ELHLUQUIAN in Mark 9.1

Patrick James patrick at basil.u-net.com
Tue Aug 27 17:00:16 EDT 2002


As far as I can tell, this question has not been discussed before, but if I
am mistaken please
direct me to the relevant place in the mailing-list's archive.

Anyway, the text of Jesus' words, as in NA 27, at Mark 9.1:

AMHN LEGW hUMIN hOTI EISIN TINES hWDE TWN hESTHKOTWN
hOITINES OU MH GEUSWTAI QANATOU hEWS AN IDWSIN
THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU ELHLUQUIAN EN DUNAMEI

The NIV translates this as:
"I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death
before they see the
kingdom of God _come_ with power."

But the KJV as:
"Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which
shall not taste
of death, till they _have_ seen the kingdom of God _come_ with power."

And the NASB has:
"Truly  I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will
not taste death
until they see the kingdom of God _after it has come_ with power."

The RSV:
"Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death
before they see
that the kingdom of God _has come_ with power."

Should ELHLUQUIAN  be translated as historic (even perfect/stative), ie "see
that the kingdom of God has come (is here) [like the NASB and RSV]"? Does
this explain the KJV's "have seen" over NIV's "see" for the "tenseless"
aorist subjunctive IDWSIN? Or was ELHLUQUIAN used for any reason other than
the sequence of tenses?

I appreciate that this may seem to be a question principally about
translation, and so not relevant to this list, but I am more interested in
any grammatical reasons for use of the Perfect participle, ELHLUQUIAN, over
the present/imperfective, EPXOMENHN, or aorist/perfective, ELQOUSAN,
participle.

Many thanks in advance,

---
Patrick James : patrick at basil.u-net.com




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