I John 1, Periphrasis and Copulative EIMI

From: Larry & Beth Hartman (toolbelt@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Fri May 23 1997 - 13:15:39 EDT


Folks:

` I am still muddling through I John 1, but learning a significant
amount about Koine as I am going along. Just out of curiosity I went
back to see if there were any periphrastic Perfect Participles in the
passage (I am at veres 7 now). What I discovered was in verse 4 a
Perfect Participle was used with a Subjunctive of EIMI. Can the
Subjunctive be used as a periphrasis? Or is it just limited to the
Indicative? I consulted my grammars on hand and couldnt find anything
one way or the other. Anyone care to comment?

        While I am on the topic of EIMI, I read yesterday in AT Robertson that
the "common EIMI" is typically Aoristic. He provides usage of such in
John 10:11. This usage is copulative. There are several times where
the Present and Imperfect EIMI is used in I John 1 which all appear to
be copulative. Should I therefore take them as Aoristic, or are there
some further guidelines that I should know about? Anyone care to
comment?

        For the people who answered my previous query concerning the use of the
genitive TOU LOGOU THS ZWHS I thank you. After looking at the various
options presented. My original conclusion was "containing", after
looking into it further I believe that the apositive (adjectival) view
may be best here (living Word). This may not entirely be void of some
bias. :)

Larry A. Hartman
Defense Language Institute Alumnus
Department of Arabic Studies



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