Narrative Structure and Verbal Aspect Choice in Luke 21 tism in the Jordan (3,21-22). Intervening between this pericope and the temptation of chapter four is Luke’s version of Jesus’ genealogy (3,23-38). Given its non-narrative function, this genealogy should be viewed as an aside not directly advancing the storyline. Luke chooses to place it after Jesus’ baptism to draw attention to his chosen nature as messiah, building on the special recognition he received in his baptism with the declaration of the heavenly voice: “You are my beloved son. In you I am well-pleased”58. After a long sequence of naming the ancestors preceding Jesus, the final words of the genealogy, “the [son] of God”59, dramatically wrap up the aside and tie it back into the epiphanic proclamation of v. 22. Thus, the genealogy is an extension of the baptismal pericope. Making this connection of the genealogy to the baptism even more apparent is the cadence of 4,1-2. It serves the dual purpose of closing the preceding pericope and introducing the following one, hence it is “transi- tional”. This instance is a particularly good example of the cadence’s dual nature because its narrative information parallels its linguistic function. In 3,21-22, the action takes place at the river Jordan, while the action of the next pericope occurs in the desert. The words of the cadence link these two dramatic locations in the span of a single verse: Jesus goes “from the Jordan” and is led “in the desert”. Hence, the verse transfers the narrative of the story from one pericope to the next via both its literal statement of a change in setting and its verbal cadence, while stressing the continuity of both pericopes through the reoccurrence of the spirit as an important detail, which comes upon him in his baptism and guides in his temptation. III. The Case Study of the Fourth Chapter of Luke’s Gospel With these structural and perspectival functions of verbal aspect choice in view, particularly in cadential formulas, let us now take a detailed look at each of the narrative pericopes of chapter four. I shall discuss the possible reasons for Luke’s selection of aspect throughout, drawing particular attention to the mode of discourse and the transitions between sections. The first section that we shall look at runs from vv. 1-15, describing Jesus’ testing in the wilderness and the circumstances immediately sur- rounding it. This passage is, as a whole, one episode in the early ministry of Jesus. In style, it is a simplified historical narrative. The action and 58 Luke 3,22, author’s translation. 59 Luke 3,38, author’s translation.