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

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Jan 15 09:28:41 EST 2005


At 9:11 AM -0500 1/15/05, George F Somsel wrote:
>On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 13:55:32 +0000 kgraham0938 at comcast.net writes:
>>  There is a guy named Jason Beduhn currently debating with Rob Bowman
>> on the issue of John 8:58 right now.  His view is that John 8:58 is
>> a PPA. (present of Past Action still in progress).
>>
>> He also argues that saying Before Abraham was I AM was bad english.
>>
>> But since this is a greek chat room, does anyone here think John
>> 8:58 could be a PPA??
>>
>> --
>> Kelton Graham
>> KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net
>___________________________
>
>Would you care to explain what that means?  It sounds like the
>description of a perfect.

There are idiomatic present-tense forms with perfective force: hHKW ("I'm
here = I have arrived"), ERREI ("he's gone"--"flown the coop"). But what
this text really comes closest to in Greek is the usage of ESTI in
Parmenides in an existential sense: "it exists"--and therefore one cannot
talk of it having come into existence or existing in the future--"Being" is
without beginning and without end. I mention this not to inaugurate a
discussion with Parmenides or to suggest any influence, but simply to note
what might be a grammatical parallel.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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