Neotestamentica

Explanations for why the Markan stories of Jairus’ daughter/haemorrhaging woman appear in an intercalation are dissatisfactory, and do not show how the stories are cocommentative. The article demonstrates that the intercalation is narratomimetic because both stories and text are tactile; there is correlation between what the text does and the stories relate. The narrative hints that the girl was dead and that the girl was asleep. The key to interpret the outer story is accepting that ambiguity. The focus is on whether the girl was dead or asleep. It is argued that the ambiguity is comic. In summary, the focus of the outer story is the question “was she or wasn’t she?” The inner story about the haemorrhaging woman is analysed to show ambiguity between a healing touch and a sexual touch. Whether Jesus’ mantle or body were touched, and how it/they were touched are comically ambiguous. The thrust of the inner story is “did she or didn’t she?” The intercalation writes an interplay of “was she or wasn’t she” and “did she or didn’t she?” The intercalation is thus a comic counterbalance. Comedy fills the gap between the stories, and arises at the textual edge of this Markan intercalation.