From Anointing to Arrest. Some Observations on the Composition of Mark... 17 Chart 6. John 2:1-11: The Number of Words § 1.1 John 2:1-2: The situation, persons present: 18 + 12 = 30 .2 3-5: A problem; discussion between Jesus and his mother: 13 + 15 + 11 = 39 | 69 § 2.1 6-8: Jesus’ instruction concerning six jars: 18 + 13 + 12 = 43 .2 9-10: The wine miracle: 27 + 22 = 49 | 92 §3 11: Comment and result: 16 + 7 = 23 ———————————————————————————————————————————— John 2:1-11: 184 words The 184 words are structured according to a formula ( 3 + 4 + 1 ) x 23 = 8 x 23. In v. 11 a closing unit of 23 words is added, almost as a reminder, to make sure the reader has not missed the key number. The highlight of the story, § 2.1-2, uses exactly half the full number of words. John 2:4-5, one could add, uses 23 + 23 = 46 syllables, and the length of § 2.1, v. 6-8, is 92 syllables. 10.2 The fourth gospel continues with the narrative of the cleansing of the temple (John 2:12-22). In the synoptic gospels, Jesus accuses the traders of making the temple into a ‘den of thieves’ (KJ) or ‘a robbers’ cave’ (NEB), Mark 11:17. In John 2:16 the term is οἶκος ἐμπορίου, ‘a house of trade’ (RSV) or ‘a market’ (NEB, NIV). These two words are at the centre of the narrative, according to a formula 94 + 2 + 94 = 190 words. In John 2:20 the temple in Jerusalem is said by ‘the Jews’ to have been built in forty-six years, a presumably inaccurate statement that causes some embarassment;31 but Jesus, it is explained in v. 21, was not speaking of the temple in Jerusalem, but of the temple of his body, and, one may add, by mentioning ‘three days’, implicitly about its resurrection. The story is framed in v. 12 and v. 22 by two statements of 23 words each; it is interrupted and illustrated by a Psalm quotation in v. 17 and, as we saw, in v. 21 the author-narrator explains in an ‘aside’ what Jesus really meant when he said ‘this temple’. The story proper is found, it seems, in v. 14-16 - in v. 16 Jesus speaks for the first time - and v. 18-20, where Jesus in v. 19 speaks again. Our next chart shows the size of the several parts, as measured in words.32 as two words: ὅτι ἄν ... Cf. C.R. Gregory in C. Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece III, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1884, p. 110-11. Under ‘Coniunctim scribuntur’ one finds ὅστισ but ὅ τι is listed under ‘Separantur haec’. (b) In John 2:4 we prefer the reading καὶ λέγει; N-A26 prints [ καὶ ]. 31 See C.K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John, London: S.P.C.K., ²1978, p. 200: most probably ‘John mistakenly supposed that the Temple had been completed’ .. [at the time Jesus visited it]. 32 For the number of syllables used in John 2:13-25, cf. J. Smit Sibinga, ‘The Shape of a Miracle Story ..’, NovT 45 (2003) p. 222-235, 46 (2004) p. 104, see p. 228-229: John 2:13-16, 17-21, 22-25 = 150 + 150 + 150 = 450 syllables.