[B-Greek] 1 John 3.8 present tense hAMARTANEI
Eddie Mishoe
edmishoe at yahoo.com
Mon May 22 23:33:15 EDT 2006
Mitch:
> ...AP ARCHS hO DIABOLOS hAMARTANEI...
>
> The present tense verb is usually translated "he was
> sinning" or "he has been sinning." Is there a more
> accurate way to convey the present tense of this
> verb
> in this construct?
You might start by taking a linguistic approach to
such instances as this. One such approach is to
develop a fuller understanding of Deictic Centers, a
subject that can be found in the archives here and
there in B-Greek.
Deictic centers are generally thought of (incorrectly)
as a "point in time." I prefer to see deictic centers
as covering as much temporal ground as the context
calls for. That is, deictic centers can cover a large
block of time, condensing it all into a unit. In this
passage, the deictic center has as its beginning point
AP ARCHS and as its ending point the time of
speaking/writing; the present tense then makes a
statement that covers this entire period AS A UNIT. In
relation to this deictic center, the devil IS SINNING.
The idea of "was sinning" has the imperfective aspect
correct, but comes up short when it chooses to select
some unit of time limited to the past (hence "was"),
effectively breaking up the unit of time (or breaking
up the deictic center). From the beginning to now, and
all points between, the devil is to be viewed as one
who is in sinning mode.
Eddie Mishoe
Pastor
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