[B-Greek] Mark 6:41

Richard Lindeman oblchurch at msn.com
Sat Jun 10 10:26:27 EDT 2006


My thoughts:

Although the imperfect often indicates an extension of time when time is the
concern of the author, there is no indication here that "time" is of any
particular concern to the author in this text. 

This text could simply be translated "And he broke the loaves and gave the
pieces to the disciples to distribute them." 

The nuance between the aorist and imperfect in this text is strikingly vivid
in Greek. But there seems to be no English equivalent for the imperfect when
time isn't the focus of the author. Therefore I wonder if it might be better
to leave it untranslated here. 

Rich Lindeman  



My rendering of Mark 6:41 takes care to convey the force of the imperfect:

And he broke up the loaves, and was giving them to his followers, so they
could serve the people.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]
> On Behalf Of Norman Wood
> Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 4:42 AM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [B-Greek] Mark 6:41
> 
> Hi,
> KAI KATEKLASEN TOUS hARTOUS KAI EDIDOU TOIS MAQHTAIS hINA
> PARTIQWSIN AUTOIS
> 
> Mounce says "that the imperfect indicates a continuous action normally
occuring in
> the past"
> 
> Does this mean that he broke(aorist) the bread ( a one off action) , then
with
> EDIDOU that Jesus continued to give out bread to the disciples as they
served it to
> the men present, the increase in bread occuring with him and being passed
on?
> 
> 
> All the best
> Norman Wood
> Scotland
> 
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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