Is TEMPUS A Part of Greek Grammar?

Cwinbery at aol.com Cwinbery at aol.com
Sun Sep 26 16:35:38 EDT 1999


>>On Sat, 25 Sep 1999 14:29:42 -0700 (PDT) Edgar Foster
><questioning1 at yahoo.com> >writes:
 
>> Recently while reading Rev. 5:10, I came across the
>> term BASILEUSOUSIN, which is supposed to be future
>> "tense." Or is it? While certain grammarians insist
>> that the future tense is the only tense
>> grammaticalized in Greek, others have suggested that
>> the future tense is in reality--future aspect. If this
>> claim is true, how does this impact the exegesis of
>> Rev. 5:10c? 

>> Edgar Foster

>I'm now curious about AT Robertson's comments on this verse:

>Rev 5:10  They reign (basileuousin). Present active indicative,
>futuristic use, though Aleph P have the future basileusousin >(shall
>reign) as in 20:6. {from Word Pictures}

>Why would he classify this as Present tense? Is there anyone >today who
>would agree with this classification?

David, first, thanks for your very kind letter to me. I was not able to reply 
because of server problems. 

In Rev. 5:10 there is a textual problem in that Ms Alexandrinus and some 
others have the present (omit the S). Alexandrinus is considered to be a very 
good ms in Rev. (better than Sinaiticus by some scholars). Even Westcott and 
Hort agreed with Alex. here. 
Robinson has a classification of the present called "futuristic" which he 
compares to the "prophetic perfect" in Hebrew.  Hence, he would see very 
little difference whether this verb is future or present.

Carlton Winbery
Prof. Religion
LA. College



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