[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:8 ESTE SESWSMENOI
Barry H.
nebarry at verizon.net
Wed Mar 23 23:37:05 EDT 2011
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eddie Mishoe" <edmishoe at yahoo.com>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>; "Alexander Jech"
<awjjech at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Ephesians 2:8 ESTE SESWSMENOI
> Alexander,
>
> One of the main problems I've seen with Perfect Tense translations is that
> the interpreter will generally say something to the effect that the
> Perfect tense indicates that an action took place in the past, that action
> is now complete, and the state that results from that action continues on
> indefinitely. All the Perfect tense indicates is that the state
> obtained -- by virtue of some past, complete action -- remains in that
> state up to and including the moment of writing (technically, up to the
> deictic center, which is very often the time of writing, but it need not
> me). After that point, the Perfect tense makes no assertion. That is, the
> Perfect tense makes no temporal assertion about the Future.
>
> It sure preaches well when the preacher says that "this Greek Perfect
> tense [which you have as ESTE SESWSMENOI, but your spelling is incorrect]
> tells us that we are saved, and that state of salvation continues
> forever." I happen to believe, on a theological level, that one's eternal
> destiny is forever settled at the historic moment of faith in God/Allah,
> but one would be foolish to argue that based on the use of the Perfect
> Tense in Eph 2.8.
>
> I certainly welcome any comments, criticism, or whatever.
ἐστὲ σεσῳσμένοι transliterates as ESTE SESWSMENOI in the b-Greek protocol.
How is his spelling incorrect? With regard to your last point, I would say
that you are essentially correct, but with the caveat that the writer here
chose this periphrastic perfect passive because it best fit his meaning. It
is one datum, so to speak, which contributes to the overall theological
understanding to which you allude above. In other words, what we conclude
at the theological level must be demonstrated to be consistent with the
grammatical and syntactical levels...
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
V-P of Academic Affairs, TNARS
bhofstetter at tnars.net
http://www.tnars.net
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
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