[B-Greek] Luke 15.6 APOLWLOS

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Feb 12 05:36:10 EST 2008


On Feb 12, 2008, at 1:14 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> Luke 15.6 has...
>
> KAI ELQWN EIS TON OIKON SUGKALEI TOUS FILOUS KAI TOUS
> GEITONAS LEGWN AUTOIS SUGCARHTE MOI hOTI hEURON TO
> PROBATON MOU TO APOLWLOS
>
> Why the Perfect APOLWLOS here? Does not APOLWLOS
> denote the current/present state of some past event?
> This sheep is no longer lost. I would have expected
> the Perfect participle of hEURISKW..."the one in a
> state of being found." Or, perhaps an Aorist or
> Imperfect of APOLLUMI.

Have you noticed that this is 'always' (so far as I know) Englished as  
"that was lost"? The fact is that, just as a present participle can  
represent both the present and imperfect indicative, so the perfect  
participle can represent both the perfect and the pluperfect  
indicative; what that means is that, when the perfect is understood as  
indicating present reality just like a present tense, then the perfect  
participle can be understood as equivalent in time to either present  
indicative or imperfect indicative. For instance, hESTHKE = "is  
standing," but hEISTHKEI = "was standing." Therefore TO PROBATON MOU  
TO APOLWLOS = TO PROBATON MOU hO\ APOLWLOS HN.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list