8 Joost Smit Sibinga περίλυπος ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου 10 ἕως θανάτου˙ 5 | 15 μείνατε ὧδε 5 καὶ γρηγορεῖτε. 5 | 10 | 25 syllables As to its form, the prayer ‘Abba, Father ...’, Mark 14:36b-e, our # (11), is remarkable. A comparison with the ancient versions shows there are three cases of ellipsis: (a) the verb ‘to be’ with ‘all things [are] possible to you ..’; (b) the verb in ‘you [want]’, or ‘thou [wilt’] at the end; witnesses of the vetus latina supplement ‘sunt’ and ‘vis’. (c) The vetus syra supplies a verb with ‘.. not what I will but what thou wilt’: ‘... should happen’. In the concise Greek text a symmetrical pattern a b a is obvious: it uses 5, 6˙ 14˙ 11 or 11 + 14 + 11 = 36 syllables. The request ‘Take this cup away from me’, 14 syllables, is in the center of a small tryptich. Thirty-six is the triangular number of eight and the square of six.15 Now the number value, the ψῆφος of Ἀββά, is 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 6, and it has been established that both Luke and John have used the gematria of Πατέρ.16 So one may, I think, ask the question: did the word ‘Abba’ perhaps lead Mark to consciously using this square of six in the phrasing of Jesus’ prayer? If the short prayer is to be divided in two smaller parts, the obvious division is into 25 and 11 (= 36), with ‘Yet not what I will, but what thou wilt’ somewhat like an afterthought. In that way the earlier square 25, used in # (10), is still or again present. In # (12), Mark 14:37-38, where Jesus is addressing Peter: ‘Simon, are you asleep? ...’ a square (a²) is again followed by its gnomon17 so as to form the next square, (a +1)²: 36 + 13 = 49 s. W.L. Knox called Mark 14:38 ‘the most remarkable instance’ of Greek influence in the gospels and ‘a perfect piece of artificial prose of the popular rhetorical type described in Norden’s great work Die antike Kunstprosa’, pointing out the correct rhythmical endings in four out of five short clauses.18 In the last two cola, a general statement on human nature is added to the words addressed to Peter (and the other two disciples) personally: τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον, 15 See H.A. Naber, Das Theorem des Pythagoras, Haarlem: P. Visser Azn., 1908, p. 165- 168: ‘Die heilige Zahl 36.’ 16 M.J.J. Menken, Numerical Literary Techniques in John (NovTS 55), Leiden: Brill, 1985, p. 229-230, 260, for John 17:1b-26 (486 words) and Luke 11:1-13 (486 syllables). Π + α + τ + ε + ρ = 80 + 1 + 300 + 5 + 100 = 486. 17 On the gnomon, see I. Thomas, Selections Illustrating the History of Greek Mathema- tics, London-Cambridge, Mass., 1951, I, p. 86-88. 18 W.L. Knox, Some Hellenistic Elements in Primitive Christianity, London: [Oxford University Press], 1944, p. 3.