[B-Greek] Romans 7:19 Iterative Presents
Eddie Mishoe
edmishoe at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 23 08:01:43 EDT 2006
Mitch:
> Romans 7:19 is
>
> OU GAR hO QELW POIW AGAQON, ALLA hO OU QELW KAKON
> TOUTO PRASSW
>
> Can these be Iterative Presents? And if so, does
> frequency in a Present Tense imply that it happens
> with high or low frequency/regularity?
You've undoubtedly read about the Present Tense
denoting "on-going action" or "continuous action."
Neither of these describes the inherent aspectual
semantics of the Present. One could argue that Paul is
only describing ONE EVENT (note the singular pronouns)
in this passage you cite.
My own guess is that Paul is describing the struggle
with indwelling sin, giving us ONE EXAMPLE, and
describing his fight WHILE it is in progress. The
Present Tense describes an event from the standpoint
of it being 'in progress,' not for how long it remains
in progress, or how many times (your iterative
question) it occurs.
Eddie Mishoe
Pastor
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