9 Is Verbal Aspect a Prominence Indicator? act of Jesus to be the main point of the miracle stories. But this proba- bly has more to do with the fact that they demonstrate the fulfilment of Isaianic soteriological texts, which, in Luke, become a kind of Messianic manifesto (see 4,17-21; 7,21-22). The discipline of discourse analysis offers additional support for equa- ting the miraculous act of Jesus with the climax of the discourse. One of the key considerations for discourse analysis is the identification of the “climactic resolution” to the “complicating action”25. That is, Jesus’ miraculous act typically resolves some previously mentioned problem. Therefore, as we shall see, the structure of the plot suggests that the mira- culous act of Jesus and the climax of the discourse are one. A Synagogue exorcism (4,31-37) Verses 31-32 describe the initial situation and add to the significance of the exorcism by noting the important detail that it was the Sabbath day. Verses 33-34 could be classified as the complicating action, which identify the problem to be resolved. Thus, unsurprisingly, the climax of the miracle story is the miracle itself (v. 35). Assuming Mark is Luke’s main source for this story, it would seem that he further heightens the exorcism by adding the detail that μηδὲν βλάψαν αὐτόν (cf. Mk 1,26). However, apart from the stereotypical λέγων, the entire climactic episode is reported in the aorist tense, which, according to Porter, is the “background tense”, the tense which is “relied upon to carry a narrative along when no attention is being drawn to the events being spoken of”26. But, in view of the story’s form and the unfolding of the plot, it is highly unlikely that no attention is being drawn to the miraculous and climactic resolution. Healing Simon’s mother-in-law (4,38-39) Again, the point of this episode is that Jesus has the power to heal and, like the previous pericope, it takes place on the Sabbath. Mark 1,30 sim- ply reports that she was laid out with a fever (κατέκειτο πυρέσσουσα), whereas Luke seems to intensify the description with his ἦν συνεχομένη πυρετῷ μεγάλῳ (4,38). In view of the preceding and subsequent aorists, the imperfective aspect of the periphrastic construction could be viewed as contributing to this sense of prominence. But the meaning of συνέχω and the presence of μεγάλῳ could also, or even exclusively, be responsible for this effect. Either way, this intensification of the complication increa- ses the importance of the resolution. See R.A. Dooley and S.H. Levinsohn, Analyzing Discourse (Dallas 2001) 104-05. 25 Porter, Idioms, 23, 35. 26