Time of Participles

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Aug 16 03:19:53 EDT 2002


At 9:14 AM -0400 8/16/02, nick lunn wrote:
>
>
>     In the context of the discussion concerning the time of participles I
>     would like to pose a specific question concerning John 1:12. This
>     verse says:
>
>     'But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become
>     children of God, to those who believe in his name.'
>
>     The final words are a participial clause:
>
>     TOIS PISTEUOUSIN EIS TO ONOMO AUTOU
>
>     The participle is present and not aorist. How does this participle
>     relate to the finite forms 'received' and 'gave' earlier in the verse?
>     Could the believing possibly be prior to the event indicated by 'gave'
>     even though the participle is not aorist?
>     Does John here use the present participle because the belief/faith is
>     ongoing?

That's one viable interpretation, but the rule of thumb is that a present
participle coordinates with the time of the main verb, so that "believing"
is contemporaneous with the receiving and giving. Here I think I'd say that
TOIS PISTEUOUSIN EIS TO ONOMA AUTOU is meant to define more precisely hOSOI
DE ELABON AUTON in contradistinction to hOI IDIOI who OU PARELABON AUTON.
i.e. LABEIN is defined implicitly as PISTEUEIN.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 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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