From Anointing to Arrest. Some Observations on the Composition of Mark... 27 13.2.6 The last phrase of the speech, ‘But let the scriptures be fulfilled’ (Mark 14:49b - so RSV, Greek-English Diglot, NEB)48 has a parallel in Matthew 26:54 and perhaps 56, but not in Luke or John. In the textual tradition of Mark it is firmly attested. Yet it is among the suspected elements of the text. Ed. Meyer called the earlier (part of the) saying about ‘a bandit’ and about Jesus’ teaching in the temple (v. 48b-49a) ‘gewiss authentisch’, in contrast to v. 49b, in his view an addition.49 Later commentators such as Lohmeyer, Vincent Taylor50, D.E. Nineham (1963) and others shared his doubts. In the segment Mark 14:46-52, we saw, Jesus’ comments mentioned in v. 48-49, including v. 49b, occupy the central position: in Mark 14:46-47, 48-49, 50-52 the text uses 58 + 68 + 58 = 184 syllables (see Chart 9b). As the narrative moves on, another balance comes to the surface. Within the saying of Jesus in 14:48b-49 one notices a sequence of 21 + 35 = 56 s. - or (3 x 7) + (5 x 7) = 8 x 7.51 V. 48b: « ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστήν ... συλλαβεῖν με; 9 + 8 + 4; = 21 | 21 49a: καθ᾽ ἡμέραν .. οὐκ ἐκρατήσατέ με˙ 9 + 8 + 8˙ = 25 b: ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα πληρωθῶσιν αἱ γραφαί. » 10 | 35 | 56 s. Now the final phrase, with the well-known ‘ἵνα introducing a main clause’52 clearly has a certain independence of its own. It is worded and placed so as to form the center of our § 3, Mark 14:48-52. 48 Cf. H. Pernot, Évangiles, Pages Choisies, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1925, p. 225: ‘ .. mais (c’est) afin que s’accomplissent les Ecritures’; and: idem, Les Quatre Évangiles, Paris: Pres- ses Universitaires, ²1962, p. 145: ‘Allons, que se réalisent les Écritures !’ 49 Ed. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfänge des Christentums I, Stuttgart und Berlin: Cotta, 1921, p. 184, cf. p. 117. 50 E. Lohmeyer, 1937, p. 323: ’ ... nachträglich ... zugefügt ...’; V. Taylor, 1953, p. 561: ‘It may be a scribal note’. 51 This, of course, is the sectio aurea in its most elementary form. - The 56 (= 8 x 7) s. of v. 48b-49, our # (14) in Chart 1, close a series of which the sequence 5²-6²-7² is a most striking feature (§ 7.1). Given the well-known appreciation for the number eight in early Christianity (see, e.g., H. Rahner, Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung, Zürich: Rhein, 1957, p. 106-111; W. Burkert, Weisheit und Wissenschaft, Nürnberg, 1962, p. 449) the queston arrises: Did the notion ‘(8 x 7) is even superior to 7 x 7’ come into play? If so, # (14) is not only the close, but also the climax of the series. 52 N. Turner in J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, III, Syntax, Edin- burgh: Clark, 1963, p. 95, dealing with ‘Imperatival ἵνα’, mentions Mark 14:49 as ‘doubtful’. For a fuller treatment, see: J. Duplacy, ‘Marc, 2, 10, Note de syntaxe’, in Mélanges bibliques .. en l’honneur de André Robert (Travaux de l’Institut catholique de Paris, 4), Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1956, p. 420-427; Duplacy speaks of ‘ἵνα en tête de phrase’ (p. 424). Also: W.G. Mor- rice, ‘The Imperatival ἵνα’, The Bible Translator 23 (1972) 326-330, see p. 327.