Today, probably the most controversial take on this topic is the argument that one of the longer endings to the text should be treated as the original. Writing for the Text & Canon Institute, Pastor James Snapp makes a robust defense of the longer ending. Snapp points out that there are 1,653 extant Greek copies of the New Testament that contain verses 9 to 20, eight with a different shorter ending, and only three contain the most commonly accepted shortest ending. Among other arguments, he mentions that although two of the three shortest texts are very old, several Church Fathers whose work is even older — including Irenaeus and Justin Martyr — make reference to the missing material.
A rebuttal to Snapp's argument was also published in Text & Canon, written by New Testament scholar Peter Head. Head responded that the stylistic differences in the longer ending and the evidence from two early Church Fathers — Eusebius and Jerome — provide enough support to the argument that the long versions are later additions. Eusebius in particular commented that in his time (the 3rd to 4th century A.D.), most copies of Mark did not have verses 9-20.
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