18 Joost Smit Sibinga Chart 7. John 2:12-22: The Number of words. John 2:12 23 13 13 14-16 60 17 14 18-20 48 21 9| 36 | 144 22 23 | 46 | 190 words A story of 144 (= 12²) words, John 2:13-21, is framed in v. 12 and v. 22 with 46 words.33 In John 2:16bc, ἄρατε ταῦτα ἐντεῦθεν ..., Jesus addresses the traders in the temple in 3 + 9 = 12 words. V. 14 begins with 12 words, and of the 60 words of v. 14-16 there are 48 in N(arrative), 12 in D(iscourse). In John 2:18-20 one counts 16 words in N(arrative), 32 in D(iscourse), with a sum-total of 48 words. The ‘asides’ in v. 17 and 21 use 14 + 9 = 23 words and with the beginning in v. 13 (13 words) they add up to 36 words - another multiple of twelve, as 60 is 5 x 12 and 48 is equal to 4 x 12.34 The result is, as stated, a story of 12² words, in a frame of 46 words. The three words of the number for forty-six in John 2:20, it should perhaps be added, are given the positions (within v. 12-22) of words # 144 - #146. We know, of course, of an early attempt to ‘decode’ the number forty- six: the numerical value of Ἀδάμ is 1 + 4 + 1 + 40 = 46, and so it is 33 In John 2:12 GNT (1966) and N-A26 (1979) read, with Lachmann (1837, 1842), οἱ μαθηταὶ [αὐτοῦ], and B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, ²1994, p. 173, explains why. The reading with αὐτοῦ is supposed to account best for the rise of the other variants. In our view, it tries to correct the lack of uniformity in the ori- ginal text that did not read αὐτοῦ: two times a noun followed by a personal pronoun in the genitive, but once a very similar noun not followed by such a pronoun. The Committee’s explanation is inadequate, and one should prefer the short reading of N-A25. Among the witnesses are P66*, P75 and B. So in John 2 :12 we count 23 words. 34 Cf. the use of 36 + 36 + 12 + 36 = 120 words in John 4:46c-52; see ‘The Shape ...’ (above, n. 21), p. 231-232. In John 18:28-40 Jesus appears before Pilate, who questions both ‘the Jews’ and Jesus. The hearing of Jesus in John 18:33-38b is described in 144 words, and so is the exchange with the Jews in 18:28-31c, 31d-32 and 38c-40: here one counts 72 + 22 + 50 = 72 + 72 = 144 words. As far as I can see, there are no small segments using the aliquot part of twelve words. Another interesting case is John 10:31-39. There are 144 words in toto; Jesus speaks first in v. 32 and again in v. 34-38. His long speech begins in v. 34 with 12 words and continues in v. 35-36 with 36 words. In v. 37 he returns to the ‘works’ he men- tioned in v. 32, and supplements the 14 words of v. 32bc with 34 in v. 37-38: again 48 words.