Abstract
Jeremias and others include the 'three days' motif in their reconstruction of Jesus's prophecy about the temple's destruction in Mark 14:58. While the arguments in the literature present a plausible case for authenticity, it is more likely an inauthentic pre-Markan innovation. Even so, its placement and form in 14:58 is surely the result of Markan redaction. In addition to arguments from redaction, literary, and structural criticism, hypothetical reconstruction of the motif's tradition history in early Christianity suggests that the addition follows a pattern of connecting Jesus's prophecy with the resurrection and growth of the Christian movement. With the designation, Mark shows how the prophecy is literally false because it misrepresents Jesus's actual teaching but is, ironically, symbolically true.