From: Wes.Williams@twcable.com
Date: Tue Aug 20 1996 - 20:50:15 EDT
I was under the impression that the Greek present active indicative
referred to durative time but not necessarily to eternal time. In
reviewing the archives I see that this point was already covered.
Someone earlier posted a remark regarding John 14:9;
Tosoutw xronw meq umwn EIMI kai ouk egnwkas me, Filippe;
So long a time with you I am and not you have known me?
Here EIMI is used with the expression of Phillip being with Jesus "so much
time." Phillip had only known Jesus for roughly three years, certainly
enough time to know Jesus in Jesus' mind. To maintain that Phillip was with
Jesus earlier than that in a timeless sense, well, that would certainly be
something we would need to discuss over a cup of tea.
Also someone previously posted a reference to John 15:27 as a
parallel grammatical construction to John 8:58 using EINAI.
While Parmenides evidently did use EINAI in an absolute sense, which
sense it can have, it appears to me that when there is an expression
of past or future time clause associated with EINAI, it places
limitations on the duration.
Sincerely,
Wes
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