Re: John 1:5

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Thu, 7 May 1998 12:39:52 -0500

At 10:41 AM -0500 5/7/98, dalmatia@eburg.com wrote:
>Hello Rich ~
>
>I can't offer you a trade, but I can GIVE you my read on this, which
>is that this present is the SAME present as EGW EIMI [As in "before
>Abraham was...] ~ Which is to say, the omnipresent of the present
>tense, and right smack dab in the middle of the ARCH!

Ah--but that is precisely the sort of present tense that Rich understands
FAINEI to be. My comment there was that FAINEI doesn't imply anything about
when the shining started, but insists that it is still going on. I would
say the same about the EIMI in the verse you cite: this one IS in fact
existential rather than a copula, and could therefore be set into English
"have been existing and still continue to exist."

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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/