[B-Greek] English vs Greek Perfect

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Sat Nov 12 14:11:17 EST 2005


On Nov 12, 2005, at 1:19 PM, Bert de Haan wrote:

> This question concerns itself with English grammar but I think  
> there is a
> enough of a connection with Greek grammar to make it suitable for  
> this list.
>
> I am reading through C.F.D. Moule's 'an Idiom Book of New Testament  
> Greek.'
> In the section where he describes the perfect tense (page 13) he  
> says that
> "[the Greek Perfect] differs slightly from the English Perfect,  
> which 'is
> used of any past action between which and the time of speaking the  
> speaker
> does not intend distinctly to interpose an interval'.  I.e. the  
> Greek tense
> is concerned with result, while the English tense is concerned  
> solely with
> the absence (from the immediate interests of the speaker) of an  
> interval."
>
> I understand the part of the Greek Perfect being result-oriented  
> but I don't
> know what he means when he speaks about the absence of interval.
> Can someone explain this please?

I think the point of this is that when in English we say or write, "I  
have been there and done that," we are simply indicating presence at  
the point in question and performance of the action in question at  
some point in the past; there is no indication of nor any concern  
with how long ago one has been there or done that. The Greek perfect,  
however, focuses primarily upon the present FACT of COMPLETION of an  
action which may have taken place recently or at some remote point in  
the past. On the other hand, however, there are some indications that  
the perfect tense in Koine is often equivalent to an aorist;  
certainly the perfect tense, although far from defunct in Koine  
Greek, is being used less and less, primarily, I think, because the  
aorist is supplanting it. The most frequently-used perfect-tense  
forms in Koine are OIDA and hESTHKA and their compounds--verbs that  
are essentially present-tense in semantic force ("I know" and "I am  
standing").

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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