Re: tenses

From: Philip L. Graber (pgraber@emory.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 23 1996 - 10:04:03 EST


On Tue, 23 Jan 1996, Rick Strelan wrote:

> Would anyone care to answer a basic question: why do verb tenses change so
> easily in a narrative? For example (among many) in the parable of Matt
> 13:24-30, the servants and the master have a conversation which is
> introduced by verbs in the aorist (eipon and ephe, vv27-28) but then the
> conversation continues introduced by verbns of speaking in the present
> tense (legousin and phesi), Is the present tense here meant to imply an
> on-going or repeated conversation,a stance being taken?

I believe this general topic has received quite a bit of discussion on
this list in the past. You can find some discussion in scholarly
literature under the topics of aspect of the Greek verb and
historic/historical present tense. In part, any particular answer to your
question will depend on whether the forms that are traditionally called
tense forms are understood to be true tenses, only aspect, or some
combination of the two. For example, one explanation for the use of the
so-called "historic present" verbs in narrative is that the events are
made more vivid by being brought into the reader's "present." This clearly
understands the present form to be a tense. Others would say that it
contains only aspect. There is substantial agreement, I think, on the
aspectual difference between aorist and present, regardless of one's view
of tense. I think there is also substantial agreement that present and
imperfect are alike/related in aspect. These three forms are the most
common in narratives such as Matthew (forms such as perfect are far less
common, I think). My impression is that aorist (perfective aspect)
represents a standard moving forward of a story line in narrative,
imperfect (imperfective aspect) typically presents background or setting
necessary to make the narrative work without moving it forward, and
present (also imperfective aspect) moves the story forward like the
aorist, but in a marked way (I know that is a vague way to state it, but
I'm not clear on it myself, nor have I seen an explanation of it in the
literature that seems adequate to me). What part, if any, true tense
plays in this I am not at all sure.

Philip Graber Graduate Division of Religion
Graduate Student in New Testament 211 Bishops Hall, Emory University
pgraber@emory.edu Atlanta, GA 30322 USA



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