This saying in which Jesus bears witness to himself and his mission does not stand isolated in the Gospels.16 Here we quote only a variant to Matthew 11:26, which was current in the second century among the Marcosians, a Gnostic sect, and which goes back to an old Aramaic tradition. According to this reading, Jesus cried out: “O my father, that good pleasure was granted me before you!”17 This variant form of the exclamation in Matthew 11:26 may well be secondary. Nevertheless, it strikes the original