[B-Greek] Gospel of John 6:24
Dmitriy Reznik
reznik1 at juno.com
Thu Sep 25 23:19:32 EDT 2003
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 17:29:47 -0400 "Doug Hoxworth"
<dhoxworth at charter.net> writes:
> ><Dmitriy>
> >In Russian I would simply say, "I wish I knew what I AM doing...",
> and Greek works in the same way. So the present is used in John 6:24
> not because it is a special feature of Greek (which has been
> mentioned here), but rather because Greek doesn't have some special
> feature of English, namely, "concord of tenses".
>
> <doug>
> that's interesting. is there a way to say "I wish I knew
> what I WAS doing..." in russian? what is the reason that
> it is constructed this way in russian (i.e., why wouldn't
> you want a "concord of tenses"? so do you believe there is
> such a thing as the "historical present" in Greek or is
> this a misunderstanding by grammarians?
> ---
I answered this post, but by accident sent it to Doug only. So I am
repeating what I wrote to him.
No, in Russian you would not say "I wish I knew what I was doing". It
would mean "I wish I knew what I had been doing". The concord of tenses
is simply not used in Russian. And I don't think you will ever find it in
Greek. If I am wrong, let the professors correct me.
No, I don't think that historical present is a misunderstanding. It is
simply not used in John 6:24. You said correctly that it is used to draw
a picture before the readers' eyes. E.g. "Jesus says to him..." has
"says" in present, so it happened 2000 years ago. This is historical
present. And it is used here in direct noration.
But in John 6:24 we deal with INDIRECT DISCOURCE. And because Greek
doesn't use concord of tenses, John had no other way than using present.
As I understand, in indirect discourse aorist can also be used, but only
if the situation where in English we would use past perfect:
"And they were seeking to seize Him; and yet they feared the multitude;
for they understood that He HAD SPOKEN the parable against them". Here
Jesus spoke the parable before the enemies understood it.
Sincerely,
Dmitriy Reznik
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