He beholdeth himself (katenoēsen heauton). Usually explained as gnomic aorist like those in Jam 1:11, but the ordinary force of the tenses is best here. “He glanced at himself (katenoēsen aorist) and off he has gone (apelēluthen perfect active) and straightway forgot (epelatheto, second aorist middle indicative of epilanthanomai) what sort of a man he was” (hopoios ēn, back in the picture, imperfect tense). The tenses thus present a vivid and lifelike picture of the careless listener to preaching (Christ’s wayside hearer).