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.
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