[B-Greek] Is understanding Greek verbal aspect crucial for understanding the Greek of the New Testament?

Ed Walkwitz edwalkwitz at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 22 00:14:59 EST 2010


I haven't kept up on the verbal aspect issue for some years, tho I have really 
wondered about the question you ask, and would be interested in what others 
think; in any case, Craig Blomberg has an interesting review of Campbell's book 
at: 
http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/basics-of-verbal-aspect-in-biblical-greek/

Ed Walkwitz, Des Moines, Iowa




________________________________
From: Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj at live.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sun, November 21, 2010 10:17:28 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Is understanding Greek verbal aspect crucial for 
understanding the Greek of the New Testament?


I finished reading Constantine R. Campbell's "Basics of Verbal Aspect in 
Biblical Greek" a few days ago. One of the endorsements of the book that appears 
on the back cover is by Stanley E. Porter:

Quote

Campbell and I agree on at least one major point regarding verbal 
aspect--understanding Greek verbal aspect is crucial for understanding the Greek 
of the New Testament. For too long such knowledge has been woefully lacking 
among commentators and other students. One cannot exegete the text responsibly 
without applying an accurate understanding of Greek verbal aspect. ...

Unquote


LJ: This is the first book I have read on this subject--I have also read some 
chapters from Porter's "Idioms of the Greek New Testament," in which he touches 
on verbal aspect--so I am not sure whether I am qualified to express an opinion 
on it yet, but the impression I have got is that there still so much substantial 
disagreement among those who work in this area that the value of verbal aspect, 
at least in its present state of development, to the exegesis of the Greek New 
Testament seems questionable. At any rate the claim that "[o]ne cannot exegete 
the text responsibly without applying an accurate understanding of Greek verbal 
aspect" seems to be an overstatement. Whose verbal aspect? Porter's or 
Campbell's or any other's? Even Porter's statement that "Campbell and I agree on 
at least one major point regarding verbal aspect--understanding Greek verbal 
aspect is crucial for understanding the Greek of the New Testament" seems to 
imply that basically the only major area of agr
eement between Porter and Campbell is that "understanding Greek verbal aspect is 
crucial for understanding the Greek of the New Testament"!

There are many good translations of the NT available and the agreement between 
them far exceeds the differences. There are many verses in which the 
translations differ in the way they render them. Some of these are doctrinally 
important verses, but differences in understanding verbal aspect between 
translators are not the reason for these differences.

I am not saying that the study of verbal aspect is not important. Any study, 
even if its contribution to exegesis of a Greek text is minimal, is profitable, 
but is there really any basis to the claim "that understanding Greek verbal 
aspect is crucial for understanding the Greek of the New Testament"? 



Leonard Jayawardena                         
---
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