From Anointing to Arrest. Some Observations on the Composition of Mark... 31 46 2 2 47 4 - 4 48-49 2 6 8 50 2 - 2 51-52 5 - 5| 25 Mark 14:43-52: 24 10 34 v. A few comments: (1) The analysis of the number of words prompted a division at v. 44/45 (see Chart 8). At this point, the sum-total of 34 verbal forms divides into 9 (= 3²) + 25 (= 5²). (2) The incident with the High Priest’s slave (Mark 14:47) occupies the central position (9 + 4 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 2 + 5 or 15 + 4 + 15 = 34 forms). (3) Where Jesus begins to speak (14:48b) the sum-total of 34 forms is made up of 21 + 13: again the golden ratio. The verb « .. ἐξήλθατε .. » is form # 22; the phrase ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν (v. 48a) marks this moment, and even without it this would be a division of some importance. (4) The twenty-one verbal forms of 14:43-48a, moreover, divide into 13 + 8 at v. 45/46, that is at the moment Jesus is going to be arrested, and the first 13 forms divide into 5 + 8 at the moment Judas’ words are quoted: « (ὃν ἂν) φιλήσω .. » (v. 44b) is verbal form # 6. (5) So the narrative is arranged in 5 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 5 or 13 + 8 + 13 = 34 verbal forms, and parts may be headed as (A) ‘up to the actual arrest’ (Mark 14:43-45), (B) ‘what happened before Jesus said his final words on this occasion’ (14:46-48a), and (C) ‘what he said and after’ (v. 48b-52). In its own way, the pericope nicely fulfills Aristotle’s requirements in the Poetics, ch. 7, about the orderly arrangement of incidents in tragedy: it is a whole that has a beginning, a middle and an end. We have to add, (6), that the distribution of the verbal over finite and non-finite forms is also 21 + 13.60 By way of summary the following survey may be instructive; it also leads us to one further observation and conclusion. Chart 12. The Distribution of Verbal Forms in Mark 14:43-52. Mark 14:43, 44a v. 44b, 45 v. 46, 47, 48a v. 48b-49, 50 v. 51, 52 2 + 3˙ «4»+4 2 + 4 + 2˙ «6»+2 3+2 5 8 8 8 5 Or: 13 + 8 + 13 = 34 verbal forms 60 We use the term ‘non-finite’ for the nominal forms of the verb, i.e. infinitive and participle.