Alexander Loney, «Narrative Structure and Verbal Aspect Choice in Luke.», Vol. 18 (2005) 3-31
In order to represent the actions of past-time narrative, Luke can choose
to employ either the aorist or the imperfect tense, that is, either the perfective
or the imperfective aspect. By selecting one tense over the other Luke
manipulates verbal aspect to give organization to his episodic narrative and
to create contrastive prominence (enargeia) within individual pericopes. In
this way, he follows in the tradition of his historiographical predecessors
–most notably Thucydides– who, through their subtle play with verbal aspect,
composed narratives concerned with at once the factual representation
of the past and their own contemporary, didactic purposes.
25
Narrative Structure and Verbal Aspect Choice in Luke
preceding pericope alone when citing scripture and always in the stative
aspect (4.8.10). The other two perfects relate information that is purely
background and that, while important for a proper understanding of the
narrative, is not part of that sequential narrative.
A more detailed look at the structure of this pericope also reveals a
symmetrical, chiastic form. It begins (14-15) and ends (30) with a cadence
of an aorist verb of motion followed by one or two imperfectives. The next
layer describes the reaction of people to Jesus’ teaching that is, on the one
hand, favorable (15) and, on the other hand, inimical (28-29). Then within
this layer, two speeches of Jesus at the synagogue of Nazareth are related
or summarized (18-21.23-27)63. In the center of the pericope, highlighted
by the use of imperfective forms, there is the initial, ambivalent reaction
to Jesus’ teaching (22).
Luke chiefly uses the diegetic mode in this pericope, relating the
information as factual narrative. This diegetic narrative consists almost
entirely of foregrounding aorists. Only one imperfective occurs that can
truly be considered to be backgrounding within the diegetic discourse,
κο οντες of v. 28. The other imperfectives fall into two different sorts
of exceptions to the diegetic pattern. The first, as mentioned before, con-
sists of the opening and closing cadences of an aorist verb of motion,
π στπεψεν (14) and διελθ ν (30), accompanied by imperfective(s),
δ δασκεν and δοξαζ μενος (15) and ποÏε ετο (30). As in the previous
examples, the imperfectives here describe action internally with the sense
of the audience’s observation. Thus, the discourse mode in their clauses
changes to the mimetic.
The first cadence (14-15) was dealt with in detail above, but the sec-
ond (30) has some particular features worth noting. As with the other
cadences discussed thus far, the mode of discourse preceding this ca-
dence is the diegetic – four historical aorists convey the action of v. 29.
This mode continues into the next sentence beginning the cadence with
the aorist participle διελθ ν (30), after which the mode changes to the
mimetic with the imperfect ποÏε ετο (30). This imperfect, because it
presents the action as open-ended, signifies not historical fact, but rather
an unfolding of the event off the narrative sequence. Accordingly, the verb
serves to organize the section and dynamically place it within the whole
of the gospel by leaving the final action incomplete. ποÏε ετο leads into
the next section, where it is completed and fully realized by the return of
63
On the interdependent relationship between these two speeches of Jesus, see R.I. De-
nova, The Things Accomplished Among Us: Prophetic Tradition in the Structural Pattern
of Luke-Acts (Sheffield 1997) 141.
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