[B-Greek] perfective present indicative
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Jan 22 06:02:11 EST 2011
On Jan 21, 2011, at 11:35 PM, Gene Baker wrote:
> I have come across a reference to EIMI as being a "perfective present
> indicative." I confess that it is a new term to me, and I wonder if this is
> actually something from a grammar somewhere, or a term used by a commentator
> to try to explain the difference in tenses at the end of John 8:58. I'm not
> wanting to resurrect old debates, just wanting to find out something about
> the "perfective present indicative." It doesn't show up in any of the
> indices of my grammars (which are not many).
I have seen George's discussion of John 20:23 and concur with him that
αφίενται [AFIENTAI] there is highly dubious (see Metzger).
As for EIMI, this strikes me as an inference from the interpretation
of Parmenides of Elea, who argued that existential ἔστι [ESTI] as
a statement of fact implies the timelessness of Being.
However two verbs common enough in Attic strike me as good
candidates for the term "perfective present":
ἥκει [hHKEI] is present indicative meaning "s/he has arrived"
ἔρρει [ERREI] is present indicative meaning ""s/he is gone."
I wonder, however, whether "stative" wouldn't be a better term
for these forms.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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