[B-Greek] 1 Cor 14:5: present infinitive aspect

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Sat May 13 08:01:10 EDT 2006



> What sort of aspect should the present infinitive LALEIN in 1 Cor 14:5 have?
> My personal feeling is that it is a continuous punctiliar ("I want you to
> continue to speak in tongues"), but I know of one person who insists it is
> continuous uninterrupted (i.e., he claims to speak/pray in tongues 24/7).
> This is a ridiculous notion I know, but my friend seems convinced of his own
> knowledge of the present infinitive as continuous uninterrupted, based on
> two obscure comments from Blaiklock and Jay not at all related to 1 Cor
> 14:5. Some of us who have been discussing the issue with him have referred
> him to this list to see what kind of response he might get, but he hasn't
> posted or joined here as of this point to my knowledge.
>
> Scott Stocking

It is not clear to me what "continuous punctiliar" is supposed to mean.

Basically, the present infinitive has the imperfective aspect, while the aorist infinitive has a perfective aspect. Your 
friend would find it worthwhile to look up all the infinitives of LALEW in the NT and categorize them as to the present 
and aorist infinitives.

With an aorist infinitive the speech is considered as a whole, usually a one-time event. For instance, aorist is used in 
Acts 21:39 "Allow me to speak LALHSAI  to the people." It was a one-time event. It doesn't matter how long it took, but 
it was not repeated at several occasions.

Within the category of imperfective (non-completed) aspect, the three main types are:

1. Continuous aspect
2. Iterative aspect
3. General aspect (used in general, timeless statements)

By iterative aspect is meant a repeated action. It looks like your friend has been hung up on the idea of present tense 
always implying continuous aspect when in this and most other cases of LALEW the repeated action is meant rather than 
continuous action.

You can approximate this in English by translating the present infinitive as:
"I want all of you to be speaking in tongues" (not continuously, but repeatedly)
QELW DE PANTAS hUMAS LALEIN GLWSSAIS

Had Paul used an aorist, it could have been approximated by the English:
"I want all of you to have spoken in tongues" (just a one time event).

Iver Larsen 




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