12 Alexander C. Loney events28. Both of these categories of verbs are aspectually insignificant because any one verbal aspect category only has semantic value as an opposition to the other aspects. Thus, when one verb form lacks other possible aspects, the existing form cannot have any aspectual value and, consequently, it is able to function within the discourse as any aspect is29. Other cases of both varieties of aspectually insignificant verbs exist, and these will be noted as they occur. First, in order to establish the theoretical grounds for the paradigm that I propose and delineate the organizational method found in Luke’s choice of aspect, a careful, preliminary consideration of 4,l-2 will serve as a model for the rest of the chapter. After Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, he heads out into the wilder- ness: [1] ησο ς δ πλ ρης πνε ματος γ ου π στρεψεν π το ορδ νου, κα γετο ν τ πνε ματι ν τ ρ μ [2] μ ρας τεσσερ κοντα πειραζ μενος π το διαβ λου. κα ο κ φαγεν ο δ ν ν τα ς μ ραις κε ναις, κα συντελεσθεισ ν α τ ν πε νασεν. [3] ε πεν δ α τ δι βολος... [1] Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, turned from the Jordan and was lead by the spirit within the wilderness, [2] being tested for forty days by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days and, after those days were completed, he was hungry. [3] Then the devil said to him…30 In the first sentence, we find that the aorist verb π στρεψεν describes an action of central importance to the narrative backbone of the story. It is a closed event that lies on the timeline between his antecedent baptism (3,21-22) and his subsequent temptation (4,2-13). The imperfective forms in the second half of the sentence, γετο and πειραζ μενος, describe the attendant circumstances of his time in the wilderness, as we would expect 28 In Luke’s gospel, there are no occurrences of γ νομαι as an imperfect, versus 78 occurrences as an aorist indicative. Also, there are only three occurrences of the present infinitive, all future-referring in the context of one apocalyptic speech of Jesus (21,7.28.36). In Acts, γ νομαι occurs as an imperfect only three times in a very specific context: twice in 2,43 and then once more in 5,12 in a verbal echo of 2,43. As an infinitive, it occurs only four times, again, all future-referring (4,30; 14,3; 26,22; 27,33). 29 Within any specific context, such an aspectually insignificant verb cannot mark out a new perspective vis-à-vis verbal aspect and, consequently, it maintains this feature of surrounding discourse. On aspectual “vagueness”, see Porter, Verbal Aspect, 441-47. 30 Luke 4,1-3, author’s translation. In all the example passages I have made a rather wooden, literal translation so that I might best show the structure of the Greek, including translating the particles where idiomatic English would normally leave them untranslated.