[B-Greek] Understanding tense of participles?
craig
newsgroupstuff at people.net.au
Fri Nov 11 14:14:32 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.
Can you unpack that a bit more please? Particularly substantive vs aspect vs
temporal? What is the distinct meaning (if any) of tense with substantives?
I suspect that with participles, temporal senses are more up for grabs, and
aspect is more important. Also with substantives. Eg in Rev 20:4, perfect is
used because of completed action, not past occurance; Heb 4:3 aorist is used
because of point-in-time action of having believed, not because of past
occurance.
Another case in point that I am wondering about is present participle in Heb
10:14 TOUS hAGIAZOMENOUS. I suspect it is not about present in time
directly. Maybe it is a contrast with the perfect of TETELEIWKEN, regarding
a continuing action of hAGIAZOMENOUS ('There is a sense in which those who
are imperfect are actually considered perfect', something like that).
Whether this means people who at the time or writing were hAGIAZOMENOUS, or
whether people at any time (past, present or future) who were hAGIAZOMENOUS,
becomes then a question of interpretation not Greek tense. What do you
think?
Thanks for helping me try to understand tense and participles!
--
Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia
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