Two Recent Articles from Peter Rodgers

Peter Rodgers sends word that he has two new articles in Filología Neotestamentaria. I can’t seem to link to the specific issues or articles, but here are the titles and abstracts. (Update: I’ve added links to Peter’s Academia page where they’re uploaded.)

Mark’s longer ending

Among the theories as to how the Gospel of Mark ended is the proposal that a final page was lost early in its transmission. This article presents evidence to support that theory. Matthew appears to follow Mark closely until 16:8 when our authentic Mark ends abruptly. We may expect him to do so if he has access to Mark’s longer ending. Utilizing C. H. Turner’s article on Marcan usage, we explore several peculiarities of Mark’s style that appear in Matthew 28:9-20. These indicate that Matthew followed Mark as he reshaped the gospel in his own way, but distinctive traces of Mark survived.

The Origins of the Alexandrian Text of the New Testament

The Alexandrian text is generally regarded as the most reliable text form of the New Testament. However, there is reason to suspect that it did not originate in Alexandria. There is a total absence of references to Christians in the documentary papyri before the beginning of the third century. This article argues that the “Alexandrian” text actually originated in Ephesus, a major Christian center in Apostolic and sub-apostolic times. This proposal sheds further light on the text-critical issue at Eph. 1:1.