“The Jenny and the Colt” in Matthew’s Messianic Entry, Part 1: Matthew 21:5 as a Reading of Zechariah 9:9 in Light of Mark 11:1-10

The presence of a female donkey (a “jenny”) in Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry (Matt 21:1-9) has been perplexing because her presence is not mentioned in either of Matthew’s sources, Mark 11:1-10 and Zech 9:9. Some scholars hold that the jenny comes from another tradition, but this does not make her presence a fulfillment of the prophecy. Others hold that Matthew broke the parallelism of Zech 9:9, where the humble Messiah is to ride into Jerusalem “on a (male) donkey, and on a colt,” but this too does not account for a female donkey at the scene. In this article, I argue for a plenary reading of the Hebrew prophecy where Matthew sees the presence of the jenny fulfilled in Zechariah’s characterization of the colt as a “son of jennies.”