Gnomic Aorist / Heb 7:2a

Roe d.roe at t-online.de
Sun Dec 10 07:39:53 EST 2000


Dear B-Greekers,

On November 16, Carl Conrad responded to a very general enquiry:

>   ... an aorist indicative may  ... refer to 
> something that has happened in the past and happens repeatedly 
> (gnomic aorist). 


And on December 7, Kimmo Huovila responded to comments Mark Wilson's had
forwarded:

>   ... Gnomic aorists are still perfective. This is
> the difference from gnomic presents, which are imperfective.


I wonder about the function of the indicative aorist: whether a gnomic
aorist can signify past time -- i.e., whether a gnomic aorist can refer
to something that repeatedly happened in the past, but no longer does.

My example text is Hebrews 7:2a:

hWi KAI DEKATHN APO PANTWN EMERISEN ABRAAM

**Totally apart from the context** (which leads me to think the writer
is referring to a one-time act of giving a tenth, to Melchezidek), does
the writer's choice of the indicative aorist EMERISEN signify a one-time
act, or does it merely allow it?

I would think that if the writer had wanted to say that Abram
repeatedly, or customarily, gave a tenth to Melchezidek, he would have
chosen the indicative imperfect EMERIZEN.

Thanks for your consideration and comments,

David

D.W. Roe
Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany



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