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John 8:6, 8 ἔγραφεν significance of the (2nd) imperfect?

Posted: April 6th, 2015, 8:14 pm
by Stephen Hughes
I'm supposing that the imperfect here is inceptive "he started to write". Logically the second time in verse 8 would be "he continued to write", which doesn't seem to be inceptive. [In fact there seem to be a larger number of imperfects in this passage than there usually is in the same length of text.]

Is the use of the imperfect here significant?
John 8:6, 8 wrote:Τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγον πειράζοντες αὐτόν , ἵνα ἔχωσιν κατηγορίαν κατ’ αὐτοῦ . Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς κάτω κύψας, τῷ δακτύλῳ ἔγραφεν (NAUSB κατέγραφεν) εἰς τὴν γῆν.
...
8 Καὶ πάλιν κάτω κύψας ἔγραφεν εἰς τὴν γῆν .

Re: John 8:6, 8 ἔγραφεν significance of the (2nd) imperfect?

Posted: April 7th, 2015, 1:01 am
by timothy_p_mcmahon
Could it likewise be ingressive?

I think we can infer from πάλιν κάτω κύψας that Jesus stood up and stopped writing, so wouldn't ἔγραφεν in v.8 indicate that he resumed - began again - writing?