Mark 16: 18 (Moffatt):
[18] they will handle serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.
With the unfinished bidness of several Threads making a return visit, esp. Joe W and new ideas with FJV, I think that a little clue that I noticed might be useful to look at.
In my struggles to intuit Intentionality in Mark esp., I kept running across odd phrases and words:
Mark 4: 38 (RSV):
[38] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care if we perish?"
Mark 6: 49 (Moffatt):
[49] He meant to pass them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and shrieked aloud
J Fitzmyer, S.J. (RIP, in case you didn't know) stated that the "asleep in the stern" material was "unnecessary detail". "Why is "Ghost Language" used in 6: 49?", you might ask, unless the people in the "Boat" must think that the person in question is already dead?
Such material, to me, is most definitely NOT "unnecessary detail". Against this habit of looking at these clues, for many years, was the Long Ending. It was obviously Addition and poorly constructed at that, it seemed to me. Mark was missing the "Last Page" in its Original Original and unless some new forgery finds the solution, that'll be that.
Until I read the LE again recently and noticed verse 16: 18, quoted above. There was that little awkward phrasing again. Like:
Mark 9:42 (RSV):
[42] "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
Did anyone ever throw giant millstones into the sea? Yes. Herod did, in creating the Breakwater at Caesarea. This verse is part of a Herod Story.
So it was with the LE. Did anyone ever drink poison and survive? Yes. Titus did.
Suetonius, 12 Caesars, "Titus":
"...that it is believed that when Britannicus drained the fatal draught, Titus, who was reclining at his side, also tasted of the potion and for a long time suffered from an obstinate disorder. Titus did not forget all this, but later set up a golden statue of his friend in the Palace, and dedicated another equestrian statue of ivory, which is to this day carried in the procession in the Circus, and he attended it on its first appearance..."
Vespasian healed the sick often enough in the literature. Fighting off snakes is the interesting one, a phrase that may show knowledge of Paul at the end of Acts. I trace this to Mucianus in his fight against the letters of Antonius Primus. YMMV.,
In any event, there may be a History of the LE that places it closer to the actual only Book of Mark.
CW