[B-Greek] phagw

Steven R. Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Sun Mar 9 19:07:52 EST 2003


On Sunday, March 9, 2003, at 05:40 PM, Matthew Miller wrote:

>> Actually, neither is correct. Both have the same range of meaning. 
>> It's just that the stem of ESQIW came to be used in the present 
>> system (present and imperfect), while that of FAGW came to be used in 
>> the future and second aorist. So far as I know there are no examples 
>> of ESQIW/FAGW in the aorist passive, perfect active, and perfect 
>> passive in the NT. At any rate, if one wanted to use the present or 
>> imperfect tense, he/she would use ESQIW; if the future or aorist, 
>> FAGW.

Matt, just to give a concrete example of what I said above, it is 
instructive to look at Rom 14.2:

hOS MEN PISTEUEI FAGEIN PANTA, hO  DE ASQENWN LACANA ESQIEI.
"One person believes he may eat (FAGEIN, aorist active infinitive) 
anything, while the weak person eats (ESQIEI, present active 
indicative) only vegetables."

It is clear that there is no distinction here between literal and 
figurative eating. Either stem could be used for either literal or 
figurative senses.
============
Steven R. Lo Vullo
Madison WI



More information about the B-Greek mailing list