"The Jenny and the Colt" in Matthew's Messianic Entry, Part 2: Matthew 21:7 as a Reading of Mark 11:7 in Light of Zechariah 9:9

Abstract

Matthew's description of Jesus taking his mount in 21:7 as "and he sat on top of them" has been a crux interpretum for centuries. Some take it literally even though it is impossible for a human to sit on two donkeys at once. Others try to avoid the problem by referring the plural pronoun "them" to the coats the disciples placed on the donkeys instead. I contend that both readings are unsatisfactory, and I bring new evidence and arguments, including Matthew's plenary reading of Zech 9:9 set forth in part 1 of the study (see CBQ 81 [2019] 62-84), to argue that the plural pronoun functions for Matthew as a whole-for-part synecdoche, where the jenny and the colt constitute a conceptual whole such that when Jesus sits on top of "them," he takes his mount on the part that fulfills the Hebrew prophecy.