[B-Greek] Mark 3:14

Elizabeth Kline kline-dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Apr 12 22:38:25 EDT 2006


On Apr 5, 2006, at 9:24 PM, Norman Wood wrote:

> Wallace in Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics gives a description of  
> the iterative present.
> "The present tense may be used to describe an event that repeatedly  
> happens"(pg 520). He suggests Mark 3:14 as an example and the only  
> present that I can see is the present subjunctive  INA WSIN MET AUTOU.
> Does this mean that the present subjunctive means that they would  
> be with him not continuously, but again and again ie they would be  
> with him, then not, then back with him over and over again?Or have  
> I got the wrong bit?
> Any thoughts would be welcome.
> Thanks
> Norman Wood
> Scotland

Norman,

MARK 3:14 KAI EPOIHSEN DWDEKA [hOUS KAI APOSTOLOUS WNOMASEN]
  hINA WSIN MET' AUTOU KAI hINA APOSTELLHi AUTOUS KHRUSSEIN

I suspect Wallace is looking at APOSTELLHi. Having followed many  
discussions in this forum that start out with some misleading  
statement from the grammar you are using, I wonder why anyone would  
use it as at textbook. However I find nothing wrong with the  
quotation "The present tense may be used to describe an event that  
repeatedly happens" as long as it is made very very clear that  
iterativity is not a semantic feature of the present tense. People  
who set out to write reference grammars should have a solid  
background in linguistics. I suspect that is why GGBB causes some  
much confusion.


Elizabeth Kline







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