From: Ed Gorham (aekalm@a-znet.com)
Date: Sat Oct 24 1998 - 00:00:24 EDT
April,
You've already received some excellent answers. Perhaps another clue could
be provided by Porter's "Idioms of the Greek NT".
He cites several instances of the omnitemporal presnt tense (the present
being used for any time), or for timeless action. Likewise, he cites cases
where the aorist is employed for present action (e.g. Matt. 23:23, Lk.
16:4, etc.) and for omnitemporal and timeless actions.
Then there is his argument for what he refers to as "planes of discourse".
In sum, he says that often the aorist will be used for historical narrative
and background information, regarless of time, and the present will be used
to highlight or emphasize an action or concept, in order to have it stand
out in bold relief from the background info.
I don't throw this out as the solution, but simply an an element for
consideration.
Cheers,
-Ed Gorham
aekalm@a-znet.com
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