[B-Greek] John 8:58 PPA???

MAKARIOIOIPRAEIS at aol.com MAKARIOIOIPRAEIS at aol.com
Wed Feb 2 01:44:53 EST 2005


My apologies for the drawing to the "Witnessess" to the current topic, 
historically the JW's have actually used the term 'perfect indefinite tense' to 
refer to the tense of EGO EIMI (footnote NWT, 1950 edition) 

The post from Sat Jan 15 08:55:32 EST 2005 mentioned the debate between Rob 
Bowman and Jason Beduhn.
     "There is a guy named Jason Beduhn currently debating with Rob Bowman on 
the    issue of John 8:58" 

Rob Bowman has debated JW's in the past and authored several books on the 
Watchtower's particular theology. (so my assumption for the current topic) and 
although Jason Beduhn has no affiliation with the JW's, as a proffessor of 
Religious Studies he has been quoted as saying that the Watchtower's Kingdom 
Interlinear of the NT is: 
     "Simply put, it is the best interlinear New Testament available"

I don't believe there are many who would agree with that. 
(Julius R. Mantey for example) 

At any rate the quote from the The Watchman Expositor was meant as an example 
of arguing Jn 8:58 as a present tense by the fact that it by itself is a 
"predicate absolute" and therefore needs to be rendered in the simple English 
present tense. 
(unless this rule of thumb is open for debate)???

I would say that I it would be very poor English to translate the blind man's 
response in John 9:9 EGO EIMI as "I have been". This statement is also a 
"predicate absolute" like John 8:58, and therefore makes the most sense as "I am" 
     ".....Some said 'This is he' others 'he is like him' (the blind man) was 
saying "I am.." 
Makes no sense to me at least to see this as "I have been" or "I was 'him' " 
or as a progressive, or historical present, but I'm not exactly sure what 
Jason Beduhn's argument for the PPA in John 8:58 actually was. 

Richard Windisch








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