The interplay of the aorist and the present (Mk 1:43-44)
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Dec 31 03:37:39 EST 2002
> Mark 1:43-44:
>
> KAI EKAQARISQH KAI EMBRIMHSAMENOS AUTW EUQUS EXEBALEN AUTON
> aorist aorist
>
> KAI LEGEI AUTW: hORA MHDENI MHDEN EIPHS.
> present
>
>
> It is obvious what is going on here. It can be best captured by the
> following translation:
>
> He was cleansed. And warning him by saying "Don't tell this to
> anybody", he sent him away immediately.
>
> The question is: what is the relationship between the historical present
> LEGEI AUTW and the previous sentence EMBRIMHSAMENOS AUTW EUQUS
> EXEBALEN AUTON.
>
> I can form the following hypothesis:
>
> LEGEI does not move the main story line, because it is "imperfect".
> (The present tense is "imperfect")
> It explains or add more details to the event just described.
> The details added here is the content of the warning EMBRIMHSAMENOS.
> The imperfect form of LEGEI would have been just fine for this
> purpose. But the present form is used to add more vividness to the
> scene.
>
>
> Does it make sense?
>
> Moon
Here we have to take into consideration the Hebrew structure of a Greek
text.
It is correct that the direct speech gives further detail to the event of
warning and sending away. However, that is not indicated by the tense of
LEGW. It is the common Hebrew feature of telling a story in overlay mode.
First you give a brief overview and then you backtrack and give a more
detailed account of various aspects of the overview. It is just like modern
newspaper articles. the Semitic KAI used in such constructions does not
indicate the normal Greek and English sense of "and then" but the Hebrew
"and in more detail".
It is instructive to see how (the Greek translator of) Matthew has handled
the Hebrew structure in Matt 8:4 and also how Luke handled it in 5:14. Mark
shows more Hebraic Greek here than the other two.
The use of the historic present LEGEI is a different matter, I believe.
Basically, the historic present serves to create suspense and marks the
event as important or even crucial to the main purpose of the author or the
plot. If it is a speech verb that uses the historic present, it marks the
content of the speech as crucial to the plot and author's purpose.
An imperfective speech verb has a different function from the present. It
can mark the repetition of a speech or that the speech is very long or that
it is a continuation of an earlier speech.
Iver Larsen
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