[B-Greek] Imperfect and Aorist, for Bert
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Tue Sep 19 06:12:13 EDT 2006
Bert deHaan EGRAPSE
>I wrote:
" If the aorist is meant to give a summary view ( or is the unmarked or the
default tense) of a past action, how am I to understand the Ingressive
aorist.
Would the Imperfect not be the more logical tense for that?">
Picture something that 'was heavy', how would you describe the entry
into that state, when it 'became heavy?' Many a language will use a
simple past to refer to a full, completed process of 'becoming heavy.
For Greek, that is a natural way of using the aorist. If the focus is
on the completed process. The 'summary' view as you call it normally
includes the end of the process, too. Hence, the simple past marks the
entrance into a state.
[[If you are interested, note 1Sm (=LXX Kindoms) 5:11
καὶ ἐβαρύνθη χεὶρ κυρίου KAI EBARUNQH XEIR KURIOU
and the hand of the Lord 'became heavy'.
(Granted, this is simply translating vattixbad [equally perfective and
past with the aorist here], but the Greek verb is both normal and
clear. [PS: I am not presuming Hebrew in order to understand the
Greek, simply acknowledging that the Greek is a translation.])]]
An imperfect (PARATATIKOS 'continuative, extending, open-ended' in
ancient Greek) could/would imply that something at the end is not
being seen. This can even be true as a literary effect.
E.g. καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ Mk 1:13b
KAI OI AGGELOI DIHKONOUN AUTW
"and the angels were ministering to him" (end not in focus, a virtual
"fadeout". Since this is the end of the scene the imperfect has a
literary effect rather than a logical-semantic relationship to other
events.) Mark could have said DIHKONHSAN. the semantics might have fit
better as including an end (cf 2Tim 1:18 for an aorist DIAKONHSAI
covering many activities), but the PARATATIKOS was funner.
I would think that the aspect-only folk might even agree on this
literary reading, since they agree that choice of aspect is subjective
and Mark has signalled the reader to make an 'imperfective read' here.
ERRWSO
Randall Buth
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
randallbuth at gmail.com
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