Re: Perfect tense and aspect

Jonathan Robie (74144.2360@CompuServe.COM)
05 Sep 96 10:33:58 EDT

I think that the homework and oak examples are helpful. I like to try reasoning
from what I've learned to see if I have grasped the point. Consider John 20:1:

KAI BLEPEI TON LIQON HRMENON EK TOU MNHMEIOU
"and sees the stone removed from the tomb"

I assume that the perfect for HRMENON emphasizes the current state:
the tomb is open; the stone no longer seals it. If the writer had wanted to
vividly display the process of the stone moving, he would have used present or
imperfect; if the writer had wanted to emphasize the act of moving the stone as
a whole, he would have used aorist.

Is this accurate?

Jonathan