Sinaiticus

This replica shows two important features at the end of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus. One feature is
the decoration which follows Mk. 16:8. By itself, this decoration does not seem significant.
Compared with the other decorative lines made by this copyist (at the end of the books of Tobit,
Judith, and First Thessalonians), though, it is uniquely emphatic.

The other significant feature is the format of the text itself in these two columns, which are
columns 9 and 10 of the four-page (16-column) cancel-sheet at the end of Mark in Sinaiticus.
The average column in Codex Sinaiticus contains about 635 letters. The text on the cancel-sheet
was written compactly, however, column 4, line 1 to column 5, line 10, with the result that column
4 contains 707 letters! If the copyist had continued to write that compactly, the cancel-sheet
would have had plenty of room for Mark 16:9-20. However, the text from 15:19 (which appears
in the cancel-sheet at column 5, line 11) onward has been stretched so as to fill more space than it
normally would. Something strange is going on here! Did the copyist begin to write the cancel-
sheet with the intention to include 16:9-20, and then change his mind?

That possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. But probably, something else was going on: the
copyist may have initially intended to begin the text of Luke in column 10 instead of column 11.
After writing column 4 in compressed lettering, though, he decided that it would be better to write
the text of Luke 1:1-56 in five columns of compressed lettering than six columns of expanded
lettering. So he resolved to stretch the rest of the text of Mark into column 10. This would not
have been a problem, but after the copyist accidentally skipped a large piece of Mark 15:47-16:1
and the Greek equivalent of "of Nazareth" in 16:6, he had to really stretch the lettering in column 9
in order to finish verse 8 in column 10.

The original pages of Mark 14:54-Luke 1:56 did not contain Mark 16:9-20. The main copyist,
using his normal lettering, would reach the end of column 10 with 206 letters to go. What about
the Short Ending? Since the Short Ending could have fit under Mk. 16:8 in column 10, in the
original pages, this must remain an open question. However, since the lettering of Luke 1:1-56 is
consistently compressed in the cancel-sheet, the likelihood is that the cancel-sheet was produced
because the main copyist had accidentally omitted a large portion of text (about 336 letters)
somewhere in Luke 1:1-56. So, while the cancel-sheet-maker availed himself of an opportunity to
express his opinion about how Mark should end (by drawing the emphatic decoration after 16:8),
the evidence provides no basis to think that the main copyist's exemplar was significantly
different than the exemplar used by the maker of the cancel-sheet. The emphatic decorative line
probably indicates the cancel-sheet maker's knowledge of either Mk. 16:9-20, or the Short
Ending, or both, in copies other than the exemplar that he and the main copyist were using.