[B-Greek] An Accessible Brief Introduction to Greek Verbal Aspect

Louis Sorenson llsorenson at hotmail.com
Thu May 19 23:28:57 EDT 2011


Perhaps what teachers should be teaching is teaching the concepts of aspect and prominence, only noting the features when they encounter sentences, constructions which speak to the issure, and not go out on a limb and make dumb statements.  But it seems really difficult to me not to be able to teach tense (time) with indicative verb (tense) forms. "It could mean this or it could mean that." How can that be done? Does Porter say it's all contextual evidence that gives any verb its time referent? Porter's book is on my shelf. I'm going to read it next week. 

What people really need is a good introduction to the controversy that teaches both sides. Is there any such book written? When and why has this latest 'no-time-reference' has crept into interpretation? Has this controversy been there forever? Is the controversy the latest splash of a new dog into a old pond to get attention? What is Porter's motivation? Who else in the last 200 years in Greek academia have espoused his view? Is it correct for me to say Porter's main pick is that there is no 'time element' in the present or aorist? Or is his focus on incompleted/completed action?

I think it key that you don't introduce foreign concepts to new students (concepts they either can't understand or are not prepared to understand). This issue between pragmatic and semantic different is a thread that should be given a new PROMINENT highlighted conversation. I don't think that a lot of us B-Greekers think on those lines. I would like to see 100 citations of pragmatic/semantic usages, which try to give the reader the range of usages. Where can I read more about SEMANTIC and PRAGMATIC usage.

Most of us on B-Greek are wondering where to go next. Other than reading all of Porter and all of Fanning, is there a brief, well-written balanced introduction that covers all the issues? 

Louis Sorenson









David wrote....

Brian, 


My experience with two seminaries has been that students either rush (or are pushed) into discussing things like the Porter-Fanning debate long before they are actually able to read the New Testament. This is not helpful. With that in mind, for many students the best introduction to Porter's views is to simply avoid the topic altogether. 


If you insist on introducing students to this topic, you should consider sending them to Steven Runge's excellent website where he has a section of articles on Porter dealing with both prominence and aspect: http://www.ntdiscourse.org/on-porter-prominence-and-aspect/ 

With appropriate caveats about the unsettled nature of the debate (and his treatment of the perfect/imperfect), Constantine Campbell's little book Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek can also serve as a useful introduction to the topic. If you think that this would be the last rather than the first book that your students are going to read on the topic - then I would encourage you to avoid the topic altogether. 


Best wishes, 
David 
 		 	   		  


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