[B-Greek] Third Aorist

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Tue Jan 4 21:31:42 EST 2005


In a message dated 1/3/05 3:31:58 PM, ericb at gracechurchreno.org writes:


> Hello,
> 
> I recall this has been brought up in the past and I have looked through the 
> archives and found comments from Carl on the issue of Third Aorist, but I am 
> wondering as a student if I can come across some more sources for 
> understanding this Third Aorist. 
> 
> It seems to me that the Third Aorist is simply a Second Aorist with abnormal 
> endings (that is an aorist with a root change, like Second Aorist, using 
> irregular endings).
> 
> If I am right about this a Second Aorist takes the endings of an Imperfect, 
> which would make one think that finding a Third Aorist would not be 
> difficult, seeing as how this would stick out like a sore thumb.
> 
> Anyway...Can anyone offer a correction or affirmation to my understanding of 
> the Third Aorist or direct me as I've already asked to some sources for 
> better understanding.
> 
> Eric Biggs,
> 
Eric,

What some call the "third" aorist is really what I would classify as "root 
aorist." The stem in the aorist ends with a vowel (usually lengthened) and the 
secondary endings are added without a variable vowel (linking vowel). eg. the 
aorist of GINWSKW is EGNWN. The stem is GNO and the stem vowel lengthens. The 
augment and the secondary active endings N, S, -, MEN, TE, SAN are added 
directly to the stem. 

Hope this helps. You might want to see Morphology of the New Testament, 
Brooks & Winbery, especially chapter eight where we deal with classes of verbs. 

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College




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