[B-Greek] hORAW and BLEPW (was "resend: Matt 13:17")

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Mar 4 10:02:34 EST 2009


On Mar 3, 2009, at 10:39 AM, Ross Assink wrote:

> I apologize for my ambiguity.  My question is, why did the author  
> use BLEPETE  once and IDEIN/EIDAN the other times?  Is there some  
> nuance to BLEPW that is not found in EIDW?

By EIDW I Suppose you mean hORAW (there is no verb-form EIDW except as  
a subjunctive of the perfect-tense of OIDA in Koine Greek). The  
standard verb for "see" is present-tense hORAW, future OYOMAI, aorist  
EIDON, perfect hEWRAKA, aor. passive WFQHN. You might note that there  
are three different roots in this standard verb for "see": hORA-  
(present stem), OP- (future and aorist passive) as well as old perfect  
OPWPA), and EID/OID/ID (perfect stem).

If we look again at the text under question, Mattheew 13:17 --

Matt. 13:17 ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι  
πολλοὶ προφῆται καὶ δίκαιοι  
ἐπεθύμησαν ἰδεῖν ἃ βλέπετε καὶ οὐκ  
εἶδαν, καὶ ἀκοῦσαι ἃ ἀκούετε καὶ  
οὐκ ἤκουσαν.  [AMHN GAR LEGW hUMIN hOTI POLLO PROFHTAI KAI  
DIKAIOI EPEQUMHSAN IDEIN hA BLEPETE KAI OUK EIDAN, KAI AKOUSAI hA  
AKOUETE KAI OUK HKOUSAN.], --

we might note that the verbs for "see" and "hear" both fall into  
aorist- (the infinitives IDEIN and AKOUSAI, the indicative 3rd plurals  
EIDAN and HKOUSAN) and present-tense/aspect forms (BLEPETE, AKOUETE).

I think the fact that the present-tense/aspect form for "see" is BLEPW  
rather than hORAW is significant. In older Greek BLEPW meant primarily  
"look at," but its fundamental sense in Hellenistic Koine was "see,  
have vision" and it was used fundamentally in the present tense/ 
aspect: in the GNT BLEPW occurs 132x, 128x in the present and  
imperfect, only 2x in the future (e.g. BLEYETE), and only 2x in the  
aorist (e.g. EBLEYA). hORAW, on the other hand, appears 454x in the  
GNT, but only 20 of these instances are in the present tense, 35 in  
the perfect and pluperfect, while the other roots OP- (future, aorist  
passive) and ID- (aorist) account for all the other 399 instances of  
the so-called verb hORAW (one might argue that a revamped lexical  
system would list this verb by its aorist infinitive IDEIN rather than  
by its present indicative 1st sg. hORAW).

While I won't catalog the various GNT usages in which hORAW, BLEPW,  
QEWREW, etc., etc. figure; one might find enlightening a careful  
perusal of Louw & Nida's Domain §24.1-24,51 "see"). It might just be  
worth considering that, if we use the traditional six principal parts  
of a verb; we should probably list them for the verb "see" in the most  
fundamental sense in NT Koine thus:
	(1, pr. indic. 1 sg.) BLEPW (secondarily hORAW)
	(2, fut. indic.1 sg.) OYOMAI (secondarily BLEYW)
	(3, aor. indic. 1 sg.) EIDON (very rarely EBLEYA)
	(4, pf. indic. 1 sg.) hEWRAKA
	(5, pf. indic. mid-pass) non-=existant
	(6, aor. pass. 1 sg. WFYHN

Quite seriously, I do believe that this is the way this extraordinary  
and important Koine verb OUGHT to be learned by students.


>  ----- Original Message -----
>  From: Carl Conrad
>  To: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>  Cc: Ross Assink
>  Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 3:29 AM
>  Subject: Re: [B-Greek] resend: Matt 13:17
>
>
>
>  On Mar 2, 2009, at 5:56 PM, Ross Assink wrote:
>
>> Please ignore the previous email question:
>>
>> Is there any significance to the three uses of "see" in Matthew
>> 13:17?   When there is only one use of "hear".
>
>  Your question is evidently not about the Greek but about words
>  translated; our focus on this list is strictly with the Greek text.
>
>  The Greek text of the verse in question --
>  Matt. 13:17 ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι
>  πολλοὶ προφῆται καὶ δίκαιοι
>  ἐπεθύμησαν ἰδεῖν ἃ βλέπετε καὶ  
> οὐκ
>  εἶδαν, καὶ ἀκοῦσαι ἃ ἀκούετε καὶ
>  οὐκ ἤκουσαν. [AMHN GAR LEGW hUMIN hOTI POLLO PROFHTAI KAI
>  DIKAIOI EPEQUMHSAN IDEIN hA BLEPETE KAI OUK EIDAN, KAI AKOUSAI hA
>  AKOUETE KAI OUK AKOUETE.] --
>
>  makes us wonder just what text you have been looking at: BOTH verbs
>  (although the present-tense form BLEPETE is not from the same Greek
>  verb-stem, it doe have the same meaning) are given THREE times:
>
>  SEE: IDEIN, BLEPETE, EIDAN
>  HEAR: AKOUSAI, AKOUETE, AKOUETE
>
>
>  Carl W. Conrad
>  Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
> ---
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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