From: Dale M. Wheeler (dalemw@teleport.com)
Date: Mon Mar 16 1998 - 01:37:15 EST
Larry Kruper wrote:
>Dale, have you considered that PISTEUW can be considered an _activity_
>when it is found in certain grammatical constuctions ? PISTUEW is
>found followed merely by a noun in the dative case, but in addition
>it is followed by EPI and EIS.
>
>Paul Kaufman says in 'An introductory Grammar of New Testament Greek'
>"Another construction which is common in the New Testament (especially
>in John's Gospel) is PISTEUW with EIS and the accusative case ...
>The whole construction of EIS plus the accusative must be translated
>rather than attempting to translate the prepostion EIS as an isolated
>word. Faith is thought of as an _activity_, as something men do, i.e.
>putting paith into someone"
>
Larry:
I'm not sure that there is all that much difference between PISTEUW
followed by EIS, EPI, or the simple dative. However, I think that your
statement: "...something men do, i.e. putting paith [sic, faith] into
someone", in my mind, is a climax. In other words, at some point the
act takes place, the conclusion is reached, the decision is made...
normally after a period of consideration. I'd suggest that, as I've
said to others on this topic, that, as I see it, you are reading a
theological perspective into this. You are certainly free to hold
any position you want on this, but after examining the uses in
John (I gave the Subst Ptc uses in my post to Paul Dixon) I don't
think that the unbounded durative nature of an Activity fits the
Aktionsart of the verb. There may be some places where the Pres
or Impf is used with the non-Subst Ptcs with "imperfective"
Aspect, thus stressing either the process or the effect, but that
should be made clear by contextual clues.
Having said all that, I suppose its possible that PISTEUW could
be, by Aktionsart, an Activity. But to be convinced of that, I'd
need to see it used that way in a non-theological context...
XAIREIN...
***********************************************************************
Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Research Professor in Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan Street Portland, OR 97220
Voice: 503-251-6416 FAX:503-254-1268 E-Mail: dalemw@teleport.com
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