ABSTRACT
The importance of the book of Zechariah as background for the interpretation of Mark’s passion narrative is widely recognized,1 but the only explicit scriptural citation, as distinct from passing allusions, is Zech 13:7a, quoted on the lips of Jesus at Mark 14:27. This singular fact probably indicates that the evangelist found in the Zecharian prophecy a key to his interpretation of the passion as a whole: the Shepherd-Messiah, smitten by God himself, would rise from the dead and gather his scattered flock in Galilee.2 The repetition at 16:7 confirms this. The present context of the citation is the dramatic final scene in the upper room, before the departure (14:32) to the place called Gethsemane. But it is the proposal here that it is Mark himself who has thus promoted into greater prominence a prophecy which originally, that is in the oral or written traditions he was using,3 had a more limited reference to a minor and surprising detail in the story of Jesus’ arrest.
