[B-Greek] Jn 3:16 pas ho pisteuOn
Jerker Karlsson
jerker.karlsson at kdu.se
Fri Apr 25 07:56:43 EDT 2003
"Bob Evans" <ansbible at cityisp.net> writes:
>I need a lesson on nominative participles.
>
>I was told that pas ho pisteuOn is a present participle signifying
>continuous believing.
>
>The gentleman said that if a moment of believing were in view it should
>have been aorist participle.
>
>Any comments?
The same difference is born out in the active verb. If you say EGW
EPISTEUON AUTWI you are saying that you was (and possibly still are)
believing in him, but if you say EGW EPISTEUSA AUTWI you are saying that
you believed in him in that particular case or in that situation. The
English language resembles the Greek fairly well in matters of aspect, in
matters of participles standing alone however the difference between Greek
aorist and present maybe is best represented in, for present "The one
believing", for aorist "The one that believes/ed".
The context in which the aorist and present are used are however much more
important than the grammatical forms taken by themselves. In the sentence
ho prwton pisteuwn alla ouk eti, it doesnt matter that the participle is
durative cause its continuation in the present is negated by ouk eti. And
the similar modifiers can of cause also be applied on the aorist so that
its punctiliar aspect doesnt limit it to one singular incident.
/Jerker Karlsson
Lund, Sweden
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