[B-Greek] Mark 6:41
Norman Wood
nandk.wood at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri Jun 9 11:32:51 EDT 2006
> My take:
> It's very hard to pin the sense of the aorist down in a brief statement.
In
> a narrative context like this, it's like a simple past in English. It's
not
> that it tells you that the verbal action happened in such-and-such a way
> (e.g. punctiliar), but just that it happened. Depending on the context,
that
> may typically leave the reader with one or the other impression, just as
in
> English. It's the "unmarked" (or "unremarkable", if that conveys more
> meaning) tense-form for narrative writing.
>
> However, the imperfect does indeed say more than that it just happened. It
> suggests some kind of extension in time. Whether that be by repetition, by
> getting started ("inceptive"), by the notion that something went on "for a
> while", that new idea of extension does come in.
>
> My rendering of Mark 6:41 takes care to convey this force of the
imperfect:
>
> And he broke up the loaves, and was giving them to his followers, so they
> could serve the people.
>
> If you're asking if the disciples experienced multiplication of the bread
as
> they handed it out, I'd say that the text doesn't answer that. I suppose
the
> general impression is that Jesus continuously or repeatedly handed out
> portions of broken bread to the disciples - even though he only started
with
> a small handful of loaves.
> Webb Mealy
>
Thanks Webb that is clearer, though I see that my statement:
"the increase in bread occuring with him and being passed on",
although it might be the impression is probably reading too much into the
imperfect .
Thanks
Norman Wood
Scotland
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