From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Wed Apr 22 1998 - 10:54:16 EDT
Edgar Foster wrote:
> Dear Carl,
> I would translate Rom. 8:30 offhand: "those he also glorified."
>
> The event happened in the past, is happening in the present (first
> century) and will happen in the future. Therefore, it is a
> transcendent "event," not per se "futuristic."
Dear Ed ~
I know this is an old saw, but this translates so easily in the simple
idiomatic English [timeless] present...
"...these He also glorifies." ... As do all the 'gnomic' aorists in
this passage.
To put it in the English past tense quite simply does not translate
the Greek. This passage does not select an event, but describes the
process of ANY occurrence of that kind of event... Even
'predestinates' ~ For can one say that God does not predestinate now
and in the future, as well as in the past?
If we translate it as a past tense, there is no hope for the present
and future of this process of predestination, calling and glorifying.
Inventing a bunch of names for the various occurrences of the aorist
[where it is a preconceived 'past' tense designation (via its
augment)] chops off the wings of this magnificent verb form, and has
it flopping around on the ground in the past, in the present, in the
future... alternately... and only contextual wizardry can sort it all
out. In the timeless idiomatic English present, it can be translated
effortlessly, simply, consistently and clearly, with vision, every
time it is seen in use.
I apologize for my passionate defense ~ I grieve this treatment of the
aorist...
George
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