[B-Greek] Rev 2:25
mrt
mrt at hisurfer.net
Tue Jan 13 08:17:51 EST 2004
At 5:46 PM -0800 1/12/04, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>PLHN hO ECETE KRATHSATE ACRIS hOU AN hHXW
Best I can figure, ACRIS hOU means "until which." Then you add AN to get an
indefinite idea. Then, I guess you have to supply the word "time." All of
which then means "until which [time] I may come." I added "may" of "may
come" to account for the AN. Am I close here?
________
Carl C. responded:
>hHXW is aorist subjunctive as required by the AN; the sense of ACRIS hOU is
"pending such time as ..."; the force of the aorist subjunctive is "I
(shall) have arrived"--"But hold on to what you have pending the time at
which I shall have come."
_______
Greetings comrades,
I have always understood ACRIS hOU AN or ACRIS hOU as an abbreviated form of
ACRIS TOU CPONOU hWi (see BDAG 1b alfa or Zerwick's grammar §17) and the
form of the condensed version similar to the abbrev. MECRIS hOU, which I
also take to mean MECRI TOU CRONOU hWi (re. MECRIS hOU Est. 5:1; Mk. 13:30;
Gal. 4:19; Judith 5:10; Tobit 11:1; Theod. Grk. of Daniel 11:36).
ACRI[S] I regard as improper preposition or temporal adverb. So for
instance in Act 7:17 we are told that Israel increased and grew numerous in
size; v.18 ACRI hOU *until the time when* ANASTH BASILEUS hETEROS EP'
AIGUPTON hOS OUK HiDEI TON IWSHF (until there arose another king over Egypt
who knew nothing about Joseph) thus indicating a temporal clause.
Now I too see the subjunctive most often used after AN, the particle of
contingency, indicating that the verbal action is dependent on some
situation or condition. So yes, in most instances there is with it the
aspect of possibility, hence the need for the subjunctive. But on the other
hand it is not necessary that a subjunctive proceed AN. In fact in our
verse the verb after AN is hHXW which may be future active indicative,
though I do think it's subjunctive as well (note that some grammarians are
unsure here). Now sometimes an optative follows AN, but that mood
(possibility) is still similar to the mood of probability ie. subjunctive
(for opt. following AN see Gen 23:15; Luk 1:62; Act 5:24, 8:31, 17:18)
Places where we do see AN employed without a subjunctive or optative may be
in Conditional sentences (if... then) . Here AN is used with the apodosis
(then clause) e.g. Gen 43:10; Num 22:29; 4 Macc 6:32; Oba 1:5; Matt 24:22; 1
Cor 11:31; Heb 4:8 and there are others. In fact the apodosis usually does
have the particle AN. For fun here's a conditional sentence with a imperf.
indicative vb. EI MEN OUN HN EPI GHS, OUD' AN HN hIEREUS - Now if he were
on earth, {then} he would not be a priest (Heb 8:4)
For instances other than Conditional sentences where we do see an Indicative
following AN are Gen 6:4; 30:42; Act 2:45, 4:35; 1 Cor 12:2. I suppose
there are more. And I think BDB §367 also gives more examples and speaks
about this (cf. also BDAG I.a. AN)
Michael Tarver
Oregon, USA
<'\\>< laus Deo
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