The Chronology of the Gospel of St. Mark raises Questions for Mormons (The Gospel of St. Mark Controversy)

The Gospel of St. Mark Controversy
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The Chronology of the Gospel of St. Mark raises Questions for Mormons
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The text in Mormon 9:22-24 was supposedly written down by ancient people in the Americas, in their own unique language and was later translated by Joseph Smith, through tools presented to Him by God's Angel.

For behold, thus said Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unto his disciples who should tarry, yea, and also to all his disciples, in the hearing of the multitude: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;

And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned;

And these signs shall follow them that believe—in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 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;

The text is nearly verbatim to the text found in Mark 16 9-20 (specifically 15-18), which wasn't composed until at the earliest, 66AD on the other side of the World.

And he said unto them, 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.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

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.

Transatlantic traveling wasn't happening in 400 AD. It would be impossible for the people in the Americas to quote the canonized scriptures.

Joseph Smith would not have known that Mark 16 9-20 was added later and there's no way that people he wrote about in the American Continent could have known the exact words that were written by men on the other side of the world.

Relevant Chronology:

580 B.C. Nephi leaves Jerusalem

66 (ish) A.D. The letters that will become the Gospel of Mark are written down. This included quoting Jesus' own words from around 34AD. Preserving them as His words.

See also: Wiki article on Gospel

325 AD Mark 16 1-20 was believed by some to have been Canonized in Alexandria, Egypt. - Where men, edited and agreed upon the text that would be written in Mark 9-20 and be known unto Mankind as Scripture. A Wiki article refutes this belief

400 to 421 AD Book of Mormon people in the Americas wrote down the same exact words that the authors of the New Testament wrote in 66AD, including quoting Jesus' words from 34AD, even though he didnt say them until approximately 614 years after their ancestors (Nephi) left.

The likely apologist theological explanation will be that Mormon was a prophet and didn't require "transatlantic traveling" to be aware of what prophets can see in visions. This defense, however, does not address the problem that the particular passage in question was not part of the original report of Jesus' words, but was added later.

Some argue this exposes the fraud that the Book of Mormon is.... Joseph Smith never would have known that the scriptures in the Bible weren't original.

A BYU article addresses the belief that this section was added to the bible later. See The Ending of Mark's Gospel

Apologists will likely argue that the fact that this passage was added later does not mean that it was an inaccurate report of Jesus' actual words. Unfortunately for the LDS Church, the cumulative effect of adding this additional Book of Mormon controversy to the increasing pile of LDS Credibility Concerns is not at all insignificant.

See also: King James translation errors in Book of Mormon

Appreciation and Credit for pointing out this controversy goes to an anonymous contributor.

This message is co-sponsored by: Citizens for Accountability in Government

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