Pygmalion

The Roman poet Ovid, in Metamorphosis, portrayed Pygmalion as a sculptor who fell in love with a statue that he carved. Based on this, the Irish playwright and critic Bernard Shaw wrote the play Pygmalion, in which Professor Higgins takes a common flower girl, teaches her his art of phonetics, and transforms her into a lady. In the 50s, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe turn it into an award-winning musical and movie, My Fair Lady.

There’s a remarkable difference between Shaw’s Pygmalion and My Fair Lady: the former has a sad ending while the latter has a happy ending. Hollywood realized that the musical and the movie would not sell or capture the audience’s imagination without a happy ending.

Mark finished his gospel abruptly. Contrary to the young man’s exhortation to the women to go and tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead and was going to Galilee ahead of them,

“The ladies ran out of the tomb trembling and entranced, and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).

Mark’s gospel ended like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ without closure: no stories of Jesus visiting with his disciples, feeding them, talking with them, showing them his wounds, ascending to the heavens, or giving the great commission. The Gospel ended with the words, “because they were afraid.”

Mark had a purpose. Like Shaw’s Pygmalion, his ending would have left the readers restless, without closure, leading them to the apostles to hear more about Jesus. While they did, the apostles would have shared the gospel with them and led them to believe in Jesus.

Like Hollywood, the scribes copying Mark weren’t happy with his ending: “because they were afraid.” They added a shorter ending (a conclusion to Mark 16:8) and a longer ending (Mark 16:9–20). The shorter ending isn’t translated in several English translations:

“They briefly told Peter all the young man had said to them. After this, Jesus himself sent forth, east to west, even in their temple, the imperishable message of eternal salvation. Amen.” (Mark 16:8, addendum).

The longer ending included Jesus’s appearance to Mary Magdalene, the disciples’ disbelief of Mary Magdalene’s message that she saw the resurrected Jesus, Jesus’s appearance to two in the field, the disciples’ disbelief of their testimony, Jesus’s appearance to the Eleven to rebuke them for their disbelief, giving of the great commission, his ascension to the right hand of God, and the disciples preaching the gospel everywhere (Mark 16:9–20). This great commission has an interesting assurance concerning those who believe in Jesus’s message:

“They will take up snakes in their hands and drink poisons, but they will not be hurt” (Mark 16:18)

Based on this verse, a group of Christians in the mountains of Tennessee, USA, include snake handling as a part of their worship services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBVcsWYJd8 They might be surprised to find that this section of Mark was added later by scribes, perhaps from reading about Paul at Malta shaking off a poisonous snake that bit him and not being harmed by its bite (Acts 28:1–6).

Matthew and Luke began with the birth of Jesus and included events past Jesus’s resurrection. Unlike them, Mark’s gospel didn’t have the birth narrative and ended with “because they were afraid.” Mark wanted to portray Jesus as an ordinary person with an extraordinary message of God’s love and acceptance, as demonstrated in his healing, love for sinners, and working with simple people, even those who were afraid. This is the message we, too, proclaim.