Tenses of infinitives

George A, Goolde goolde at eoni.com
Fri Sep 29 01:35:36 EDT 2000


Jason,

It's good to see you on b-greek!

Burton (Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek) says it well:  "The tenses
of the dependent moods have in general no reference to time, but
characterize the action of the verb in respect to its progress only,
representing it as in progress, or completed, or indefinately, simply as an
event."  Paragraph 95, page 46.  

Present infinitive indicates action in progress.
Aorist infinitive indicates action indefinately, simply as an event.

ATR concurs, writing, "There is, of course,  no time in the infinitive
except relative time in indirect discourse." (p857).  Wallace addresses
some issues concerning the infinitive when it shows relative time.

Hope this helps!

George
  



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