Gnomic Aorist / Heb 7:2a

Roe d.roe at t-online.de
Sun Dec 10 15:12:50 EST 2000




Mark Wilson wrote (in part):

> What determines the gnomic sense is the context (this is larger than just
> the verbal idea). I think Carl's examples of the gnomic were right on; in
> each instance the context suggested the gnomic sense, not the morpheme.
>
> This is a guess on my part, but I would think that the "immortality of past
> objective fact" would be expressed by the Aorist form, but not by itself.


Hi Mark,

Thanks for writing (and for your example of ever-present enthusiasm for
Greek!)

It seems that Carl precludes the gnomic aorist for Whitehead's
"immortality of past objective fact"; so my question doesn't really
involve the gnomic (sorry for giving the post that title). 

I am interested in what possibilities a Greek writer has for expressing
the "immortality of past objective fact". I had assumed it would have to
be expressed with imperfect (in the referenced passage: EMERIZEN). 

Or is it also possible to express this with the aorist? And if so, is
the writer's choice of aorist a natural one, or a rare anomaly?

Thanks again!

David

D.W. Roe
Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany



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