Activity from TheMoviegoer§↻

Congratulations, TheMoviegoer, on reaching 50M! 👏🏽👏🏽

The half century mark on the 4th of July! Thanks, Symota!

Woohooo! 🎉🎉🎊👏

Incredible points TheMovieGoer

Keep up the good work!!!! 🎉

50 million points in less than 2 years represents awesome commitment to learning and reviewing. God bless you.

Thanks, Everyone! For the record, my goal is to memorize the book of Mark, and along with the 50 million point milestone, I am happy to say that I am in progress on the final verses of Mark 16. I am a log way from 100% on the entire book, but I am extremely encouraged to at least have the book memorized.

I am, however, 100% convinced that I would not have continued this effort without the encouragement and testimony of you all. There have been many times where frustration, life, grammar, etc. have brought me down, but so many people on this site have helped with strategy, technique, words of encouragement, and enthusiasm. It has been a vital part of this work, and it another reminder of how God mercifully calls us to community.

Again, many thanks!

The Bible tells us to encourage one another. “Iron sharpening iron” I never thought that there would be so many helpful people on this site. This is truly a wonderful family of encouragement.

That's awesome TMG! I'm glad you're here with us and I am honored to memorize alongside you! I look forward to seeing you announce your memorization of Mark!

Thanks, Onfire247! I am literally working on 16:14-20. It is particularly difficult as I have been memorizing along with studying a commentary. The commentary disavows this latter part of Mark because it was not included in the vast majority of our earlier texts. When I began this work, I wasn't going to memorize beyond verse 8(earliest ending), but I can't help it. Note: the commentary doesn't suggest that those later verse (16:9-20) are not scripture or that they are not true, right, correct, etc., they simply suggest that these verses were added later likely by someone other than Mark.

Also, good to hear from you Onfire247. Haven't seen you comment in a while, and I was starting to worry. Hope all is well with you!

Thanks for your concern. Nothing to worry about. I was just away on vacation with limited internet access. Plus, try as I might, I cannot do this website on the phone very well. But I am back home now so you'll see me around like usual. =D

Hooray! And trust me, I understand about the phone. It is NOT a good substitute for being on computer. Glad you had a vacation and welcome back!

Good to see you back Onfire247. You were missed 👍

The end of Mark is intriguing. I quite like the suggestion that Mark deliberately ended the narrative without a neat conclusion, because he says in Mark 1:1 that his book is ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ’. And he couldn’t write the conclusion because the gospel is ongoing, even now. So it’s suggested that Mark ended with, ‘they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid’ as a way of challenging his readers ever afterwards that they (we) have a responsibility to continue the gospel message.

PeterP, I appreciate your thoughts. I also think Mark and Peter would. Along with some of the scholars, I think it is also helpful to note that Mark is very likely the first Gospel. With nothing to compare it to, it was likely understood that the empty tomb and risen Jesus, while being confusing, scary, and amazing, also was followed by the historical events in Acts. In other words, people understood in many ways the 'rest of the story' on some level. There are some other things that make the ending strange, but I am very cautious here. While I do agree with many that the longer ending doesn't seem to fit, I don't want to simply leave it out or ignore it.

Sorry, PeterP! I meant to further clarify to the point about Mark being the first gospel. Most scholars suggest that after Matthew, Luke, and John (which have more extensive post resurrection narrative) were written, Mark's ending felt more incomplete. Many believe that the additional verses were added to provide helpful clarity. They also tend to admit that even though there is a thematic reason to accept Mark's original ending, they do believe that it was incomplete. These two points combined with the further clarity of the other gospels led to these latter verses.