[B-Greek] Understanding tense of participles?
craig
newsgroupstuff at people.net.au
Fri Nov 11 11:48:44 EST 2005
I wanted to ask a clarifying question with regard to understanding the tense
of participles. I talked about this in very specific situations recently
(regarding Rev 20:4 and Heb 4:3), but didn't get confirmation or much
further response. So I thought I would ask again more generally, because it
is something I am still trying to get a handle on.
When I first started learning Greek, the simple rule about tense and
participles was that the time sequence is determined by referencing the
tense of participle back to the tense of the main verb. Something like that.
But as I studied some more Greek, I began to wonder how much tense of
participles reflected time-sequence, especially in the case of adjectival
use of participles.
I have also seen some talk of aspect rather than time (eg
http://www.mythfolklore.net/bibgreek/croy/verbs/126.htm). But I am not sure
if everyone is in agreement here, and my knowledge is not broad enough or
deep enough to know otherwise. Certainly I have seen people argue on the
basis of tense of participles and wonder if it is warranted or not.
So anyhow, I am wondering if anyone can point me to good online references
about this whole issue of tense and participles, or perhaps provide some
explanation and examples? Also, please clarify if this is something everyone
agrees on, or whether there is some debate involved.
Thanks!
--
Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia
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