[B-Greek] Aorist Future - Jn 13:31-32

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Oct 1 19:37:32 EDT 2008


Over the last week or so I have been looking at "futuristic aorists",  
including the treatment in all the standard grammars and the notes in  
commentaries on the texts cited in the grammars. To narrow the focus I  
decided to eliminate some catagories of examples including aorists  
used in the apodosis of a conditional statement and so called  
prophectic aorists.  Jn 13:31-32 is one of the remaining examples  
after the elimination [note that Alford calls this a prophectic aorist].

JOHN 13:31 hOTE OUN EXHLQEN, LEGEI IHSOUS: NUN EDOXASQH hO hUIOS TOU  
ANQRWPOU KAI hO QEOS EDOXASQH EN AUTWi:  32 EI hO QEOS EDOXASQH EN  
AUTWi, KAI hO QEOS DOXASEI AUTON EN AUTWi, KAI EUQUS DOXASEI AUTON.

More popular than Alford's prophectic aorist was the notion that  
EDOXASQH refers to the immediate past, something that just happend. I  
don't how this can work since the semantic feature 'end  
point' (R.Buth) is lacking.  Others suggested that the EDOXASQH refers  
to either the present or the future from a perspective in the future  
as if it were already accompished. This may be just another way of  
stating Alford's position. After sifting through all the "futuristic  
aorists" I was able to locate this one seems to be the most  
interesting example since both aorist and futures of the same verb are  
used in the immediate context. I am not sure what to make of NUN  
EDOXASQH ... hO QEOS EDOXASQH EN AUTWi, is this a genuine aorist with  
future reference? R.Buth will say no :-). Any other opinons?


G.B. Caird wrote a relevant article or two which I don't have on hand:

	CAIRD, G.B.
1968a	The Glory of God in the Fourth Gospel: An Exercise in Biblical  
Semantics , in NTS  15 (1968-69) 265-277.
1968b	Towards a Lexicon of the Septuagint. I , in JTS  19 (1968)  
453-475; = R.A. KRAFT (ed.) 1972, pp. 110-132.
1969	Towards a Lexicon of the Septuagint. II , in JTS  20 (1969)  
21-40; = R.A. KRAFT (ed.) 1972, pp. 133-152.

Carson (John, Pillar) cites Caird as claiming that passive aorist  
EDOXASQH was the 'expected' manner of rendering NKBD (KBD niphil). I  
did a little research on this found very few places (4? cited below)  
in the LXX where the niphil of KBD was rendered with a passive of  
DOXAZW or ENDOXAZOMAI. I am not certain my search methods were solid  
and would welcome being corrected on this. Someone who has Caird's  
articles might want to comment on his argument.

2SAM. 6:22 KAI APOKALUFQHSOMAI ETI hOUTWS KAI ESOMAI ACREIOS EN  
OFQALMOIS SOU KAI META TWN PAIDISKWN hWN EIPAS ME DOXASQHNAI
2KINGS 14:10 TUPTWN EPATAXAS THN IDOUMAIAN KAI EPHREN SE hH KARDIA SOU  
ENDOXASQHTI KAQHMENOS EN TWi OIKWi SOU KAI hINA TI ERIZEIS EN KAKIAi  
SOU KAI PESHi SU KAI IOUDAS META SOU
IS. 43:4 AF hOU ENTIMOS EGENOU ENANTION MOU EDOXASQHS KAGW SE HGAPHSA  
KAI DWSW ANQRWPOUS POLLOUS hUPER SOU KAI ARCONTAS hUPER THS KEFALHS SOU
EZEK. 39:13 KAI KATORUXOUSIN AUTOUS PAS hO LAOS THS GHS KAI ESTAI  
AUTOIS EIS ONOMASTON hHi hHMERAi EDOXASQHN LEGEI KURIOS


Elizabeth Kline







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