172 Stephen H. Levinsohn 4a They left (ἀπῆλθον), unmarked 4b found (εὗρον) a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway, unmarked prominent: 4c and untie (λύουσιν) it. points forward Some of those standing there were saying (ἔλεγον) to them, “What are you backgrounded 5 doing, untying that colt?” in relation to 6 6a They spoke (εἶπαν) to them as Jesus had told them to, unmarked 6b and they let them go (ἀφῆκαν). unmarked They lead (φέρουσιν) the colt to Jesus and throw (ἐπιβάλλουσιν) their prominent: 7a-b cloaks over it, points forward 7c and he sat (ἐκάθισεν) on it. unmarked Many people spread (ἔστρωσαν) their cloaks on the road, others having cut 8a-b unmarked branches from the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting (ἔκραζον), 9-10 “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the foreground: peak coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11a He entered (εἰσῆλθεν) Jerusalem, into the temple. unmarked Having looked around at everything, since it was already late, he went out 11b unmarked (ἐξῆλθεν) to Bethany with the Twelve. Prominence is also given to a following event by backgrounding the event that immediately precedes it43. I have already suggested (sec. E) that one of the motivations for using the Greek imperfect when it is not the most relevant way of portraying the event concerned is to background it, and cited Mark 11,5 as an example (see the Table above). The effect of such backgrounding is to make the following events (in this instance, those of v. 6) relatively more prominent44. We are now in a position to choose between Porter’s and Longacre’ analysis of the imperfects in Mark 15,11-15 (repeated below). The imperfects of vv. 12 and 14 both introduce questions, which may be viewed as the first part of “couplets” that are completed by the answers45. In other words, they occur in the first part of narrative units, so are most naturally interpreted as being backgrounded with respect to the answers. I therefore conclude that the effect of using imperfects to report this conversation is to give prominence to the responses of the crowd and, thereby, show that they were the ones who controlled the outcome46. Levinsohn Self-Instruction §5.4.2. 43 On relative prominence, see G. Brown and G. Yule, Discourse Analysis (Cambridge 44 1983) 134, as well as other papers cited by Westfall (Analysis of Prominence 77). 45 See M. Coulthard, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (London 1977) 70. See also Levinsohn Self-Instruction §7.5.3. 46 “The Jewish subjects … assert their will and win the day” (J.R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark. The Pillar New Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI 2002]) 464.