Re: John 3:32

From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Nov 16 1999 - 11:59:05 EST


----------
>From: david reigle <reigles@paonline.com>

> Dear Friends,
>
> I am wondering about the meaning of the tenses in John 3:32
> hO hEWRAKEN KAI HKOUSEN
> I don't know what to make (if anything) of the contrast of the
> perfect with the aorist here, neither relative time nor aspect seem to
> make sense to me here. Some people I have read claim a
> confusion of tenses occurred here. Was that a common thing?
> Were the Greek speakers of this time becoming "lax" in the way
> they used their tenses, or was the author making some distinction
> by using these tenses. Thank you for your help.
> Dave Reigle

Dave,

I don't see any confusion here. I would suspect that any attempt to
"make something" out of this distinction would stem from confusion on
the part of the modern reader about the significance of the tenses. In
other words there is nothing difficult about this text unless we choose
to seek a difficulty and manufacture one which wasn't in the mind of the
author.

Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062                

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