Daniel Hedrick's question

To: b-greek@virginia.edu
Subject: Daniel Hedrick's question
From: David Keith Wright <dkwright@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 1994 10:02:47 -0500 (CDT)

Regarding tense of "I will build" in Matt16:18

The verb used is oikodomeo, the particular form in this passage is
oikodomeesoo, which from its form could be either future indicative or
aorist subjunctive.  Aorist subjunctive doesn't fit at all.

At its most basic a Future Indicative is a simple future: "At some point the 
action of the verb will happen".

To the extent that a future tense reflects a present intention, the futre
tense can be considered to have some present significance. "Right now, I fully
intend to build my church and will build it"

Beyond this last observation, one can't read a statement such as "I have been
building my church, am building my church and will build my church" into 
the future tense itself.  That type of interpretation would have to come from
the context or perhaps from theological inference. 

David Wright
dkwright@midway.uchicago.edu