JW:
The Long Ending: (From Ben Smith's great sight):
The Long Ending
9 And having arisen early on the Sabbath he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
10 She went and announced it to those who had been with him while they were mourning and weeping.
11 And they, having heard that he lived, and that he had been seen by her, did not believe.
12 And after these things he appeared in another form to two of them while they were walking along, going to the country.
13 And they went away and announced it to the others, but they did not believe them.
14 {And} afterward he appeared to the eleven as they reclined, and he reproached their lack of belief and their hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him risen.
15 And he said to them: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He who has believed and been baptized will be saved, but he who has not believed will be condemned.
17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues,
18 {and in their hands} they will pick up serpents, and if they should drink any deadly thing it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.
19 So the Lord Jesus, after speaking with them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through the accompanying signs.
The Short Ending:
And all that had been commanded them they promptly announced to those around Peter. And after these things J{esu}s himself appeared to them, and from the east as far as the west he sent out through them the sacred and incorruptible proclamation of eternal salvation. Amen.
Eusebius' GOSPEL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
In discussion of evidence for LE it's generally just assumed that Eusebius is simply evidence for awareness of the common Long Ending as above. Let's see what Eusebius has to say about that.
The Greek evidence (starts on page 95):
Your first question was:
How is it that the Saviour’s resurrection evidently took place, in
Matthew, “late on the Sabbath”, but in Mark “early in the
morning on the first day of the week”?
Note that the explicit contradiction here (in the Gospels) does not involve guessing when the supposed resurrection took place but
when the women (which are different also) came to the tomb =
Mark 16
2 And very early on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb when the sun was risen.
Verses
Matthew 28
1 Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
So just like "Mark's" Jesus, Marinus' question does not appear, to refer to the Long Ending.
The second part of Eusebius' answer:
2 Another view, from someone diffident about athetising anything at
all in the text of the gospels, however transmitted, is that there is a twofold
reading, as in many other places, and that both are to be accepted; it is not
for the faithful and devout to judge either as acceptable in preference to
the other.
3 [2] Supposing the latter point of view to be granted as true, the
proper thing to do with the reading is to interpret its meaning. If we were
to divide up the sense of the wording, we would not find it in conflict with
the words in Matthew to the effect that the Saviour’s resurrection was “late
on the Sabbath”, because we shall read the words in Mark: “Having risen
again early in the morning” with a pause, punctuating after “Having risen
again,” and making a break in the sense before the following words. Let
us then refer2 “having risen again” back to Matthew’s “late on the Sabbath”,
because that was when the resurrection had taken place; but the
next part forms part of a separate idea, so let us connect it with the words
that follow: “early in the morning on the first day of the week he appeared
to Mary of Magdala”. As confirmation, that is what John has told us, as
well: he too testifies that Jesus had been seen by the Magdalene early in the
morning on the first day of the week. In this way, therefore, he appeared
to her “early in the morning” in Mark also. It was not that the resurrection
took place early in the morning; it was well before that, “late on the
Sabbath”, as Matthew has it. That was when he appeared to Mary, after his
resurrection; the appearance was not at the time of the resurrection, but
“early in the morning”.
Thus two points of time are presented here: that of the resurrection,
“late on the Sabbath”, and that of the Saviour’s appearance, “early in the
morning”, as written by Mark in words to be read as including a pause:
“Having risen again”. Then the next words are to be pronounced after our
punctuation-mark:3 “early in the morning on the first day of the week he
appeared to Mary of Magdala, from whom he had driven out seven devils”
JW:
Eusebius' claimed points in order (so to speak) of importance:
1) As an authority on the subject Eusebius has opened the door to add the Long Ending of Mark. He states that it is acceptable
to add an ending to GMark if you think it has earlier support as long as it does not create a contradiction. One of the ways to
do that is to add what's already in the other post resurrection stories and that is mostly what the Long Ending is. Again, the key
to Textual Criticism is explaining the change in readings. Here we have the explanation. This is even better evidence than
Eusebius' testimony that the Manuscript category overwhelmingly favored 16:8.
2) Eusebius' general Textual Criticism comments are that there are a lot of other textual variations and it is likewise acceptable
to choose the one you prefer. This time period, late third century, is the time of Recension and when Byzantine rears its ugly
Textual head. Eusebius also repeats the backwards Textual Criticism method, still in (mis)use today. Start with the conclusion
(no error) and look for the evidence.
3) Eusebius goes on to defend the Long Ending against contradiction by adding punctuation to it.
4) Eusebius only identifies a relatively
small part of the Long Ending:
Eusebius' quote: "Having risen again early in the morning on the first day of the week he appeared
to Mary of Magdala from whom he had driven out seven devils"
This appears to refer to:
9 And having arisen early on the Sabbath he appeared first
to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons.
So Eusebius has only referred to one verse of the Long Ending with
several textual differences. Presumably, Eusebius is making a
general
point here about anything that follows 16:8. Was there a common form of
the Long Ending in Eusebius' time? God knows.
Joseph
Skeptical Textual Criticism