EPISTEUSAN with HSAN TETAGMENOI

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri May 12 22:04:32 EDT 2000


At 10:24 PM +0000 5/12/00, B.J. Williamson wrote:
>Issue: EPISTEUSAN with HSAN TETAGMENOI
>
>Question:
>1. What is the temporal reference of participle to finite verb here?
>
>Passage: Acts 13:48
>
>EPISTEUSAN is aorist, while HSAN (imperfect) plus TETAGMENOI (perfect) form
>a periphrastic construction typically expressing a pluperfect temporal
>reference.
>
>Hence, what is temporal relationship between “pluperfect” to aorist?

cf. in Archives my message of March 1, 2000 with subject: "Re: Acts 13:48"

HSAN TETAGMENOI is within a relative clause (hOSOI TETAGMENOI HSAN ...)
which functions as the subject of the aorist verb EPISTEUSAN. Although it's
possible to understand TETAGMENOI HSAN as a true pluperfect in the sense
that the "appointing" had to precede their believing, I think it better to
understand HSAN TETAGMENOI as a stative form that's equivalent to an
imperfect:"those who were in the state of being 'slated' ... did come to
faith."

HSAN TETAGMENOI is for practical purposes an imperfect, indicating the
condition of those who actually did come to faith. A parallel construction
would be TAUTA EPOIHSAN hOSOI HDUNANTO: "That's what those who were able
did" -- where HDUNANTO is parallel to TETAGMENOI HSAN and EPOIHSAN is
parallel to EPISTEUSAN.

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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