissitudes of eighteen centuries of waxing and waning faith, and through all the future yet to come, Christ’s promise has been, and ever will be true — “Lo, I am with you all the days unto the end of the ages.”

Evidence for the Authenticity of the last
Twelve Verses

Of Uncial MSS. X omits them altogether. B omits them, but leaves a vacant space of about sufficient length to contain them; which indicates that the copyist saw them, but for unknown reasons declined to insert them. L, a MS. of the eighth century, has another ending, but subjoins this also. They are inserted in all the old Uncial MSS. The Cursive MSS. all

1 7rdcras ras ijfjJpas. contain the verses, but some state that they were of disputed authority.

Of ancient Versions, all the oldest contain them, with the exception of one MS. of the old Latin. In the evidence of the Fathers, we find Eusebius, S. Jerome, and Victor of Antioch questioning their authenticity, but not themselves deciding against it.

Irenseus, Hippolytus, James of Nisibis, and perhaps Justin Martyr, are all in favour of the insertion.

The Internal Evidence is so difficult to state briefly, that the reader is referred to the lengthy dissertations of Dr. Hort against S. Mark’s authorship, and of Dean Burgon, Dr. Scrivener, Canon Cook, and Mr. M’Clellan in favour of it.

Note: Cf. xl., pp. 187 ff.

Note: It had been the chief scene of His labours, and He must have made many disciples in Capernaum and Bethsaida. In Jerusalem we are told the number was only 120. — Acts i. 15.

Note: In Scripture the name implies far more than the title, viz., the Essence, the Being, the Nature of God; and to be baptized into (els 6vo[xa) involves the idea of union with, and participation of, and points to a restoration of that close communion between man and God, which had been severed by the Fall. 5”20

Note: KaraKpivu) is used nearly twenty times in the New Testament, but is only on one other occasion rendered “damned,” Rom. xiv. 23. The uncompounded form, however, is once so translated, 2 Thess. ii. 22.