The present tense

c stirling bartholomew cc.constantine at worldnet.att.net
Tue Apr 30 15:39:08 EDT 2002


on 4/30/02 11:36 AM, Mark Wilson wrote:

> Wallace adequately acknowledges this grammatical principle of
> temporal propositions and non-temporal propositions when he explains
> the Gnomic Aorist. (GGBB, pg. 562). You translate it like a present
> for the very reason that it has no temporal aspect.
> 
> Implicit in such uses of the Aorist, I suppose it could be argued,
> is that we know the truth of the proposition based on past experience.
> 
> So that 1 Peter 1:24 . . .

1PET. 1:24 DIOTI PASA SARX hWS CORTOS KAI PASA DOXA AUTHS hWS ANQOS CORTOU:
EXHRANQH hO CORTOS KAI TO ANQOS EXEPESEN:

Wallace {p. 562}

"But the aorist, under certain circumstances, may be used of an action that
in reality is iterative or customary."

Yeah, but . . .

Do you really think that the aorist form is what tells us that

1PET. 1:24 : EXHRANQH hO CORTOS KAI TO ANQOS EXEPESEN

happens iteratively? I don't think so. What sort of evidence can be brought
to bear to hang this semantic weight on the aorist?

What about places in the LXX where the translator needed an iterative aspect
and ended up coining a new word to solve the problem. Take a look at Zech
1:10, 

ZECH. 1:10 KAI APEKRIQH hO ANHR hO EFESTHKWS ANA MESON TWN OREWN KAI EIPEN
PROS ME hOUTOI EISIN hOUS EXAPESTALKEN KURIOS TOU PERIODEUSAI THN GHN

Here the very common Hebrew word hlk is found in the form of a hitpael
infinitiveConstruct,  an example of iterative aspect according to
Waltke/O'Conner (Heb Syntax, #26.1ff).

So the LXX translator, not having a truly iterative aspect in Greek, uses a
compound word PERIODUEW to get the idea across. Sure, the infinitive here is
an aorist but what does that count for? Certainly doesn't tell us the the
action is iterative.

Iterative aspect in Greek seems to be marked semantically not by morphology.

cheers,

Clay


--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062





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