[B-Greek] Present infinitives in John 6:15

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Nov 26 11:54:48 EST 2009


These verbs are complementary to the auxliliary verb MELLOUSIN. Classical Attic commonly used a future infinitive with MELLEIN, while Koine seems to prefer a present infinitive. I can't recall seeing MELLEIN used with an aorist infinitive (but someone will undoubtedly show me one right away!).

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (ret)

 
On Thursday, November 26, 2009, at 10:35AM, "andrew.mcconnel at lineone.net" <andrew.mcconnel at lineone.net> wrote:
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> Hi,I`m writing to ask why the two infinitives in John 6:15 are in the present tense and not the aorist. 
>John 6:15  Ἰησοῦς οὖν γνοὺς ὅτι μέλλουσιν
>ἔρχεσθαι καὶ ἁρπάζειν αὐτὸν ἵνα
>ποιήσωσιν βασιλέα ἀνεχώρησεν.. ..   IHSOUS OUN GNOUS hOTI MELLOUSIN ERCHESTHAI KAI hARPAZEIN AUTON hINA POIHSWSIN BASILEA ANECHWRHSEN.. ..
>Given that the aorist is normally used for complete actions, rather than on-going processes, and especially because the verb in the following subordinate phrase ποιήσωσιν POIHSWSIN is in the aorist, I am puzzled by this.
>My context is that (although without a specifically NT Greek training) I am teaching a NT Greek class, using Duff. A brighter student was wary of the "default" explanation of the use of  the aorist infinitive in Chapter 7 and asked for more examples. I said that Duff`s explanation was to counter the normal English use of the present infinitive. We have been pulling verses out of the gospels to illustrate this and that, and this time landed on John 6:15 - which only confused the issue. I`d be grateful for any comments, please. Thank you.
>Andrew McConnel.
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