[B-Greek] Acts 1,11A Deponent hISTHMI
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Mar 20 09:33:33 EST 2004
At 6:09 PM -0800 3/19/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>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?
You should forget about deponents altogether: the whole concept of
deponents only causes confusion and continued usage of this term is a
disservice--I'm sorry to see it used in a reference work of this sort. What
you need to know about this particular verb is this:
--the present active hISTHMI (= hISTANW) means "I cause to stand"
--the present middle hISTAMAI is intransitive and means "I am coming to a
stand (whether from a moving position to a standstill or from a reclining
or seated position to standing up)
--the aorist active ESTHSA means "I caused to stand"
--the aorist intransitive ESTHN means "I came to a stand (whether from a
moving position to a standstill or from a reclining or seated position to
standing up)
--the perfect "active" hESTHKA is intransitive and means "I am standing"
the causative (active) form is present-tense hISTHMI/hISTANW aorist ESTHSA
the intransitive form is present middle hISTAMAI, aorist ESTHN, perfect hESTHKA
And yes, the perfect tense of this verb is what you must use to say "I am
standing"
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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