Re Flashbacks
Moon-Ryul Jung
moon at sogang.ac.kr
Fri Jan 3 16:47:03 EST 2003
> [Alex:]> > But there are also examples of the imperfect used in this way.
> > >
> > > The opening of the fifth chapter of Mark narrates the healing of the
> > > Gerasene demoniac. At v7 we read, (NRS): And he shouted at the
> > top of his
> > > voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I
> > > adjure you by God, do not torment me." The following verse
> > reads: *ELEGEN*
> > > GAR AUTWi, EXELQE TO PNEUMA TO AKAQARTON EK TOU ANQRWPOU. For
> > he (Jesus)
> > > had been saying to him, ... (Some of the translations offer:
> > KJV "For he
> > > said unto him,"; NAS "For He had been saying to him"; RSV
> > "For he had said
> > > to him"; NRS "For he had said to him". KJV does not clearly
> > indicate that
> > > the time sequence has shifted; of the others cited, only the NAS gives
> > > force to the imperfect.) Maximilian Zerwick's excellent 'Biblical Greek
> > > illustrated by Examples' notes this verse at section 290 (p98),
> > as well as
> > > Mark 6:17.
> >
> [Moon:]> I think we can interpret the situation so that the demon shouted in
> the
> > middle of Jesus' commanding.
>
> How would you then account for the imperfectives and presents in the
> following verses?
>
> 5:8 ELEGEN GAR - for he had been saying...
> 5:9a KAI EPHRWTA AUTON - and he had been questioning him
> 5:9b KAI LEGEI AUTWi - and he had said to him
> 5:10 KAI PAREKALEI - and he had been imploring him
>
RSV takes this paragraph as follows:
5:7 and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with
me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment
me."
5:8 For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
5:9 And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is
Legion; for we are many."
5:10 And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country.
So, only 5.8 seems to be a "flashback", and 5.9-10 a continuation of
5:7.
> Notice how the last sentence about imploring repeats the imploring in v. 7.
=> The unclean spirit would have begged again after Jesus asked the name.
> I think what we have here is a Hebrew circular story which the Greek writer
> is trying to put into progressive Greek structure. the use of imperfective
> is one way of stopping the progression and let the reader take in these
> various events as overlapping one another.
What is a Hebrew circular story?
Moon
>
> In our idiomatic translations into English and other linearly structured
> languages, we normally combine such verses and rearrange the pieces so they
> come in chronological order.
>
> Iver Larsen
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