John 7:8 -- ANABHTE vs ANABAINW

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 13 15:40:46 EST 2002


At 2:24 PM -0500 3/13/02, Mike Sangrey wrote:
>John 7:8
>    hUMEIS ANABHTE EIS THN hEORTHN: EGW OUK ANABAINW EIS THN hEORTHN
>    TAUTHN, hOTI hO EMOS KAIROS OUPW PEPLHRWTAI.
>
>I noticed the second ANABAINW is present tense while the first is
>aorist.  In English we can't say, "you go up to the feast, I not go up
>to this feast."  I suspect that one CAN say that in Greek and therefore
>there is a distinction in tense here.  What I'm wondering is this:  is
>the sense of this sentence along the lines of:
>
>    You go up to the feast; I'm not presently going up to this feast
>    since I have some things I need to complete.
>
>If it's translated as "you go up...I'm not going up..." the sense of the
>second verb is actually more perfective in English than I think the
>Greek conveys.  Here, the English means, "I'm not now, nor ever, going
>up."  But the Greek isn't perfective, it's imperfective, being in the
>present tense.
>
>Does this make sense?  What are your thoughts?

I frankly don't understand this at all. I WOULD English this as "I'm not
going up (to Jerusalem)" and understand it as a present tense with future
reference. how you get the notion that "I'm not going up" is perfective
escapes me. I'd understand this to mean: "You all go on up, I'm not going
to go (now/this time) ..." It seems to me that the hOTI clause which
follows clearly indicates he'll be going when the time is ripe.

I guess you're asking a question about the English, but as I said, I don't
understand what it is that you're trying to say about it.
-- 

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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