[B-Greek] Function of the Greek aorist
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 16 03:41:13 EDT 2008
How then would you deal with the passive where it is not the subject which acts but on whom the action is performed? Consider Mt 17.2
καὶ (1) μετεμορφώθη ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῶν, καὶ (2) ἔλαμψεν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ὡς ὁ ἥλιος, τὰ δὲ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ (3) ἐγένετο λευκὰ ὡς τὸ φῶς.
KAI METEMORFWQH EMPROSQEN AUTWN, KAI ELAMYEN TO PROSWPON AUTOU hWS hO hHLIOS, TA DE hIMATIA AUTOU EGENETO LEUKA hWS TO FWS
Here we find the aorist in different voices:
1. μετεμορφώθη [METEMORFWQH], aorist passive : Here is is not Jesus who is said "to change", but that he "is changed", i.e. the action is performed upon him.
2. ἔλαμψεν [ELAMYEN], aorist active : His face is portrayed as active "his face shone." This use would conform to your suggestion.
3. ἐγένετο [EGENETO] aorist middle : The subject performs the action and participates in the results "his clothing became …" Here you have it both ways -- the subject both acts and is the "recipient" of the action (probably a bad choice of words).
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
_________
----- Original Message ----
From: Don Dwight <dddwight1234 at sbcglobal.net>
To: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1:42:34 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Function of the Greek aorist
Request your comments on the proposition
that the function of the Greek aorist is
to specify the activity of the subject of the verb.
By specification of activity, I mean,
the kind of activity that the subject does,
as distinct from predication (what the subject is),
and from attribution (what the subject has).
In other words, for the aorist, subject is as subject does.
To illustrate with a contrived example:
The red ball bounced merrily along the pavement at noon.
Red (the subject has redness: attribution)
Ball (the subject is a ball: predication)
Bounces merrily along the pavement at noon
(what the subject does: specification)
To illustrate with an example from Lk 1,47:
KAI HGALLIASEN TO PNEUMA MOU EPI TWi QEWi TWi SWTHRI MOU,
(TO PNEUMA MOU is the kind which
HGALLIASEN EPI TWi QEWi TWi SWTHRI MOU).
Donald D.Dwight
Monterey, California
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