Framing Mark: Reading Mark 16 in a Catena Manuscript

Abstract

Narratives are read within frames, sometimes frames that literally surround the main text of a work. Paratextual frameworks are particularly helpful in reading texts with complex textual traditions, such as the ending of Mark 16. We explore these propositions by analysing a twelfth-century deluxe Byzantine codex, GA 2604 (Dublin, Ireland, Chester Beatty Library, W 139, diktyon 13571), which features multiple paratextual systems, including extracts of arranged catena commentary, or Rahmenkommentar, which often takes up the entire upper, lower, and outer margin of any folio, framing the main gospel text. The content of the commentary for Mark 16 is primarily concerned with the post-resurrection events and harmonising the Gospel of Mark with the other canonical gospel narratives. Furthermore, the catena also attends to the shape of Mark’s textual history in mentioning copies of a ‘Palestinian Mark’ which ‘contains the truth’. The catena, therefore, plays an important role in navigating the reading experience of the ending of Mark.