[B-Greek] Periphrastic construction in Jn 3:28

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 24 16:40:11 EST 2006


On Feb 24, 2006, at 3:34 PM, RRedden604 at aol.com wrote:

> There is an excellent description of the periphrastic perfect in   
> Burton's
> Moods and Tenses.  It is available at
> http://www.dabar.org/BurtonMoodsTenses/09-perfect_ind.htm

Not really all that informative, it seems to me:

"84. PERIPHRASTIC FORM OF THE PERFECT. Periphrastic Perfects, formed  
by adding a Perfect Participle to the Present of the verb eivmi, are  
frequent in the New Testament, about forty instances occurring. In  
function these forms more frequently denote existing state, though  
clear instances of the Perfect denoting completed action occur. The  
former use is illustrated in Luke 20:6; John 2:17; Acts 2:13; 25:10;  
2 Cor. 4:3, etc.; the latter in Luke 23:15; Acts 26:26; Heb. 4:2,  
etc. Cf. 431."

I'm not sure where his count of "about forty instances occurring"  
derives. As I noted in my earlier reply, "The fact is that there are  
104 instances of the MP (perfect) ptc. immediately preceded by a form  
of EIMI and 38 instances of the MP (perfect) ptc. followed  
immediately by a form of EIMI in the GNT; there are 234 MP indicative  
forms. I remain unconvinced that there's any significant difference  
between a periphrastic perfect MP and the straightforward conjugated  
perfect MP. As I noted before, "Of the 132 instances of APOSTELLW in  
the GNT, all 10 perfect MP forms are participles: there's not one  
instance of APESTALMAI, although that's the form you'd see in a  
grammar-book paradigm."


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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