Jesus' Divinity in the Gospel of Mark - Part One

Responding to Muslims and Atheists

My friend Niko had me on Myths, Mysteries and Majesty to discuss Jesus’ Divinity in the Gospel of Mark. Here is part one:

In this apologetic episode, we welcome Dain back on the podcast. He will help us analyze and exegete the Gospel of Mark (only the first 4 chapters for now because a thorough analysis of the whole Gospel will take a few episodes). Why Mark though? Well, there are two reasons. First - for many biblical scholars, this gospel is the oldest one so to our Muslim and skeptic friends, it makes sense to go back to it and see if Mark was teaching that Jesus was/is God. Second - If one takes into account the fact that there is a shorter version of the last chapter of Mark (16:1-8), which is understood by many to be the original one, and the longer version (verses 9-20), which is thought of as being expanded later by a scribe, then we ought to check if the first eight verses of Mark 16 teach Jesus' divinity. For whatever reason, our atheists and Muslim friends do not see one can conclude that Jesus = God unless one accepts the longer ending of Mark 16 (1-20), which is a highly erroneous conclusion since Mark speaks of Jesus' divine attributes in EACH chapter and the omitted resurrection event in Mark 16:1-8 (the shorter ending) does not affect Jesus's divinity at all!