Tag Archives: Mark 8:1

Moved to Speak: Temporal Setting and Genitive Absolute in Mark 8:1

Ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις πάλιν πολλοῦ ὄχλου ὄντος καὶ μὴ ἐχόντων τί φάγωσι, προσκαλεσάμενος ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ λέγει αὐτοῖς· (Mark 8:1) A Familiar Scene with New Compassion

Mark 8:1 opens the account of the feeding of the four thousand, echoing the earlier miracle in Mark 6 but with meaningful grammatical distinctions. This opening verse provides a temporal setting, introduces a genitive absolute, and highlights Jesus’ initiative through the use of an aorist participle followed by a historical present. The structure sets the emotional and narrative tone of the miracle that follows — one grounded in divine awareness of human need.… Learn Koine Greek

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