[B-Greek] Matt 14.29 Aorist HLQEN + PROS

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Mar 24 01:50:13 EDT 2008


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 24. marts 2008 05:44
Subject: [B-Greek] Matt 14.29 Aorist HLQEN + PROS


> hO DE EIPEN ELQE KAI KATABAS APO TOU PLOIOU hO PETROS
> PERIEPATHSEN EPI TA hUDATA KAI HLQEN PROS TON IHSOUN
>
> Would it be grammatically correct to say that Peter
> arrived to where Jesus was standing on the water by
> virtue of the use of the Aorist?

As far as I know English your clause starting with "that"  is grammatically correct. -:)
If your question is whether the assertion you made can be deduced from the use of Aorist, the answer 
would be no. The aorist is the default narrative tense and it does not necessarily imply a 
completion of the movement.
Compare the same construction in e.g.
Matt 14:25: HLQEN PROS AUTOUS PERIPATWN EPI THN QALASSAN
The context may give us a clue as to how far or how near the person is. In 25, Jesus would be some 
distance away, while in 29, the two are quite close.

> I recall reading in
> the archives that PROS has the idea of movement toward
> which is why I am asking since the Aorist "went" + the
> idea of movement toward Jesus seems strange. I note
> also that Jesus had to only reach to grab Peter once
> he began to "drink down" water.

Why are you thinking of "went" for ERCOMAI? The verb can mean either "come" or "go", since the 
interplay between these two words in English is rather complex. It all depends on context and where 
the speaker is or where the author has his vantage point. In this case, we would use "came" in 
English, since Jesus is the goal for Peter's movement and since this verb comes after PERIEPATHSEN. 
The imperative "ELQE" is also "come" rather than "go". In most contexts, we are safer to think of 
ERCOMAI as coming rather than going (if we think in English). POREUOMAI is the common word for "go".

Also PROS is very close in meaning to EIS. Both can mean either "to" or "towards". The main 
difference is that PROS is generally used when the object/goal is a person, and EIS when it is not a 
person.
In the case of a metaphor like sheep, you can think of the people (PROS) or the sheep (EIS).
In Matt 10:6 we read PROS TA PROBATA TA APOLWLOTA OIKOU ISRAHL
in Matt 15:24 we read  EIS TA PROBATA TA APOLWLOTA OIKOU ISRAHL

Iver Larsen 




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