92 siGuRD GRinDheim “the little ones who believe in me”, “the little ones who believe”, or just “the little ones”. if we also assume that he expected his audience to recognize the saying, it is plausible that he knew a version that included a reference to faith, as an association of “believer” with “brother” is easier to make than an association of “the little ones” with the same term. at the same time, it is surprising that paul did not include the term “little ones” at all. this term would have been well-suited for his rhetorical purposes in Rom 14,1 – 15,13, as he urges the Roman christians to “welcome those who are weak in faith” (Rom 14,1; cf. 15,1). While paul’s apparent knowledge of the saying strengthens the likelihood of it being authentic, the pauline evidence does little to help us determine the original wording of the saying. For our purposes, all that may be said is that the pauline attestation makes it marginally more likely that a reference to faith was original to the saying. in light of these observations, it might be concluded that the words “who believe in me” are not likely to have been added by matthew himself. if they also were present in mark and known to paul, as is plausible, they have been an integrated part of the tradition as far back as it is possible to trace it 23. they may very well go back to the historical Jesus. Vi. the mockers at the cross (matt 27,42) a reference to faith in Jesus also occurs in matt 27,42, where those who pass by at Jesus’ crucifixion mock him with the words: “[h]e saved others; he cannot save himself. he is the King of israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him”. mark attributes this mockery to the scribes and the chief priests, and he has the wording: “[h]e saved others; he cannot save himself. let the messiah, the King of israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe” (15,31-32). Whatever the identity of the mockers, it is plausible that Jesus was ridiculed by the passers-by and the other criminals when he was crucified 24. 23 other scholars who find matthew and mark to have preserved the most original form of the saying include D. Wenham, “a note on mark 9:33-42/matt 18:1-6/luke 9:46-50”, JSNT 14 (1982) 116; GunDRY, Mark, 527. 24 pesch, Markusevangelium, ii, 489-490; maRcus, Mark 8–16, 1044. the question whether matthew and mark have located the mockery of the members of the sanhedrin at the cross for rhetorical effect need not concern us here. cf. R.e. BRoWn, The Death of the Messiah. a commentary on the passion narratives in the Four Gospels (aBRl; new York 1994) ii, 1028. Rudolf Bultmann deemed