John 3:13 Perfect Finite and Aorist Participle
Caleb Ellinger
calebellinger at hotmail.com
Tue Aug 20 09:28:14 EDT 2002
I read the KATABAS as the first action. This line is a variation on the
Past contrary to fact condition. "No one has gone up to heaven, unless he
came down from heaven."
Normally, this conditional phrase has an aorist in the protasis and an
aorist in the apodosis, e.g. if it had rained, the ground should be wet.
Clearly the first part has to happen before the second. But here we have
an aorist in the protasis and a perfect in the apodosis.
I found an example of this type of aorist-perfect condition in Goodwin's
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb.
hO EI APEKRINO, CEN AN IKANOS HDH PARA SOU THN hOSIOTHTA EMEMEQHKH
Xenophon, Anabasis
"If you had given this answer, I should have already learned."
The answer has to be given before the concept should be learned, so the
aorist protasis must come first.
The protasis and the apodosis are flipped in John 3:13, and for extra
linguistic fun, Jesus has added a negative (EI MH) to the already
confusing condition.
The other clue to the chicken-egg question is the use of finite verb with
a participle. From what I've read, the sense is that if a participle,
especially an aorist one, is used with a finite verb, the participle
occurs first, e.g. Having embarked, he set off for Pylos, etc.
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