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

Eric Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sat May 13 17:01:04 EDT 2006


Iver Larson wrote:

> 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.
Along the lines of Iver's suggestion, Scott's and my friend was in fact given all 
the occurrences in the New Testament and the LXX of the present infinitive 
LALEIN to look up and see if they require or expect the translation "to speak 
CONTINUALLY." This apparently was not convincing.

So, to be even more specific, this is what Scott's and my friend wrote (on 
another forum) that caused us both to question him on his insistence that 
LALEIN in 1 Cor 14:5 means to continually speak in tongues 24/7. I only quote 
it all to show that this "interpretation" is also being laid at the feet of Greek Profs 
Jay and Blaiklock:

> 1 Cor 14:5 -- "QELW DE PANTAS hUMAS LALEIN GKWSSAIS" -- "I wish, I 
> want, I desire  ALL of you to speak CONTINUALLY in tongues."  
> "I want" -- Behind Paul's words is the Holy Spirit. PAUL'S DESIRE IS GOD'S 
> DESIRE TOO.
> "all of you" -- every Xtian without exception, because 1 Cor is addressed to 
> "ALL that in EVERY place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord" (1:2) 
> "CONTINUALLY" -- because LALEIN is a present infinitive, which, says Dr.
> Eric G. Jay in his "NT Greek" (p.101) "The present infinitive is used of an 
> action which is prolonged or repeated ... IT IS ONLY EMPLOYED WHEN 
> ATTENTION IS BEING DRAWN TO THE PROLONGING OR REPETITION OF 
> THE ACTION." 
> He  cites "hUPAGW hALIEUEIN" -- "I'm going back to the fishing trade" (as 
> opposed to a nice afternoon's one-off fishing) by Peter in John 21:3. And one 
> sleepless night I discovered my old Bible College lecturer Prof E. M. Blaiklock 
> made the same point in "The Bible and I" p.124 where he translates John the 
> Baptist's "He must increase, I must decrease" as "He must CONTINUALLY 
> INCREASE, I must CONTINUALLY DECREASE."

Along with Scott's initial question, a related question is the validity of our friend's 
translation of 1 Cor 14:5 as being:  "I wish, I want, I desire  ALL of you to speak 
CONTINUALLY in tongues" -- a practice which he attempts to do (i.e., pray in 
tongues 24/7) and is also attempting to convince others on the other forum (who 
do not know Greek) likewise to do, having for all practical purposes almost 
turned it into a command (but that issue is likely for a different forum). Since our 
friend does seem to respect well-taught students and professors of Greek, Scott 
(and now I) turned to B-Greek for feedback from some of y'all.

Thanks!



Eric S. Weiss


		
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