[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Thus, if Mark 12:16 provides a logical argument that Mark was written in Greek rather than Latin, then Acts 27:14 provides the same (mirror image) logical argument that Luke was writing Acts in Latin rather than Greek.

Neither argument has substance. And the discussions of the language authorship of Mark have to look at other factors.

Since I am just pointing out that a non-Greek autograph is a reasonable possibility (mostly based on a Latin-ish grammatical substratum and the historical understandings of Mark writing for a Roman audience) I believe that case is essentially shown. ie. The possibility. The factors that are strong in refuting an Aramaic Mark (a mildly popular scholastic theory about a century ago) are essentially of no import at all in looking at the Greek and Latin issues.

And I see absolutely no difficulty at all to the purity of the King James Bible if the original autograph of Mark or another NT book was other than Greek. None whatsoever.

And many of the opponents attacks are based on their unexamined (sometimes implied rather than stated) claims about "the Greek" - claims that falsely presume a certainty of the autographs having been written in Greek. There is no such certainty. Nor any such spiritual imperative, one of the points of the article by Herb Evans.

Going into the details of the Hoskier article is a bit superfluous and also out of our league. The basics are uncomplicated. The two main factors, mentioned above (grammatical structure and historical understandings) are far simpler than Hoskier's type of detailed technical study. And Hoskier, like many scholars, was prone to augmenting sound analysis with conjectures. I will say that there is no difficulty at all with Paul writing to the Romans in Greek (he may not even have been fluent in Latin) and Mark writing in Latin (with or without a dual-autograph-language theory per Hoskier). None whatsoever. There are many churches in the USA today that receive literature in English and Spanish, without any eye blinks or concern. Some people in the receiving churches understand both languages, others understand one or the other well.

The Latin audience could have been reached with the Gospel of Mark, and yet, with the Greek NT being the center of compilation and interest in the early centuries, the result would have been that the Greek NT, one unit, become the center of preservation and transmission.

Shalom,
Steven