In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus does not reveal his Messiahship to his disciples until they reach Caesarea Philippi. This event was shortly before they began the journey to Jerusalem, and even then he cautioned them not to say anything about it. Whether Jesus was conscious of his Messiahship from the beginning of his ministry or it was revealed gradually in his own mind is not made entirely clear. Mark undoubtedly wrote with as much objectivity as possible, but viewing the events of Jesus' life from the perspective of what the Christians of thirty or forty years after Jesus' death believed about Jesus, Mark could not refrain from reporting some events in such a manner that they would agree with these later beliefs. An example of this kind can be seen in the explanation that Jesus gives for the failure of so many people to be convinced by the message he preached and the deeds he performed. To account for these disbelievers' attitude, Jesus refers to a statement used by the prophet Isaiah when the prophet attributed the Israelite people's failure to listen to the words of Yahweh to the fact that their eyes had been so darkened that they could not see the light and their ears had been made so dull that they could not understand. To Mark, nothing less than blindness and deafness could have caused people to reject Jesus' mission, which was so obviously in harmony with the divine will. But again, it was quite impossible for Mark to refrain from interpreting many of Jesus' sayings in view of what had occurred since Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
Mark gives a rather full account of Jesus' teachings and activities during the days preceding Jesus' trial and crucifixion. He tells about the women's visit to the tomb and their surprise at finding Jesus risen from the dead. We do not know what else Mark may have said concerning the appearances of Jesus after the resurrection, for the original ending of his gospel has been lost. The last twelve verses of the gospel as it now appears in the New Testament were not part of the earliest manuscripts. Even in later manuscripts, these verses are not the same. Evidently, they were added by an editor who recognized that something was lacking in the manuscript copy and therefore attempted to complete it. That the original ending of Mark's gospel has been lost is a serious handicap to readers of the New Testament, for when we omit the verses that were added, the account of the resurrection breaks off in the middle of the story. In fact, it breaks off in the middle of a sentence. Having the remainder of the story would furnish valuable information since it would be the oldest gospel account of this most important event, but we do not know what happened to the original ending of the manuscript.
