[B-Greek] 2 Cor. 1:9 Death sentence currently in place?
Paul Toseland
toseland at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri Jan 5 21:19:01 EST 2007
Webb,
Others are far better qualified than I to comment on this, and I hope
they will. But I would say that Paul chose perfect forms of ECW in 2 Cor
1:9, 2:13 and 7:5 to evoke dramatic vividness. Robertson has an
interesting and helpful discussion of a semantic category he calls 'The
Dramatic Historical Present Perfect' (ATR 896-7); I quote, but omitting
much of value:
'Here an action completed in the past is conceived in terms of the
present time for the sake of vividness ... But by the term "historical"
it is not meant that this use of the perfect is common in all narrative
... It is rather the tense of the orator or the dramatist and is often
rhetorical ... Moulton^ <#fn383> notes how in the papyri there is an
increasing use of the present perfect just because it is so largely the
language of life ... This vivid perfect is found in John's Gospel in
particular. One only needs to have some imagination himself.
Cf. TEQEAMAI (1:32). John still has that vision. So hEURHKAMEN (1:41).
The aorist would have been prosaic ...'
He also cites John 5:33 (APESTALKATE); Acts 7:35 (APESTALKEN); 21:28
(KEKOINWKEN); 2 Cor 11:25 (PEPOIHKA); Rev 5:7 (EILHFEN - 'where John
sees Jesus with the book in his hand. It is dull to make an ei;lhfen
here=ELABEN'); Matt 25:6 (GEGONEN, 'where the present perfect notes the
sudden cry [cf. aorist and imperf. just before]'); 2 Cor 12:9 (EIRHKEN);
James 1:24 (APELHLUQEN).
Best wishes,
Paul
Webb wrote:
> 2 Cor. 2:13 is exactly the sort of thing I was fishing for--it looks to me
> as though Paul can indeed use the perfect form where the context would
> expect the aorist. I wonder if ESCHKAMEN just rolls off the tongue better
> than ESCOMEN. Or is there a nuance I should look out for?
>
> Webb Mealy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Toseland [mailto:toseland at blueyonder.co.uk]
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 3:50 AM
> To: webb at selftest.net; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [B-Greek] 2 Cor. 1:9 Death sentence currently in place?
>
> Webb,
>
> According to both Robertson and BDF, perfects were occasionally used in
> narrative for aorists. BDF 343.2 lists ESCHKA in 2 Cor 2:13 as a clear
> instance, though in this instance Robertson is not so sure (ATR 900f;
> cf. 897).
>
> As for APOKRIMA TOU QANATOU, btw, it might mean 'the answer, "Death",'
> rather than 'death sentence'. Paul had enquired (of God?) what the
> outcome would be, and though he had not yet received an official
> reasponse, he was sure of the reply: he would die. In that case, the
> confidence he now expresses that God will again be rescue him (1:10)
> would imply that in 1:9 ESCHKAMEN is in fact equivalent to an aorist. So
> I don't think the issue can be settled without detailed exegesis.
>
> Paul Toseland
>
> Original message, Thu Jan 4 16:23:00 EST 2007:
>
> 2 Cor. 1:9
>
> ALLA AUTOI EN hEAUTOIS TO APOKRIMA TOU QANATOU ESCHKAMEN hINA MH PEPOIQOTES
> WMEN EF hEAUTOIS ALL EPI TWi QEWi TWi EGEIRONTI TOUS NEKROUS
>
>
>
> But we have a death sentence inside ourselves so that we won't have
> confidence in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead.
>
>
>
> Or, more naturally rendered:
>
>
>
> But if we have a death sentence inside ourselves, it's so that we won't have
> confidence in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead.
>
>
>
> The translations I've looked at treat ESCHKAMEN as pluperfect in force,
> locating the sense of a death sentence in the past, during the time of the
> severe trouble Paul refers to in v. 8. But I'm not so sure. Perhaps Paul
> sees the sword of Damocles as continuously hanging over his head, which
> would match what I have come to understand about the force of the perfect,
> and would match Paul's statement that God rescued and continues to rescue us
> (or, following different mss, will rescue us), v. 10. Or does ECW follow a
> non-standard pattern in the perfect?
>
>
>
> Interestingly, Lattimore takes a different approach: "For all we could do,
> we would have got the death sentence; so that our trust had to be not in
> ourselves but in God, who raises the dead".
>
>
>
> Webb Mealy
>
>
>
> ----------
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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