The Proleptic Aorist revisited

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Sat Jun 1 20:02:24 EDT 2002



Harry:

You wrote:

-------
>I've been thinking about the theory of the Deictic center but I
>don't see how a Deictic center could be proven without showing
>the it is not in the same time slot as a present tense in the
>same passage. I don't believe I've seen any evidence that shows
>the Deictic as occupying such a different time slot. I hope you
>understand what I'm getting at Mark.
-------

I am sorry Harry but I am not sure what your question is here.

The Deictic Center really is not a theory; it is a linguistic
term that, as far as I know, all linguists accept... some may
define it slightly different, but overall, this is really a
fairly basic linguistic term.

Porter quotes Comrie here:

All temporal reference in Greek, therefore, is not absolute time
but relative time, "where the reference point for location of
a situation is some point in time given by the context, not
necessarily the present moment."

Let me repeat that last part...."point in time given by the
context, not necessarily the present moment."

Lyons says, deixis is "the location and identification of persons,
objects, events, processes, and activities being talked about,
or referred to..." (Semantics, pg. 637)

Think of the "point in time given by the context," that is, the
deictic center, as the point in time FROM WHICH the author wants
to make temporal statements.

Let's look at the passage in Rev.:

Rev. 10:7

hOTAN MELLHi SALPIZEIN KAI ETELESQH TO MUSTHRION TOU QEOU


To make things easy, let's assume tradition is correct and
this verse was written by Prochorus (John's secretary) in 96 AD.
The present time of writing therefore was in 96. Let's further
assume it still references a future event from today, 2002 AD.

So, when Prochorus wrote these very words at the instruction
of John, he was describing a future time/event.

The Deictic Center in this verse is WHEN THE TRUMPET SOUNDS.
(Note that the DC is unrelated to the Present time, Past
time, or Future.) The DC becomes a conceptual "fixed" point FROM WHICH
the author will make temporal statements. If he/she wants to
reference a temporal event that occurs at the same time as
the DC, he/she will use a Present tense (generally).

But in this verse, the temporal reference "in relation to the DC"
is an Aorist (ETELESQH) because the author is drawing
our attention to an event that is PRIOR TO the DC.

So, WHEN THE TRUMPET SOUNDS, that is, the DC, the mystery of
God will have already ceased by that moment (the moment of the
DC).

The conceptual "fixed point" is developed by the author, and
then the author, after conceptualizing the DC, will begin to
place temporal statements in relation to that DC by the use
of TENSE, and perhaps other grammatical features as well.

And just to be redundant, if the author wants to refer to an event
that took place prior to the DC, the author will use a
past tense verb (for example, an Aorist).

I think you might be thinking of Present Tense as something
that happens NOW. The Present Tense denotes an action that
occurs simultaneously with the DC, regardless of where IN
ACTUAL TIME the DC has/is/will occur.

I think we have occupied enough time on B-Greek with this
topic, so if you have additional questions, perhaps it would
be best to respond again OFFLIST.

Mark Wilson


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