Present tense copulative verbs

dan-ake mattsson dan-am at online.no
Sat Aug 22 09:11:00 EDT 1998


< I have two reasons why EIMI in Jn 8:58 is not a  Perfective Present
(IMHO).  One, Burton in his Syntax <of the Moods and  Tenses of  New
Testament Greek states that Perfective Presents  are,"...accompanied <by an
adverbial expression denoting duration and  referring to past time."(10,
section 17)  Examples of <true Perfective  Presents and their adverbial
expressions are: "so many years" (TOSAUTA  ETH, Luke <15:29); "a long time"
(POLUN HDH CRONON, Jn 5:6); "so  long a time" (TOSIUTWi CRONWi, Jn 14:9);
<"from the beginning" (AP  ARCHS, Jn 15:27); and "from ancient times" (EK
GENEWN ARCAIWN, Acts  <15:21).  As can be seen from these examples,  you
have an event in the  past which has present <results.  The movement of
time is the past to the  present.  In Jn 8:58, the movement of time is in
the <opposite direction. It  starts at Abraham's existence and points
before it.  It is pointing to the  past.  <Two, a couple of texts from the
LXX which are true parallels to Jn  8:58 are Psalm 90:2 and Proverbs
<18:13.                                                    -James Stewart 

James,

The verb 	EIMI is stative. States can be defined as "static
situations with no dynamics or internal structure,  as durative situations
which continue without any input of energy." States always go in one
direction - forwards. To say that EIMI in John 8:58 "is pointing to the
past" is at odds with the definition of states.



More information about the B-Greek mailing list