[B-Greek] Future Tense and Imperfective Aspect?

yancywsmith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Mon Sep 11 09:38:05 EDT 2006


This is a side track from the discussion of Imperfect and Aorist  
aspects.

Ron said:
> Broman Olsen defines future perfect as a
> combination of future tense and the perfective aspect and  
> pluperfect as a
> combination of past tense and the perfective aspect.

I am wondering whether sometimes, with Semitic speakers of Greek  
during the NT period, we wouldn't get a future tense with an  
imperfective aspect. Consider, for example, the verb EPITELEW in Phil  
1:6: πεποιθὼς αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ὅτι ὁ  
ἐναρξάμενος ἐν ὑμῖν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν  
ἐπιτελέσει ἄχρι ἡμέρας Χριστοῦ  
Ἰησοῦ·
PEPOIHQWS AUTO TOUT, hOTI hO ENARXAMENOS EN hUMIN ERGON AGAQON  
EPITELESEI ACRI hHMERAS CRISTOU IHSOU.

I notice that the NRSV editors were insistent upon giving it a  
perfective translation "bring it to completion by the day of Christ."  
But Louw and Nida suggest the following translation, "‘(God), who  
began (this) good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished  
in the day of Christ Jesus’" in keeping with their appartent  
understanding of the use of ACRI here and EPITELESEI as imperfective.  
What is striking about this example is that the "verbal semantics" of  
the action, in English at least, would seem to demand a "perfective"  
aspect. Nevertheless, imperfective seems to fit the context better.

I notice that the translation of the Society for the Distribution of  
Hebrew Scriptures uses an imperfective form and not vav with the  
perfect:
גמ הוא יכלנו



Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
5636 Wedgworth Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565




On Sep 10, 2006, at 7:57 AM, Rolf Furuli wrote:

> Broman Olsen defines future perfect as a
> combination of future tense and the perfective aspect and  
> pluperfect as a
> combination of past tense and the perfective aspect.




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