164 GEERT VAN OYEN The question of the relationship of this verse with Q (or pre-Q?) is debated 9. Mark 8,35 is the first of four gar-sayings which justify ù the idea of denying oneself found in 8,34 (a.o. Focant, Gundry). And although the verse receives a metaphorical “translation” in vv. 36-37 (to gain the whole world, to forfeit one’s life, to give something in return for one’s life, to be ashamed of Jesus), it remains difficult to make very concrete what exactly “to save/lose one’s life” means. Though a more traditional interpretation would connect this saying and its context to the fate of death or martyrdom of Jesus’ disciples following Jesus, there are several arguments against thinking of “the shadow of death”, especially death by crucifixion, as the central issue 10. The emphasis may not exclusively be on the recompense of suffering and death in this world in eternal life. As U. Schmidt has shown, this idea of death may be a later stage in the development of the paradox 11, but the more original The verse plays a role in the so-called Mark-Q overlaps. The parallel 9 verses are Mark 8,35 // Matt 16,25 // Luke 9,24 and Matt 10,38 // Luke 17,33 (= Q). See the critique on the Q-hypothesis for this verse by F. NEIRYNCK, “ Recent Developments in the Study of Q”, in Logia. Les paroles de Jésus – The Sayings of Jesus (BETL 59; ed. J. DELOBEL ; Leuven 1982) 29-75; = ID., Evangelica II (BETL 99; Louvain 1991) 409-464, esp. 426-431: “If Lk 17,33 is a rewriting of Mk 8,35, and there is no trace of Mt 10,39 in Lk 14,26-35, then the ‘Q-saying’ is attested only in Mt 10,39. Its connection with 10,38 can be the Matthaean editorial linking under the influence of Mk 8,(34-)35” (431). NEIRYNCK, “Recent Developments”, 435-436; SCHMIDT, “Paradox”, 10 351: “Es sollte deutlich geworden sein, dass das Paradoxon vom Verlieren und Finden der cyxh nicht sofort und nicht hauptsächlich under dem ‘Schatten des ¥ Todes’ zu lessen ist”. S C H M I D T , “Paradox”, 343-346. The idea of an eschatological 11 compensation can be seen in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5,3-11; Luke 6,20-23; though the present tense in the beginning of the sayings and the Synoptic tradition as a whole “drängen darauf, dass sich diese Zusagen – zumindest teilweise – schon jetzt erfüllen” [344]), in the parable of the rich man and