[B-Greek] A Perfect Imperfect (Was Hebrews 1:6 and 2:5

Richard Lindeman oblchurch at msn.com
Thu Mar 11 09:49:24 EST 2010


It may be that the question of whether HMHN is perfective here ultimately 
comes down to the question of how emphatic the author is being in his 
statement.  Unfortunately Greek doesn't have an exclamation punctuation mark 
to help us.  But, in rereading the verse in context it seems to me that the 
author is indeed trying to be emphatic... in which case both instances of 
HMHN might then be taken as perfective.

Rich Lindeman

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Carl Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 2:55 PM
To: "Richard Lindeman" <oblchurch at msn.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek]  A Perfect Imperfect (Was Hebrews 1:6 and 2:5

> On Mar 10, 2010, at 2:46 PM, Richard Lindeman wrote:
>> Let's take out the perfective sense for a moment...
>> "I was never a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I was always a 
>> herdsman and a dresser of pigs."
>>
>> I don't think it says one way or the other whether he is now a prophet. 
>> It just seems to be a comment on a past state of affairs.
>
> And what sort of "perfective" sense are we supposing that the verb EIMI 
> should ever have?
>
> CWC
>
>> From: Mark Lightman
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 1:23 PM
>> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org ; Richard Lindeman
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] A Perfect Imperfect (Was Hebrews 1:6 and 2:5
>>
>>
>>      Richard wrote:
>>
>>      <How about an iterative imperfect?
>>
>>      "I have never been a prophet or the son of a prophet,
>>       but I have always been
>>      a herdsman and a dresser of figs.">
>>
>>      Hi, Richard,
>>
>>      Yes, that sounds good to me.  My only question would
>>      be, do you think the text means to indicate one way or
>>      the other whether he is NOW a prophet?
>>
>>      Mark L
>>
>>
>>      FWSFOROS MARKOS
>>
>>      --- On Wed, 3/10/10, Richard Lindeman <oblchurch at msn.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>        From: Richard Lindeman <oblchurch at msn.com>
>>        Subject: [B-Greek] A Perfect Imperfect (Was Hebrews 1:6 and 2:5
>>        To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>>        Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 12:14 PM
>>
>>
>>        How about an iterative imperfect?
>>
>>        "I have never been a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I have 
>> always been
>>        a herdsman and a dresser of figs."
>>
>>        Rich Lindeman
>>
>>> OUK HMHN PROFHTHS EGW OUDE hUIOS PROFHTOU,
>>> ALL? H AIPOLOS HMHN KAI KNIZWN SUKAMINA
>>> ?
>>> "I didn't used to be a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.
>>> Rather I was wont to be a herdsman and dresser of figs."
>
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>
> 



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