re John 8:58--perfective or imperfective?

From: Al Kidd (akidd@infoave.net)
Date: Mon Aug 19 1996 - 23:11:07 EDT


Ron Henzel asked the following question in a post that appears here on
b-greek (--see

                                              John 8:58--perfective or
imperfective?
                                              From: Ron Henzel
<rhenzel@wheaton.edu>
                                              Subject: John 8:58--perfective
or imperfective?
                                              Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996
15:32:17 CST6CDT):
> . . . .
>In fact, I can't think of any better and more concise
>way that Jesus *could* have stated the fact of His own eternal
>existence, can you?
>

Ron Henzel in effect asks Mitchell if he knows a better way Jesus might have
declared himself to be one who has been in existence eternally prior to
Abraham's birth -- "better," that is, than that which we read at John 8:58.

Well, assuming for the sake of argument that Jesus had as much to declare,
then we might offer that Jesus could have said the following:

PRO PANTOS TOU AIWNOS EGW EIMI.

"I have been in existence from all past eternity."

And that would have logically covered not only the fact of his pre-Abrahamic
existence, but would have also given us the thing that Ron Henzel argues per
his words we have quoted above.

Al Kidd



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