[B-Greek] Use of perfect in Jas1:24

Stephen Baldwin stbaldwi at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 26 12:54:09 EDT 2008


Ladies and Gentlemen:
In reading James and Peter Davids' commentary [NIGTC], I was curious to see James' use of the perfect in 1:24 (the mirror/memory incident), and Davids' comments thereon.
 
As Davids points out, we have 2 [gnomic] aorists, KATENOHSEN and EPELAQETO followed by the going away from the mirror which is perfect APELHLUQEN. 2 possible explanations are given:
a] The emphasis is on the continuing state of "departedness" (Davids quoting Ropes)
or
b] It is purely stylistic (BDF ss344)
 
Given the context, neither of these explanations seemed particularly convincing. It is not apparent to me why there would be a need to "emphasise the state of departedness" in the context of the passage [discussion of this may be off limits/verging off-limits for b-greek].
As another member of my group said, explanation [b] sounds like an "explanation of last resort".
 
Perfects are hardly bandied about in the GNT.
 
Does anyone have any thoughts?
 
Rgds
Steve Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
 
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