[B-Greek] 1John 2:18
Eddie Mishoe
edmishoe at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 2 20:26:25 EDT 2004
Dony:
You're not thinking Greek. The Perfect (emphatic with
NUN) does not denote something like "it is probable
that he/she remains..." It simply describes the
CURRENT state of affairs. That CURRENT state of
affairs was preceeded by some previous event(s), but
the Perfect tense isolates the focal point to the
CURRENT state with absolutely no regard for the past.
You might even imagine the Perfect tense working under
the assumption that a previous event necessarily
preceeded the current state. That would be fine. But
what that previous set of events were is of no concern
to the Perfect tense. The issue is: how does it stand
RIGHT NOW (NUN).
The nuance you translated with the Hebrew-->LXX in
Gen, "the earth was/became..." is not a Perfect tense
idea. The Imperfect and the Perfect are very much
dissimilar.
Eddie Mishoe
--- "Dony K. Donev" <dony at cupandcross.com> wrote:
> Well, "have become" seems to cover both past and
> present as the very meaning
> of the word conveys a result of a past process
> through which if one has
> become in the past, it is probable that he/she
> remains in the "becoming"
> condition. As Arie pointed out, however, such
> rendering of GEGONASIN may not
> be appropriate, although I cannot resist making a
> parallel with Genesis 1:2
> where the LXX also uses imperfect tense of EIMI to
> translate the Hebrew HAYA
> in order to say that the earth was/became TOHU va
> BOHU.
>
>
>
> Dony K. Donev
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eddie Mishoe" <edmishoe at yahoo.com>
> To: "Arie Dirkzwager" <dirkzwager at pandora.be>; "Dony
> K. Donev"
> <dony at cupandcross.com>; <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 1:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 1John 2:18
>
>
> > Dony:
> >
> > I think "have become" or "have been" both miss the
> > Perfect tense here. That is why John uses the
> adverb
> > NUN in conjunction with the Perfect tense: the
> Perfect
> > tense denotes a current state of affairs (so NUN).
> The
> > point that this passage is conveying to John's
> > recipients is the "antichrists are currently on
> the
> > scene, they not only have appeared (so NET Bible),
> but
> > also they are still present." John is referencing
> with
> > the Perfect tense (even without NUN) that the
> > antichrists "are present."
> >
> > Avoid any English nuance that conveys an exclusive
> > past tense idea. Same with the Heb passage.
> >
> > Eddie
>
> ---
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>
=====
Eddie Mishoe
Pastor
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