[B-Greek] PEPOIHKEN in Heb. 11:28

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Jun 4 17:34:55 EDT 2007


On Jun 4, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:

>
> On Jun 4, 2007, at 9:43 AM, Webb wrote:
>
>> PISTEI PEPOIHKEN [MWUSHS] TO PASCA KAI THN PROSCUSIN TOU hAIMATOS
>> (Heb.
>> 11:28).
>>
>>
>>
>> Zerwick-Grosvenor says that PEPOIHKEN, as perfect, refers to
>> "inauguration
>> of a rite still observed". This seems reasonable to me, but I also
>> find
>> perfect forms tossed in as though they were aorists occasionally in
>> the GNT.
>> Is Zerwick-Grosvenor over-interpreting the perfect here?
>
> It is possible that Z-G is over-interpreting the perfect. Westcott
> (Ep.Hebrews p.177) gives a list of perfects in Hebrews which he
> considered significant and PEPOIHKEN in 11:28 is on the list.
> Ellingworth (Hebrews NIGTC) "... the perfect in contrast to the
> aorists in vv. 27 and 29, marks the establishment of the passover as
> a permanent institution ..." C.Koester (Heb.AB) "he kept the
> passover" with no comment on tense/aspect.
>
> In narrative the relative levels of markedness for verb tense/aspect
> looks something like:
>
> aorist [perfective] -- imperfect/present [imperfective] -- perfect
> [stative]
>
> I searched the LXX for non-aorist forms of POEIW within 10 words of
> PASCA. There were NO perfects, one present and several futures. The
> aorist was found nearly twice as often as all other forms combined.
> This makes sense if the aorist is the unmarked tense/aspect.
>
> Porter (Idioms NTG, p23) breaks down narrative prominence into three
> layers aorist [perfective, background], imperfect/present
> [imperfective, foreground], perfect [stative, front-ground]. The
> perfect is the most marked. I think this is what Ellingworth is
> driving at with his "the perfect in contrast to the aorists in vv. 27
> and 29" statement. The perfect stands out against a background of
> aorists. That doesn't necessarily mean that PEPOIHKEN in 11:28 "marks
> the establishment of the passover as a permanent institution ...".
>
> What is required is a study of the perfect in Hebrews which means
> looking at about 40 finite verbs, Westcott included in his list only
> half that number. Westcott claims that the "full force" of the
> perfect is felt in "every case." I suspect once could come up with
> some exceptions, however I am inclined to agree with Westcott and
> Ellingworth that PEPOIHKEN in 11:28 is marked relative to the aorist.

I'm trying to figure out what this means in terms of what it's  
comparable to within my realm of linguistic experience. it would  
appear to mean that, whereas the aorist is an unmarked perfective and  
EPOIHSEN would be a "passé indéfini" in French -- "il a fait," the  
perfect is a marked perfective and PEPOIHKEN would be a "passé  
défini" in French -- "il fit." I think that makes some sense, but I  
think that, by and large, distinctions in usage between aorist and  
perfect indicative in the Koine are obsolescent; it may well be that  
the author of Hebrews is more observant of traditional standard usage.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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