[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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