[b-greek] Re: Perfect tense in 1 Cor 7:15

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 07 2001 - 19:33:56 EST


At 4:00 PM -0600 12/7/01, Paul S Dixon wrote:
>On Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:51:20 -0600 "Carl W. Conrad"
><cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
>
>> No, it does not say that (that would be something like OUDE
>> DEDOULWTAI
>> OUPOTE); what it says is "the non-believer is not in a state of
>> bonded
>> obligation." or "the non-believer does not stand obligated." The
>> perfect
>> tense form is not concerned at all with past action (that would get
>> expressed with an aorist: EDOULWQH) but with the state currently
>> holding.
>
>Carl:
>
>I think what you meant to say was, "the believer does not stand
>obligated."

You are right Paul. I didn't have the text in front of me and was thinking
of APISTOS, but the subject of OU DEDOULWTAI is hO ADELFOS H hH ADELFH.

Text: EI DE hO APISTOS CWRIZETAI, CWRIZESQW: OU DEDOULWTAI hO ADELFOS H hH
ADELFH EN TOIS TOIOUTOIS.


>But, when you say the "perfect tense form is not concerned at all with
>past action ... but with the state currently holding," don't you mean
>that in this particular instance the stress is upon the state currently
>holding, as per the intensive nuance of the perfect? If so, is it still
>best to say the perfect tense (here) is not concerned at all with the
>past action? Doesn't the perfect tense generally carry both the concept
>of completed past action and the concept of continuing results to the
>present, even though the nuances may vary from past to present?
>
>The way you state it seems to be over-playing the present tense aspect of
>the perfect, as though there may be no difference between the two tenses
>here. It seems the OU + perfect tense communicates both a time past when
>the believer was set free from the bonds, as well as the continuing and
>resulting state to the present, even if the stress is intensive.

It MAY be overstating the case, but there's a common misunderstanding about
the perfect tense in Koine that we've touched upon occasionally in this
forum (and I hope this will also answer Harry Jones' question): students of
Koine are commonly taught about the perfect tense what is actually
truer--or more fundamentally true--of classical Attic than of Koine: that
the perfect tense bears BOTH of two senses, DEDOULWTAI = "he/she/it HAS
BEEN enslaved" and "he/she/it now stands enslaved." In fact, however, that
sense that is equivalent to the English Present Perfect is normally
conveyed by the Koine Greek aorist, EDOULWQH. The perfect tense is
relatively rare in Koine Greek (it's found 1341 times, according to
Accordance, and many of these are forms of OIDA and hESTHKA or their
compounds). So yes, I may have overstated the case, but certainly in this
instance what is in view is not negation of a completed act but negation of
a condition in which the believer stands, or rather negation of an
assertion that the believer stands in a condition of servile obligation.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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