RE: Mt 28:19a POREUQENTES

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 27 1997 - 17:54:09 EST


At 4:02 PM -0600 10/27/97, Peter Phillips wrote:
>Carl said,
>
> It's safe to say here that POREUQENTES represents what
>an English-thinker writing Greek would have written as POREUQHTE OUN KAI
>MAQHTEUQHTE PANTA TA EQNH. So call it imperatival insofar as it is
>functioning as the first element in a sequence with the imperative.
>
>Excuse my ignorance but I am just not convinced that it is as easy as that.
> Couldn't the participle be linked with the other participles rather than
>the imperative. Is it wrong to translate this as "As you go, disciple all
>peoples..." This would mean that going, baptising and teaching were
>ongoing events whilst the discipling was a one off?
>
>I fear that I am going to get a lecture on aspect here. But so what, I
>need to be taught!

Well, I am NOT an "aspect geek," and don't claim to know much about it;
Jonathan's just added a question I've never thought about although there
might be a rule out there. I just simply noted here: (a) POREUQENTES comes
first and is aorist; this is a very common combination: aorist ptc. &
finite verb = after doing action x, do/does/did action y. Although an
aorist ptc. doesn't ALWAYS refer to time prior to that of the main verb, it
generally does. You may note also that the participles in the following
section are in the present tense. Consequently I'd understand this as
"After getting on the road, get disciples made, all the time baptizing and
instructing them." Sorry I can't reduce this to intelligible rules.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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