[B-Greek] EDIWXA - 1 Corinthians 15:9
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Apr 27 20:11:28 EDT 2006
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-
> bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of glen
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 4:00 PM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [B-Greek] EDIWXA - 1 Corinthians 15:9
>
> Hello all,
>
> Please pardon my amateur question - but I'm still struggling with verb
> tenses.
>
> In 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul is speaking of how he persecuted the Church.
> In
> most every translation I've seen this is translated as past tense.
>
> Can someone please help a rookie understand why this sentence:
>
> DIOTI EDIWXA THN EKKLHSIAN TOU QEOU
>
> ... is not translated as "I persecute" rather than "I persecuted"?
>
> Thanks so much!
Hey, Glenn, amateur questions are perfectly ok -- it's how one grows out of
the neophyte stage!
Very simply, it is a first person singular, aorist active indicative. The
aorist if often the "flat" or simple past tense. Here Paul is giving the
reason why he considers himself ELACISTOS, "least" -- it is because he
persecuted the church (in the past). The present tense would indicate that
he is still persecuting the church, which would make no sense at all. Since
the aorist indicative is a past tense, so we translate it.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty & IT Support
The Center for Urban Theological Studies
http://www.cuts.edu
Visiting Faculty
Reformed Theological Seminary-Washington DC
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
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