[B-Greek] Verbs (Including Imperatives, 3rd Person) and Substantival Participles

Yancy Smith Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Fri Nov 11 18:45:06 EST 2005


Chet,

I mispoke about the imperative being (Robertson, p. 941 has  
PROSTATIKH EGKLISIS, probably a deformation of PROSTAKTIKH)  
PARASTATKOS -H -ON, is one of the terms, along with hORISTIKOS, -H, - 
ON for the indicative, especially used for the imperfect. Sorry. You  
are obviously more knowledgable than I about Greek!  As I read the  
Greek grammarian I am looking at (Appollonius Dyscolus), his "rule of  
thumb" definition of the imperative (PROSTAKTIKA) comes about in the  
course of discussing some examples of the aorist participle: (My  
Translation, I'm not aware of any other English translation)

And this [behavior of participles] should be observed:  that the  
imperative construction of verbs affects the syntax of the the  
participle to be undefined in [respect to time], for example "Let the  
one who has killed the tyrrant be honored." Now the indicative mood  
in the present or in the past relates the participle more to the  
verb, as in the example "the one who killed the tyrrant is honored"  
or "the one who killed the tyrrant was honored." And again the  
undefined (aoristic) future is perceived in accordance what we said  
[about the the effect of the imperative on the syntax of the  
participle], "The one who killed the tyrrant will be honored," as  
completely correct, for concerning what is happening and what has  
happened the rule is clear, concerning what what will happen is more  
clear in which case the participial syntax is undefined. And it is  
obvious from such an example that all imperatives involve the  
dispositon of something future, being commanded either with respect  
to contiuous or completed action.
De constructione, 2.2.114

Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University






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