From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Tue Feb 10 1998 - 19:21:10 EST
At 04:04 PM 2/10/98 -0800, lakr wrote:
>Craig, Koine Greek is properly spoken of as having 'aspect'. The
>imperfect of EIMI, HN, has an aspect which has been described as
>_continuous_, it is true, however the endpoints of the action are
>not in focus. John has simply not chosen to make this part of
>the action visible to us in the prologue.
Say what? Show me an example of HN that does not have past reference. And
if you want to emphasize the aspect of HN...how would you express the past
tense of EIMI *without* continuous aspect, since the verb does not appear
in the aorist? I think that we have to see HN as neutral for aspect, but
marked for past reference.
I know that Porter does not believe that Greek has tense, but most other
writers on the subject do, including Fanning, Olsen, and the traditional
grammars. The only examples of the imperfect in the NT that do not have
clear past reference are the desiderative imperfects.
Jonathan
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Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
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