NUN plus Aorist
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Nov 1 13:24:37 EST 2002
At 1:00 PM -0500 11/1/02, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>At 04:04 PM 10/28/2002 +0000, Mark Wilson wrote:
>
>>Preliminary conclusion then: the NUN plus Aorist emphasizes the
>>long anticipation and final occurrence of an event.
> >
>>The Perfect would more so emphasize the current state of the
>>anticipated event, but the NUN plus Aorist emphasizes the
>>long interval that builds up. Perhaps it attempts to bring
>>added emphasis on the long wait/anticipation.
>
>I've been pondering this interpretation, and it really fits some passages
>quite well. For instance, consider the following:
>
>Ex 32:9 KAI NUN EASON ME KAI QUMWQEIS ORGHi EIS AUTOUS
>
>With your interpretation, God has been wanting to destroy them Israelites
>for a good long time, and now it's time to do it. It fits the context well.
>
>Or:
>
>Ex 18:11 NUN EGNWN hOTI MEGAS KURIOS PARA PANTAS TOUS QEOUS
>
>The light bulb just went off - after all this time, now Jethro gets it. God
>is greater than all the Gods.
This appears to be akin to the imperfect usage which I was once taught
under the rubric, "the philosophic imperfect." Smyth calls it the
"Imperfect of a Truth Just Recognized" and describes it thus (§1902):
§1902. --Imperfect of a Truth Just Recognized.--The imperfect, usually some
form of EINAI, with ARA, is often used to denote that a present fact or
truth has just been recognized, although true before: OUDEN AR' HN PRAGMA
it is, as it appears, no matter after all P. S. 198e, TOUT' AR' HN ALHQES
this is true after all E. I. T. 351 , ARA HPISTW you know, sure enough X.
H. 3.4.9 . ARA sure enough, after all appears with other tenses (P. Cr.
49a, P. Ph. 61a, D. 19.160).
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 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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