Re: Common-sense aorist

From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Tue Apr 07 1998 - 18:15:23 EDT


Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> What
> distinguishes the fundamental meaning of the aorist from the fundamental
> meaning of the two other major aspect stems is that the aorist lacks the
> durative, repetitive, unfinished character that is the central feature of
> the present as it also lacks the completed or state-of-being that is the
> central feature of the perfect. I'd draw the comparison thus:
> Present: APOQNHiSKEI "he is dying"
> Aorist: APEQANEN "he died"
> Perfect: APOTEQNHKEN "he is dead"
> To this you could add the "past" tense of the present:
> Imperfect: APEQNHiSKEN "he was dying"
> and the "past" tense of the perfect:
> Pluperfect: APETEQNHKEI "he was dead"
>

Another non-sigmatic aorist is found in John 1:6, KATELABEN. This
usage would as well seem to indicate the state-of-being of TH SKOTIA.
It's not just a past, where the darkness simply 'missed the train'
once upon a time, but is a Truth about the darkness. It ALWAYS
'misses that train' ~ Yes?? And in it's subtlety, it calls to mind
the original sin of Adam. 'In Adam we all are dying...' [Acts? I
forget...] If John had meant the simple historical fact that the
darkness had 'missed the train' at some time past, he would have used
the perfect...

George



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:22 EDT