[B-Greek] Acts 1,11A Deponent hISTHMI

Eddie Mishoe edmishoe at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 19 21:09:22 EST 2004


Acts1,11A
hOI KAI EIPAN, ANDRES GALILAIOI, TI ESTHKATE [EM]BLEPONTES EIS TON OURANON;
 
(How do you all capitalize on this site? I left ANDRES and GALILAIOI alone.)
 
Citing again Dr. Culy in his excellent book on Acts,
 
"In the NT, the perfect form of this verb is deponent and functions like a present tense verb (except perhaps for Rom. 3:31)."
 
And then I should give Rom. 3,31 for discussion purposes:
 
NOMON OUN KATARGOUMEN DIA THS PISTEWS; MH GENOITO, ALLA NOMON hISTANOMEN.
 
This is the first time I've been exposed to the idea of a "tense" being deponent, although it does make sense to me. I am under the impression that many perfect tense verbs "function like a present tense verb." The difference being that with a perfect tense verb (in opposition to a present) a past action can usually be detected or certainly implied. Could this not be argued here in Acts 1? With the sense, "Why do you remain standing here..."
 
Additionally, the sense of hISTHMI in this Romans passage is quite different from the perfect tense hISTHMI when used of "standing." In Romans 3,31, the lexical sense of hISTHMI seems to be "to uphold," not the sense of "to stand." Could this account for the present tense usage in Rom. 3,31?
 
 


Eddie Mishoe
Pastor
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