34 Joost Smit Sibinga In Charts 13a and b we see that 165 (= 15 x 11) s. are followed by 143 (= 13 x 11) s. to make up a section (our section II) of 28 x 11 or 308 s. In a comparable way, at v. 26 - see Chart 13c - the story, which so far used 308 or 11 x 28 s., continues with 560 = 20 x 28 s., and the result is a large section, Mark 14:17-42, of 31 x 28 s. Small units of 14 or 28 s. are not very frequent62; however, as Chart 2 already indicates and Chart 13a shows in detail, this section begins in Mark 14:17-21 with 56 s. in N(arrative). On a linear reading, sections II and III divide at v. 25/26 on multiples of 28 s., and in the constituents N and D a common factor of 31 s. is observed, to a sum-total of 28 x 31 s. The function of the number 28 is again striking.63 So one could call twenty-eight one of the key numbers used by the author. He is an author, an accomplished author, not a compiler; his literary technique has distinct numerical aspects - which can and should be described and analysed rather than ignored. 15.2 Other key numbers we have met are well-known, as they are specifically mentioned in early Christian sources: 46 and its half twenty- three, 318 and its factor fifty-three, and 153, the triangular number of seventeen.64 15.3 Two of these, 153 and 53, have proved essential for our subject: the final redaction of the words of Jesus in Mark 14:1-52, with and without Amen-formula, follows an overall design matching a formula in which the sum-total of 765 s., or 5 x 153, is equal to (5 x 53) plus (5 x 100); see Chart 1 and § 8.2. The 500 syllables of the words of Jesus that are not introduced by ‘Truly, I say to you ...’, moreover, are centered around the prophecy in Mark 14:28 ‘After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee’ (NIV) according to a formula 239 + 21 + 240 = 500 s. (see § 8.4).65 That is to say: this class of Jesus’ words also answers the requirement of having a 62 See Mark 14: 31a-c (Chart 5); v. 29bc, 36d, 37a (14 s.); v. 18, 42 (42 s.). 63 See also § 13.1 and foot-note 41 (Mark 2:1-12) on the use of 28 words. For the use of 28 and 14 verbal forms, see, e.g., J. Smit Sibinga, ‘The Composition of 1 Cor 9 and its Context’, NovT 40 (1998), 136-163, p. 139-142, on Luke 3:1-17 and 1 Cor. 7:1-11:1; also, in a much earlier author, Herodotus, Historiae 8.140α-9.1: 98 + 28 + 98 = 224 verbal forms. The central element is found in the 28 verbal forms of the speech of the Spartan delegates in 8.142. 64 The use of 5 x 153 s. we found in Mark 14:1-52 is to be compared to the presentation of what Jesus says in John 8:12-59. In the four sections John 8:12-20, 21-30, 31-47, 48-59 the number of syllables for D-Jesus is: 228 + 255 + 520 + 221, with a sum-total of 1224 (= 8 x 153, or 18 x 68 or 72 x 17) s. Sections a and c use 748 (= 11 x 68) s., sections b and d 476 (= 7 x 68) s. The full size of the composition John 8:12-59 is 1785 or 105 x 17 s., of which Jesus speaks 72 x 17 s. 65 Note the balance of 239 and 240 s. Here and elsewhere (see, e.g., Mark 14:1-2 and 10- 11, where we counted 67 over against 68 s. - above, § 9.3) one may have to remind oneself of Vergil, Ecl. 8.75: ‘... numero deus impare gaudet.’