Procedural Register in the Olivet Discourse 461 that Mark uses more than one register, and individual sections could have been shaped by the writer to address separate rhetorical needs. Mark 13 is widely recognized to be such a section. The view that Mark is in his Olivet Discourse attempting to cool off eschatological passions has strong backing from the most influential works. Contrary to this well established view, I will show that the primary thrust of the speech is to focus his audience’s attention on the road signs leading up to the “abomination of desolation” and accompanying events as described in vv. 14-23. Verses 5b-23 include the peak of the speech and the answer to the disciples’ question, delivered in a crescendo fashion in an unusual register with both procedural and paraenetic features. The section beginning with verse 24 represents the opening of a new temporal horizon in the speech by means of a clear register shift, and no longer addresses the question of the disciples regarding the temple’s destruction, nor any action required of them. In fact, it doesn’t even address the disciples directly. I will show that the procedural register evident in Mark 13,5b-23 communicates urgency, with increasing rhetorical effect culminating in vv. 14-23. In light of the fact that this register is absent from Matthew’s parallel passage, Matthew 24, Mark’s composition may reveal something about the situation and contribute to the determination of the date of the gospel. I will show that changes in register are the clearest revealers of Mark’s agenda in the Olivet Discourse. II. The Olivet Discourse Episode. Cohesion, Structure and Register Variation The narrative introduction and speech are clearly a cohesive literary unit (19), both internally, and in relation to the rest of Mark’s gospel. The relationship of the introductory verses (1-5a) providing the setting, as well as the prophecy of Jesus and, especially, the question of the disciples to the speech itself (5b-37), has been a subject of intense (19) From the classics, the most detailed treatment of the structure and cohesion is probably J. LAMBRECHT, Die Redaktion der Markus Apokalypse (AnBib 28; Rome 1967) 267-300. See also T. J. GEDDERT, Watchwords. Mark 13 in Markan Eschatology (JSNTSup 26; Sheffield 1989), and S. VILLOTA HERRERO, Palabras sin ocaso. Función interpretativa de Mc13.28-37 en el discurso escatológico de Marcos (Instituto Bíblico y Oriental; Estella 2006). Villota Herrero has written lengthy chapters on the thematic connections between vv. 28- 37 and the rest of the speech and gospel. Most recently see YARBRO COLLINS, Mark, 594.