Garrett Tyson wrote: ↑July 14th, 2018, 10:50 pm
Some grammars talk about different types of imperfects (conative, inceptive, etc.), but as I've been working through Mark, I'm finding Rodney Decker's approach (Temporal Deixis) to be working beautifully. Imperfects are background information to help us understand the story line better.
Rijksbaron's
Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek has an excellent discussion of this in
§ 6 Imperfect and aorist indicative in narrative texts, page 11. I can't do it justice in a brief summary, but the aorist is often used to show the steps as they unfold, the imperfect (and historical present) to describe the scene as it appears at any given step, describe other things that were happening at the same time, etc.
Garrett Tyson wrote: ↑July 14th, 2018, 10:50 pm
I'm in Mark 2:13-17 right now, and Mark pauses his story in verse 16, giving us 2 imperfects to clarify Levi's significance. Levi isn't the exception to the rule. Many "were reclining," many "were following." Levi is representative of the type of people following Jesus. So Mark pauses his story to make sure we don't get the wrong idea.
Let's take a look:
aorist
imperfective (imperfect or present, including historical present and periphrastic imperfect)
Mark 2:13-17 wrote:Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν πάλιν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν· καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτούς. καὶ παράγων εἶδεν Λευὶν τὸν τοῦ Ἁλφαίου καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀκολούθει μοι. καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.
Καὶ γίνεται κατακεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πολλοὶ τελῶναι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ συνανέκειντο τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, ἦσαν γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἠκολούθουν αὐτῷ. καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς τῶν Φαρισαίων ἰδόντες ὅτι ἐσθίει μετὰ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ τελωνῶν ἔλεγον τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· Ὅτι μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει; καὶ ἀκούσας ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς ὅτι Οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ’ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες· οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλούς.
This text doesn't really distinguish Rijsbaron's approach from Campbell's, I can see how it works for you. But it works for Rijksbaron's model too: the steps in the narrative occur in the aorist, the imperfectives paint the scene.
- They went out again ( ἐξῆλθεν πάλιν)
- The crowd came to them
Now let's look around in the imperfective tenses - he was teaching them ἐδίδασκεν αὐτούς (or perhaps began to teach, but nothing forces us to see this as ingressive), and as he was passing by παράγων, we get to the next step:
- He saw Levi (εἶδεν Λευὶν τὸν τοῦ Ἁλφαίου)
Now look around in a bunch of imperfectives, and we see Levi sitting at the tax booth (καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον), we see Jesus speaking to him, saying "follow me!" (καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀκολούθει μοι). Which brings us to the next step, again in the aorist:
- And he stood and followed him (καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.)
Now this new state is described in a bunch of imperfectives. They were dining in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were dining with them, there were many of them and they were following him. This use of the imperfective ἠκολούθουν is significant - it describes what is going on in this state without switching the focus to these other followers, so it does not change the state of the narrative.
In the next step, the Pharisees see what's going on in the aorist. That state is described with imperfectives until the next step: Jesus hears what the Pharisees are saying in another aorist. At each step, the scene is described with imperfectives.
Hmmm, you could sort of show this by using paragraphs to indicate the steps, creating a new line for each aorist that introduces a new state.
Mark 2:13-17 wrote:Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν πάλιν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν·
καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτούς. καὶ παράγων
εἶδεν Λευὶν τὸν τοῦ Ἁλφαίου καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀκολούθει μοι.
καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ. Καὶ γίνεται κατακεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πολλοὶ τελῶναι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ συνανέκειντο τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, ἦσαν γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἠκολούθουν αὐτῷ.
καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς τῶν Φαρισαίων ἰδόντες ὅτι ἐσθίει μετὰ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ τελωνῶν ἔλεγον τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· Ὅτι μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει;
καὶ ἀκούσας ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς ὅτι Οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ’ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες· οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλούς.
I didn't create a new step for the last sentence because I think the aorist is doing something different here.
Garrett Tyson wrote: ↑July 14th, 2018, 10:50 pm
Translating them as "began to follow," or "were trying to follow," or "were regularly following," don't seem very helpful usually.
At least usually. I think this is worth reading:
The Validity of Ingressive Imperfects in the Greek of the New Testament
It gives a good overview of the history of the ingressive imperfect. I think some of the examples he gives of ingressive imperfects are debatable. Can we get rid of the ingressive imperfect entirely? I'm skeptical, but open.