Re: kappa aorists

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 12:47:55 -0500

At 12:09 PM -0500 10/15/97, Jim West wrote:
>In reference to my earlier statement about kappa aorists, let me give a
>quote from Moulton's grammar (vol 3) and then point the interested reader to
>the many illustrations he gives.
>
>"Undoubtedly there are exx. in NT where, either alone or in conjunction with
>another verb in the aorist, a verb in the perfect functions in a clearly
>aoristic sense in the narrative; and often the perfect stem assumes aoristic
>endings in the papyri and NT- a disguise which helped it to survive a little
>longer:"
>(now follows about 2 pages of examples in small print) cf. vol 3 of
>Moulton's Grammar of the Greek New Testament, p. 69ff.
>
>This seems sufficient "ground to stand on..."

Except that in the case of Mark's hHKASI, it can hardly be argued either
that we are dealing with "a verb in the perfect" or a "perfect stem" that
"assumes aoristic endings." What we have is a present stem that assumes a
perfect ending. I still don't see a case here for hHKASI as a "kappa
aorist." If the form we were confronting were hHKAN, I might be a bit more
open-minded.

I should add that I can readily understand how a -KA perfect tense might be
conjugated with perfect tense endings or even how a -KA aorist might be
conjugated with perfect tense endings. After all, it is true that the
perfect and aorist tenses are assimilating in the Hellenistic era. But in
this case we are dealing with a present stem in -K- that is being said to
be a -KA- aorist form even though it has a perfect tense ending.

Steady there, Jim ...

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
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