[B-Greek] Understanding tense of participles?
kgraham0938 at comcast.net
kgraham0938 at comcast.net
Fri Nov 11 12:56:58 EST 2005
@craig:
I think once you have an article governing a participle, that participle acts like a substantive. The aspectual side of things gets toned down a bit.
So in Hebrews 4:3 hOI PISTEUSANTES = those who believe.
In Rev 20:4 TWN PEPELEKISMENWN = those who were beheaded.
> 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
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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