Mark 14:68

Mark 14:68 @kai. avle,ktwr evfw,nhsen# {C}

It is difficult to decide whether these words were added or omitted from the original text. It is easy to explain their addition: copyists would have been tempted to insert the words in order to emphasize the literal fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy in ver. Mark 14:30 (perhaps copyists would also have reasoned that Peter could not have known that a crowing of the cock was the second if he had not heard the first). It is also easy to explain the omission of the words: copyists wished to bring the Markan account of two cock-crowings into harmony with the narratives of the other three Gospels, which mention only one cock-crowing (perhaps copyists also asked themselves why, if Peter had heard the cock, he did not at once repent).

In the face of such conflicting possibilities, and with each reading supported by impressive external evidence, the Committee decided that the least unsatisfactory solution was to include the words in the text, but to enclose them within square brackets.