19 Is Verbal Aspect a Prominence Indicator? prominence was not even a consideration in Luke’s appropriation of verbal aspect. 4. Pronouncement Stories Also known as apophthegms and paradigms, pronouncement stories are “short stories about an action of Jesus whose primary purpose is to lead up to a climactic pronouncement on a given topic”57. It has often been thought that they had a didactic purpose and were probably used as “edifying paradigms for sermons”58. It is important to bear in mind that Luke has reworked the pronouncement stories and appropriated them in accordance with his theological purposes. Therefore, although the climactic pronouncement is often the same in Luke as it was in the supposed oral tradition, sometimes Luke has constructed the story in such a way that the climax does not correspond to the earlier tradition. The Centurion’s faith (7,1-10) Although this story is concerned with the healing of the centurion’s servant, as Nolland says, “the actual healing is anticlimactic”59. Most commentators, therefore, identify this pericope as a pronouncement story, the main point being Jesus’ commendation of the centurion’s faith (v. 9)60. The emphatic nature of this statement is further signalled by the presence of λέγω ὑμῖν, which adds significance to the words that follow. The main verb, however, which is positioned at the end of the senten- ce61, is in the aorist tense (εὗρον), Porter’s “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”62. But in view of Luke’s his- torical context (i.e. the controversy concerning the inclusion of Gentiles), it is unlikely that such a statement was intended to receive no attention (see Ac 10-11, 15). C.L. Blomberg, “Form Criticism” in J.B. Green, S. McKnight and I.H. Marshall (eds.), 57 Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, Illinois 1992) 244. Bultmann, History, 61; cf. Bock, ‘Form Criticism’, 181-82. 58 Nolland, Luke, 1:319. 59 Bultmann, History, 38-9; Fitzmyer, Luke, 1:649; Bock, Luke, 1:633; Nolland, Luke, 60 1:314, 318. J. Duff considers this an emphatic position (Elements of New Testament Greek 61 [Cambridge 2005] 61). Porter, Idioms, 23, 35. 62