Bill Mounce

For an Informed Love of God

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Monday, August 19, 2024

When First–Year Greek Fails, Possibly (Mark 1:13)

Part of the challenge of teaching first year Greek is to simplify, but not too much. I remember when I started second-year Greek, it felt like I had to start relearning first-year Greek all over. My teacher had oversimplified in an attempt to help us understand the basics of Greek, but had not done so with an eye to the nuances of second-year Greek.

For example, we teach our students that the imperfect indicates a continuous or imperfective action occurring in the past time, and that certainly works in the majority of verses. “I was teaching” as opposed to “I teach” or “I taught.” But there are many nuances attached to the imperfect tense, and blindly adding “was” and “teaching” can be confusing or plain wrong.

Mark 1:13 reads, “He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted (πειραζόμενος) by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving (διηκόνουν) him” (CSB). All major translation treat the imperfect διηκόνουν the same way.

This certainly is possible. Jesus was in a dangerous place for an extended period of time. What made it more dangerous was the presence of wild animals, and the ongoing presence of the angels were to provide for his physical needs of food and water, and to protect him from the animals, much akin to Elijah’s experience (1 Kings 19:4–8).

But was Jesus tempted by Satan constantly for the 40 days? The standard translations suggest this was the case. But we are only told of three temptations (better, “testing”) by Satan. Were there more? Did Satan repeat himself over and over. This seems unlikely to me.

I offer this with some hesitations as I rarely go against the sum total of the translations and commentaries. It is possible that πειραζόμενος is a purpose participle, “in order to be tested.” As such, it would not mean the testing went on continuously for 40 days. This is suggested by the previous verse: “the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness.” It could also be circumstantial, which would mean the testing happened while he was in the desert.

διηκόνουν could also be inceptive, which would mean the angels came and served him once the testing was over. The possible suggestion was that Jesus was fasting.

I have always pictured the temptation as a lonely and dangerous experience, and Jesus did not need angels to protect himself from the animals. Once he was weakened by the 40 days, Satan came to test his resolve to be the type of Messiah he was going to be. Once Satan failed, the angels came and strengthened Jesus.

I could be wrong, but this is why we all need second year Greek and Dan Wallace’s advanced grammar. We need to know the options.