The present tense

Trevor Peterson 06PETERSON at cua.edu
Tue Apr 30 11:44:18 EDT 2002


>===== Original Message From Matthew Miller <biblicalscribe at hotmail.com> =====
>Hello all,
>As I understand it, the Greek present tense (not the aorist aspect, but the
>indicative present) is usually analgous to the English progressive present.
>English has three present tenses: the progressive present (I am eating), the
>aorist, or standard, present (I eat), and the emphatic present (I do eat).
>The Greek indicative present tense often carries the meaning of the English
>progressive present. I suppose that context ultimately determines meaning --
>at least that is the philosophy I use. Normally, if you want to express the
>other two English present tenses, you would use the Greek aorist aspect.

I'd be interested to see examples, but wouldn't using the aorist indicative 
produce a past-tense reference (and thus be undesirable for any type of 
present notion)? Also, I thought the general present (which is what "standard 
present" normally means in English) could be expressed by the Greek present 
tense form.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics




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