[B-Greek] Imperfect in Col 3:18

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 31 13:23:20 EST 2005


At 11:14 AM -0500 3/31/05, Darrell Broking wrote:
>ANEKEN in Colossians 3:18 appears to be in the imperfect tense. Why would an
>imperfect tense verb be used here where one would expect to find the present
>tense used?

It's ANHKEN (H for Eta in transliteration) and it is indeed imperfect. BDF
has a note on this at §358:

"The imperfect (without AN) in expressions of necessity, duty, possibility
etc. denotes in classical something which is or was actually necessary,
etc., but which does not or did not take place (cf. Latin). In this case
German uses the unreal subjunctive, which corresponds to 'should, could' or
'should have, could have' in English. (1) This usage is retained in the NT:
e.g. Mt 23:23 TAUTA EDEI POIHSAI KA'KEINA MH AFEINAI, Mt. 26:9 EDUNATO
TOUTO PRAQHNAI POLLOU. (2) this usage is expanded in some cases in the NT
where classical would more likely have used the present indicative for an
assertion about present time (so that CRH, PROSHKEI etc. contain an
unjunction): E 5:4 may e so understood hA OUK ANHKEN (DE al. TA OUK
ANHKONTA) 'what is (really) not proper (but yet happens), cf. v. 3 KAQWS
PREPEI."

In note 2 Col 3:18 is given as an instance of this second usage.
-- 

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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