Aorist never codes an open situation? - To Kimmo

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Wed Dec 20 09:40:58 EST 2000



Kimmo:



1 Peter 1:24

EXHRANQH hO CORTOS KAI TO ANQOS EXEPESEN

(The grass withers and the flower falls away)

Here, I would say that "countable and bounded" are not semantically related 
to THIS use of the Aorist.


You responded to this by saying:

-------
>Why not? The grass is (in a timeless context) described as
>'reaching/having reached the
>conclusion of becoming withered', not just 'engaging in the process of
>withering'. Similarly flowers will fall away, not just engage in the
>process of falling away.
------

If this views the grass as "having reachED the conclusion..." then are you 
saying that the Aorist inherently describes a PAST EVENT? This of course is 
the traditional understanding, I think. [Some I think attribute the "past 
sense" to the PERFECTIVE Aspect, which would require the event to be 
understood as complete, and therefore over (past?)]

The reason I ask is because as I read the non-past referring Aorists by 
Porter, I can understand them as "past" in relation to some deictic event. 
And even in the above Aorist, which Wallace identifies as a "Gnomic" Aorist, 
I can see that the statement can be conceived as occurring at any time, but 
when it is a "fulfilled statement," the event must be past. Or,....

In fact, if I may be so bold, I also see a sense in which the Aorist, when 
used of "future" time, is understood as true BASED ON "past" fact or 
occurrence.

Using the above example, we know that grass withers because that is 
HISTORICALLY the case. We know that the scribes and P. sit (aorist) on 
Moses' seat because HISTORY tells us that.

And, looking at the Aorists that Wallace calls "Futuristic," I think I could 
argue something similar.

For examples:

When (reference time) you pray, believe that you have already received (God 
grants this before you actually kneel down)

Now (reference time), the Son of Man is glorified (his final days on earth 
have arrived, this statement looks back at his ministry from the standpoint 
of "NOW")

these he also glorified (as Wallace comments, its as good as done)

whenever he is about to sound [the trumpet], then the mystery of God is 
finished (that is, WHEN the trumpet sounds, that lets you know that the 
mystery of God has run its course and is NOW over (past))


Thank you for taking the time to interact in this discussion.

Mark Wilson

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