From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 15 2000 - 13:07:02 EDT
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<div>At 10:45 AM -0700 6/15/00, William & Lisa James wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Hello, I have a question concerning
the imperfect active indicative 3rd plural. I was looking
back at my first year text (Machen) and he says that the secondary
ending of the imperfect active can be SAN as well as ON. If SAN
can be used, how would you be able to distinguish between the
imperfect and the aorist 3rd plural? Would there be some sort
of stem change since both are built on the present stem? If
there is a stem change, like that of a liquid, would it then be
considered a second aorist with a first aorist ending? My
second year professor tells me that he has not seen an imperfect
with a SAN ending in the new testament, but i was curious about other
literature and if so, how do you know whether it is imperfect or
aorist?</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Athematic verbs, more commonly referred-to as MI verbs, were
regularly conjugated in older Greek with the endings:
-N/-S/-/-MEN/-TE/-SAN. BUT already in classical Attic some of these
verbs were in the process of shifting over to OMEGA type conjugation.
In the GNT the fluctuation between omega conjugation and athematic
conjugation is visible in the concurrent forms for the third plural
of DIDWMI: in Mk 3:6 and 15:23 we have an Omega-conjugation form of
3d plural: EDIDOUN, while Jn 19:3 displays the older form
EDIDOSAN--and there's no difference in meaning. That fluctuation can
also be seen in the 3d plural imperfect forms of TIQHMI: in Mk 6:56
we find ETIQESAN, but in Acts 3:2 and 4:35 we find ETIQOUN. These
forms in -OUN have to be understood as contractions of ETIQE- and
EDIDO- and the thematic 3d pl. ending -ON.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The way you tell an imperfect from an aorist, regardless of
which conjugational-type endings are being used, is by the stem being
used: the imperfect will always show an augmented present stem
(EDIDO- and ETIQE- in the above examples), while the aorist will show
an augmented aorist stem (EDW- or EDO-, EQH-/EQE-). Compare the
resultant forms of the third plural:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>DIDWMI<x-tab> </x-tab>imperfect: EDIDOSAN/EDIDOUN</div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>DIDWMI<x-tab> </x-tab>aorist:<x-tab>
</x-tab> EDOSAN/EDWKAN</div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>TIQHMI<x-tab> </x-tab>imperfect: ETIQESAN/ETIQOUN</div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>TIQHMI<x-tab> </x-tab>aorist<x-tab>
</x-tab> EQESAN/EQHKAN</div>
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<div>-- <br>
<br>
Carl W. Conrad<br>
Department of Classics, Washington University<br>
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243<br>
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com<br>
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/>
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