This page takes a special look at Codex B's testimony about the ending of Mark.
As you can see from the picture to the right, the text of Mark in B ends at the end

of Mark 16:8, followed by an ornamental line and, further down, the subscription
"KATA MARKON" ("according to Mark"). The third column is blank.

The blank space after 16:8 is not capable of containing the Double-Ending (that
is, the Short Ending followed by 16:9-20, often with intervening annotations),
which is the dominant reading in the Alexandrian Text (to which Codex B is the
best overall witness). The following four pictures illustrate some interesting
characteristics of the blank space in B.

(1) BELOW: 16:9-20a in normal lettering. Verses 9-20 do not fit into
Vaticanus' blank space when written like the preceding text. Four more lines are
required to contain the remaining 67 Greek letters in 16:20.

(2) The Short Ending at the Base of Column Two. As shown by the picture to the
left, the space in the second column after the end of 16:8 would be exactly the right
amount in which to place the Short Ending (with or without the final "amen," which is
included here). This shows that if the copyist knew of only the Short Ending, he would
have had no impetus to leave the following column blank. This would require the
subscription to be placed in the lower margin, but such a thing occurs twice in the NT
in Vaticanus (at the end of Luke and at the end of Philippians).

These observations show that the arrangement of the text of Mark 16:1-8 in Codex B would allow the individual in charge of
proof-reading the manuscript (the diorthotes) to either add an ornamental line and subscription (which is the option that was
taken), or to insert the Short Ending with its lettering slightly stretched so as to extend into the third column, or to include
verses 9-20 by compressing his lettering so as to fit all 12 verses into the second and third columns.

The blank space after Mark 16:8 in Codex B can thus be accounted for in more than one way. It may indicate that B's
exemplar displayed the Double-Ending. It may indicate that B's copyist possessed at least one exemplar with the Short
Ending and at least one exemplar with 16:9-20. On that premise, B's copyist, discerning that one or the other ending might
be desirable, but not both, cleverly provided the means by which one or the other could be inserted. However, Vaticanus
was probably produced at Caesarea, and although Eusebius of Caesarea stated that his "accurate copies" ended at the end
of 16:8 and that "some copies" continued with 16:9-20, he did not indicate any awareness at all of manuscripts with the
Short Ending. Very probably, B's copyist's situation was similar.

Finally, we note that Vaticanus has 42 lines per column in Mark, but the first 344 pages of Vaticanus have 44 lines per
column (according to T.C. Skeat in Journal of Theological Studies, Oct. 1999). The size of the columns remains the same,
which requires that on pages 1-344 each line is slightly less tall than lines in the rest of the codex). This feature increases the
likelihood that the copyist was aware that verses 9-20 could be written in a slightly diminished script so as to fit in the space
provided after 16:8.

(3) The Short Ending in Columns Two and Three.

Here, the Short Ending is begun on the line that immediately follows

-TO GAR. By slightly enlarging the lettering, the Short Ending has been
made to extend into the third column (even without the final "Amen").

(4) The Entire Text of 16:9-20 in the Blank
Space. The inclusion of the entire text of 16:9-20 is
achieved via a slight reduction in the size of some of
the letters, combined with a reduction in the space
between letters. When common abbreviations are
made, the entire contents of 16:9-20 can be contained
in the blank space with room to spare.

Notice that the text includes the phrase in 16:18, "and
in their hands" (KAI EN TAIS CHERSIN) and the final
AMEN, and that the word OURANOS is not
abbreviated.

ABOVE: The last page of Mark in Codex
Vaticanus. Lettering from the opposite side of
the page has bled through, showing some text
from Luke chapter 1 in reverse. The blank
column is unique in this manuscript. There
are no other blank columns in the entire New
Testament portion. In the Old Testament
portion, there are three blank spaces, but each
one is accounted for by incidental factors
involved in the manuscript's production.

A blank space after the book of Tobit appears,
but this is merely leftover space, where one
copyist had finished his assigned portion of
work. After the blank space, the handwriting
belongs to a different copyist.

Another blank space appears between the
book of Second Esdras and the book of
Psalms, but this is not surprising because the
text of Second Esdras (like most of the text in
the codex) is arranged on the page in three
columns, but the books of Poetry, beginning
with the book of Psalms, are written in two
columns per page. So unless Second Esdras
had happened to end in the final column on
the page, blank space at this point would be
inevitable.

The third blank space appears after the book
of Daniel, but this is not surprising because
that is where, in this codex, the entire Old
Testament portion comes to a close. The
Gospel of Matthew begins on the next page.

Clearly none of the factors that caused the
blank spaces in the Old Testament portion
were in play here at the end of Mark. This
deliberately placed blank column between
Mark 16:8 and Luke 1:1 is indeed unique.