[B-Greek] 2 Tim 2:15

Ben & Mandy Pehrson ben-mandy_pehrson at sil.org
Sun Mar 20 10:30:47 EST 2005


The aorist can be used to refer to a single act, but the aorist is not only
used to refer to one-time events.  It is probably best to normally think of
the aorist as referring to the action as a whole-or a summary-regardless of
whether that action is a single one-time event or much more than that.  So
the aorist by itself does not tell us if the action is a single event or
otherwise.  That we have to gain from context.

In 2 Tim 2:15 notice that both SPOUDASON, "be eager" or "hasten," and the
complementary infinitive PARASTHSAI, "to present," are both aorist, and we
need to consider both words together since the complementary infinitive
completes the meaning of the main verb.  When I first considered your
question out of context, I thought these might be aorist because it could be
referring to a future one-time event when Timothy would present himself
before the throne of God.  The context of vv. 11-12 could perhaps support
this idea; however, the immediate context of vv. 14-16 is clearly talking
about what Timothy should be doing continuously in his current
ministry-notice all the present tense verbs.

Paul says, "Be eager (aorist imperative) to present (aorist infinitive)
yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, keeping-on-a-straight-course
(present participle) the message of truth."  The aorist tense in v. 15 is
really only expressing that Timothy should be eager to present himself
approved to God-it says nothing about that being a one-time decision or an
ongoing action.

However, the adverbial present participle ORQOTOMOUNTA, "keeping [the
message of truth] on a straight course" does reflect a continuous or
repeated action, and because it is adverbial, the action of this continuous
participle is somehow related to the action of the aorist imperative
SPOUDASON.  Regardless of whether one interprets this adverbial participle
as expressing simultaneous time, manner, means, or some other relationship
to the aorist SPOUDASON, it is hard to avoid the idea that to "be eager to
present yourself approved to God" in this context involves a continuous or
repeated action.  One might argue that the participle could express the
purpose of the preceding aorist imperative and its complementary infinitive,
but I think this is less likely.

This relationship between the aorist imperative and the present participle
is paralleled in v. 18 regarding Hymenaeus and Philetus.  Concerning the
truth, they HSTOCHSAN (aorist), "missed the mark," LEGONTES (present
continuous) saying the resurrection already happened.  We can't say
HSTOCHSAN is aorist so Hymenaeus and Philetus missed the mark only one time.
No, they missed the mark repeatedly every time they spoke untruths.  But the
Greek aorist can be used to speak of their repeated error in a summary
manner.

Ben

Benjamin Pehrson
Translation Advisor
Aitape West Translation Project
Papua New Guinea

www.wycliffe.org



-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Bendeguz L. Szuk
Sent: Sunday, 20 March, 2005 9:27 PM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] 2 Tim 2:15

Hello,

I am new to the list. but I have a question:

Why Paul uses aorist in the begining of 2Tim 2:15? I would understand the
verse the way, that Timothy sould countinually be eager. As far as I know
aorist refer to a single act.

With love,
Bendeguz from Hungary
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