The Instantaneous Imperfect???
Posted: April 5th, 2012, 6:44 am
Dan Wallace's Exegetical Syntax (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics) mentions this notion of an instantaneous or aoristic imperfect:
This analysis, if valid, seems to put a lot of pressure on a categorical, pure-aspect approach to the Greek verbal system generally and the imperfect specifically. If its imperfective aspect can be cancelled like this, then it would mean that aspect is not essential to the category, just like tense. That being said, Mark's use of the imperfect ἔλεγεν in narrative has always intrigued me but I have an almost reflexive aversion to the idea that a given imperfect is really an aorist, so I'd like some other ideas about how to analyze this apparent usage.Dan Wallace, Exegetical Syntax, 541-542 wrote:A. Instantaneous Imperfect (a.k.a. Aoristic or Punctiliar Imperfect)
1. Definition
The imperfect tense is rarely used just like an aorist indicative, to indicate simple past. This usage is virtually restricted to ἔλεγεν (n.5) in narrative literature. (n.6) Even with this verb, however, the imperfect usually bears a different nuance.
Chart 61 - The Force of the Instantaneous Imperfect
2. Illustrations
...
Mark 4:9
καὶ ἔλεγεν· ὃς ἔχει ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω.
And he said, “Let the one who has ears to hear [with] listen!”
This pronouncement is at the end of a discourse on parables by Jesus. Thus, it is difficult to see the imperfect as ingressive (“he began saying”), progressive (“he was saying”), or iterative/customary (“he would say”).
...
(n.6) 6 Contra BDF, 170 (§329): “The aorist serves for a simple reference to an utterance previously made (especially for a specific pronouncement of an individual); the imperfect for the delineation of the content of a speech.” Many examples of the imperfect fit this description (cf., e.g, Mark 4:21, 26; 6:10; 7:9; 12:38; Luke 5:36; 6:20; 9:23; 10:2; 21:10), but not all (e.g., Matt 9:11; Mark 4:9; 8:21, 24). Further, the imperfects that seem to be used aoristically also frequently have the aorist indicative (εἶπεν) as a textual variant. This use of the imperfect is akin to the instantaneous present in that it usually involves a verb of saying as well.