Meaning of the perfect tense

CWestf5155 at aol.com CWestf5155 at aol.com
Sat Jan 13 14:35:10 EST 2001


In a message dated 01/13/2001 10:49:44 AM Mountain Standard Time, 
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:

> 
>  hESTHKEN doesn't mean that the subject will forever be in a standing state,
>  although it may involve a sort of METABAINEIN from sitting or lying (or
>  even walking or running) to stasis. Similarly TEQNHKEN means "is dead" and
>  implies a METABASIS, if you will, out of "life' into "death." But believers
>  do not therefore rule out the possibility of an ANASTASIS. I would think
>  then that the text from John 5 need also not imply (at least by virtue of
>  what the Greek itself says) the impossibility of a reversal at some future
>  point. One who is in a "state" of belief is not "coming to judgment." I do
>  think that permanence is more than ought ever to be read into a perfect
>  tense form.
>  

Another controversy that came to mind as I worked on this was whether some 
have tried to suggest that there was an order of salvation expressed here in 
supposing that the perfect METEBAINW indicates past action that precedes the 
presents  AKOUWN and PISTEUWN (participles) as well as EXEI and (OUK) 
ERCETAI, perhaps proving through the tenses that regeneration (expressed by 
the transfer of death to life) precedes the other actions.  

I don't think that this kind of application of time to the tense can be 
justified either.

Cindy Westfall
PhD Student, University of Surrey at Roehampton



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