[B-Greek] Present imperative in Matt. 7:1

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Dec 8 00:39:55 EST 2009


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Blue Meeksbay" <bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com>
To: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 8. december 2009 03:57
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Present imperative in Matt. 7:1


> Thank you Dr. Conrad -
>
> Your answer made me wonder if, perhaps, this was an idiomatic expression of 
> which we are not aware, and, therefore, in this case, should not be open to 
> such literal scrutiny. Therefore, your suggestion “Don’t be judgmental” would 
> be spot on.
>
> B.Harris

The basic distinction between the present and aorist imperative is a matter of 
aspect with the present indicating imperfective aspect and the aorist perfective 
aspect. So, if we study what these different aspects mean, we have come a long 
way.

Imperfective aspect can refer to several things, such as a continuing or 
prolonged action or a repeated action. Perfective aspect see the event as 
completed whole and often as a single action, not to be repeated.

So, in Matt 7:1 "Don't be judgmental" covers the imperfective aspect well. One 
might also say: "Don't go around judging people". It is questionable to 
translate with "Stop judging".

There is a correlation between imperfective and plurality of subjects or 
objects.

When I did a count of second person singular and plural imperatives in the NT, I 
got the following numbers (not counting some subjunctive aorists and futures 
functioning as imperatives):

2nd person singular:                             2nd person plural:
present imperatives: 262                                   468
aorist imperatives: 371                                      325

Why are present imperatives much more common in plural? My suggestion is that 
when several people are doing the same action, it often comes under the concept 
of repeated action.

But there might be other reasons. It could be because most of the general 
commands in the NT are directed to a group of people, and general commands are 
normally in the present tense. It would be interesting to do similar counts 
outside the NT.

A negated present tense command may indicate the stopping of a continuous, 
prolonged or repeated action, but it would be too simplistic to say that it 
always does. It can also mean "Do not continually or repeatedly do X". As 
always, it is the context that may clarify the intended nuance of meaning.

Iver Larsen




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