[B-Greek] Gospel of John 6:24

Jason Hare jason at hareplay.com
Thu Sep 25 15:59:54 EDT 2003


> ><Mitch>
> >hOTE OUN EIDEN hO OCLOS hOTI IHSOUS OUK ESTIN EKEI OUDE hOI MAQHTAI
AUTOU, ENEBHSAN AUTOI EIS TA PLOIARIA KAI HLQON EIS KAFARNAOUM ZHTOUNTES TON
IHSOUN
>
> >Why the present tense of ESTIN?
>
> <doug>
> i think that is the historical present. it creates
> vividness in the story telling process. i think that is
> pretty common in the gospels and acts.

Pages 526 to 532 (Section III.A of the verbal discussion) of Wallace's
/Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics/ covers this idea quite well.

"The /reason/ for the use of the historical present is normally to portray
an event /vividly/, as though the reader were in the midst of the scene as
it unfolds. Such vividness might be /rhetorical/ (to focus on some aspect of
the narrative) or /literary/ (to indicate a change in topic). The present
tense may be used to describe a past event, either for the sake of
/vividness/ or to /highlight/ some aspect of the narrative...."

Wallace argues that the historical present is used mainly by people with a
lower education level because it reflects the regular speech of the people.
He states that "[m]ore literary authors, as well as those who aspire to a
distanced historical reporting, tend to avoid it. John has it 162 times,
Mark 151 times. Matthew has 93 at most, while Luke has a mere 11, mostly
found in the parables of Jesus (with another 13 in Acts)."

According to Wallace, one finds the historical present only in the third
person, but I recall one time in Greek class a few years ago that we came
across a verse (if only I could remember it!) where we all agreed that it
was most surely a historical present of the first person.

Wallace gives illustration of this phenomenon in the following verses (while
citing others):

Matthew 26.40 - ERCETAI... hEURISKEI... LEGEI
Mark 1.41 - LEGEI
Mark 6.1 - ERCETAI... AKOLOUQOUSIN

(Note his comments on John 5.2 in comparison with our text, 6.24!!)

I hope this gives enough to chew on. I just pulled these things from
Wallace, but I (of course) learned of this aspect in first-year Greek so
long ago. It happens enough in the NT to get one acquainted with it with
only a little reading.

Regards,
Jason Hare
Missouri Southern State College
Joplin, MO
student of languages




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