John 17:23
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Aug 19 01:30:08 EDT 2002
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew T. Williams [mailto:kopio at attbi.com]
> hINA WSIN TETELEIWMENOI EIS hEN
>
> What caught my eye is the Subjunctive Finite with the Perfect
> Participle. I
> don't remember seeing this before. I dug through the usual suspects
> (Wallace, BDF, and Robertson) and I didn't come up with a whole lot.
> Wallace and Robertson agree that this is a Perfect Periphrastic
> Participle.
> This particular construct (Conj+Subj+Perf Part.) only occurs 4 other times
> in the NT (Mt 6:31, Lk. 21:20 and Jas. 5:15).
>
> I guess what I'm struggling with is that this particular
> construct seems to contradict itself (at least in my head).
Is the conflict between the present subjunctive, indicating a wish and
therefore aspectually incomplete (imperfective) and the perfect which
indicates perfective aspect?
Another example, slightly different from the ones Clay gave, is John 17:13:
hINA ECWSIN THN CARAN THN EMHN PEPLHRWMENHN EN AUTOIS - that they may have
my complete/full joy in them
Here the perfect participle is part of a complex noun phrase and modifies
the head noun "joy". It functions like an adjective.
Maybe one could alternatively analyze your example with an implied noun like
"people" - that they may be (people) (who have become) perfected into one.
At least that seems easier for the English mind.
Iver Larsen
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list