ABSTRACT
Mark’s account of the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry shows the influence of the book of Zechariah in about six passages. In three instances this influence can be established with absolute certainty or reasonable probability.1 The most certain case is Mark 14:27, where Jesus before entering into Gethsemane says to his disciples: ‘You will all become deserters; for it is written “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” ’ This is a clear reference to Zech 13:7, introduced with an explicit quotation formula, ‘it is written’. It is also a reference which functions on the redactional level of Mark’s narrative, for at the end of the Gethsemane episode Mark relates that ‘all of (the disciples) deserted him (Jesus) and fled’ (v. 50).
