Future Tense Verbs Translated as Past Tense?

Grammar questions which are not related to any specific text.
R. Perkins
Posts: 91
Joined: January 18th, 2013, 9:55 pm

Re: Future Tense Verbs Translated as Past Tense?

Post by R. Perkins »

Stephen Carlson wrote:
R. Perkins wrote:Is the ambiguity between an eventive contra resultant - left unexplained in the translation - the cause for confusion for a beginner like myself as to how a past tense verb can be rendered as a future?
It will only be a cause for confusion if the beginner thinks the translation "will be bound" can nail down the binding to a particular time (that is, if it's referring to the binding event, not the resulting bound state). But the Greek isn't really about the when the event happens, it is about when that resulting state of being bound will definitely hold in the future.
Got it - Thank you much :!: .
R. Perkins
Posts: 91
Joined: January 18th, 2013, 9:55 pm

Re: Future Tense Verbs Translated as Past Tense?

Post by R. Perkins »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
R. Perkins wrote:
Stephen Hughes wrote:I was going to suggest that a disadvantage of being an English speaker at this point was that we assume / imply an antecedent action, which is not necessarily assumed in / implied by the Greek tense system. "The work will have been finished" leaves us expecting a "by the time he arrives" (or something like that). "Will have been released" (by the time you ask) is an interpretation that is sort of pushed for in an English grammar system, but doesn't seem inherent in the Greek.

Perhaps cf. Luke 21:17 Καὶ ἔσεσθε μισούμενοι ὑπὸ πάντων διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου - a simple future passive.

But Stephen, after your comments, I'm wondering if there is more to it. :?:
Parson my ignorance in asking this question, but I thought the above verb was a future middle (I realize that {according to GGBB} the middle & passives can have some overlap), but my tools state that the verb is a middle voice...am I missing something (i.e., misunderstanding my own source?)?

BTW - good point about the disadvantage of English speakers.
Sorry about that. I try to be more strict in my use or grammatical terminology in the beginners' sub-forum, but slipped up here. Medio-passive or subject affected would have been better.

Another way that English can really mess with the Greek is logically implied negatives. I will ... or I was ... can cause some people to assume that the negative of the verb is implied at another time. That is not something that I've read much about.
Hmmm, interesting. Now that I have enough Greek under my belt to be dangerous ( :lol: ) - I doooo see others making these types of assumptions frequently. In fact, I still see this tendency in myself, though I have slowly learned to check the tense-mood relationship for clues to aspect or (secondarily) time.
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