From: Bruce Terry (terry@bible.acu.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 07 1995 - 13:59:50 EST
On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 11:57 AM 12/6/95, Bruce Terry wrote:
>>Compare II Cor. 12:10:
>>
>>hOTAN GAR ASQENW, TOTE DUNATOS EIMI.
>>"for whenever I am weak, then I am strong."
>>
>>This is at the time, not just afterwards.
>
>I respectfully submit that ASQENW is present tense, not aorist. The
>construction here, however, is a PRESENT GENERAL condition: "Every single
>time that I am weak is a time when I am strong."
Here's egg on my face; of course it is a present. What was I thinking?
>I quite agree that context is fundamental to understanding, and I will
>agree that there's a "je ne sais quoi" of truth in the dictum, "The Bible
>is not logical." On the other hand, the Bible is a long way from being
>illogical--it's far more logical than I am. So I am inclined to say of this
>little dictum, "The Bible is not logical," what was said in a blooper I
>will never forget from a student's essay on a philosophy exam many years
>ago: "This statement is good as far as it goes, but it goes too far."
This sounds something like the reply that math teacher gave me when I reminded
him of his statement years later. May I amend the statement to say: the Bible
is linguistically logical, not mathematically logical. As such, the fine
points of semantics are extremely complex.
I found your discussion of more vivid future and general present interesting.
May I humbly suggest that one may get even more precision by adding even more
categories. But may the good Lord save me from having to write *that*
grammar, and especially from having to try to teach it to second-year Greek
students.
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Bruce Terry E-MAIL: terry@bible.acu.edu
Box 8426, ACU Station Phone: 915/674-3759
Abilene, Texas 79699 Fax: 915/674-3769
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