From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 04 2000 - 18:05:57 EDT
At 10:30 AM -0400 9/4/00, Mike Sangrey wrote:
>Given the recent thread concerning aspect, I think my question here
>will give some feet to the somewhat theoretic nature. In other words,
>different pieces of a context bring together different pieces of the
>meaning. However, my question is about tense and specifically how tense
>is derived from a text.
>
>In Philippians 1:6 we have:
> hOTI hO ENARXAMENOS EN hUMIN ERGON AGAQON EPITELESEI AXRI
> hHMERAS CRISTOU IHSOU:
>
>Some observations:
> EPITELESEI is future.
>
> EPITELEW is rather punctilliar in nature. I understand it to
> "mean" complete. In fact, the nature of completion may be somewhat
> emphatic given the prefix EPI. It is used in the NT in : Gal. 3:3,
> Heb. 8:5, Heb. 9:6, 2 Cor. 7:1, 2 Cor. 8:6, 2 Cor. 8:11 (twice),
> 1 Pet. 5:9, and Rom. 15:28. Heb. 8:5 is rather interesting
> in this regard. The NIV has "when he was about to build the
> tabernacle" he was warned to focus on the details. Perhaps it
> would be better to translate as, "when the tabernacle was nearly
> complete" he was warned to focus on the details. In other words,
> "Moses, make sure you do last minute quality checks so that
> everything is exactly the way I said it should be!"
>
> AXRI must contour the tense of the verb. In other words, one
> can't have a punctilliar until. There has to be some sense of
> 'continue'.
>
>So, my question is generally how one would translate this.
>Specifically, would
>
> "that the one who has begun a good work in you(pl) will continue to
> complete it until the day of Christ Jesus"
>
>or
> "that the one who has begun a good work in you(pl) will continue until
> he completes it at the day of Christ Jesus"
>
>or
> something else be best? The NIV has "carry it on to completion".
In the first place, I think the future is a tense rather than an aspect;
more often than not it is built upon a present stem, but I don't think that
should be understood to mean that the future has distinctly durative
aspect. Modern Greek does have two futures with aspectual difference, one
based upon a present subjunctive, a second based upon an aorist subjective.
But that's not the case with ancient Greek, and so I don't really think the
question of aspect as such is appropriate to consideration of the future
tense as a tense.
So far as the passage in question is concerned,
> hOTI hO ENARXAMENOS EN hUMIN ERGON AGAQON EPITELESEI AXRI
> hHMERAS CRISTOU IHSOU:
it seems to me that the key to making sense of EPITELESEI ought to be seen
in the encapsulated roots in the two verbs here ARCH in ENARAXAMENOS and
TELOS in EPITELESEI; moreover I'd understand ACRI with the genitive not so
much as a temporal "locative" expression but rather as pointing to an
object being approached. It seems to me that the "good work" which is the
object of the aorist participle and the future indicative is conceived as
something "under construction" from the moment when the constructor began
his work until that point at which he will finally bring it to completion.
I would assume that the idea so neatly encapsulated in verse 6 is given a
more vivid imaginative rendering in vss. 9-11 (KAI TOUTO PROSEUCOMAI, hINA
hH AGAPH hUMWN ETI MALLON KAI MALLON PERISSEUHi EN EPIGNWSEI KAI PASHi
AISQHSEI EIS TO DOKOMAZEIN hUMAS TA DIAFERONTA, hINA HTE EILIKRINEIS KAI
APROSKOPOI EIS hHMERAN CRISTOU, PEPLHROMENOI KARPON DIKAIOSUNHS TON DIA
IHSOU CRISTOU EIS DOXAN KAI EPAINON QEOU. There the perspective is upon the
end product of the process referred to as the ever-expanding (by leaps and
bounds) love, the end-product being a harvest of fully ripened grain or of
fruits at harvest season (depending on which way you choose to visualize
PEPLHRWMENOI KARPON).
Although I personally would not attribute Hebrews to Paul, I do think that
the same conception of a process of maturation initiated and brought to
ripeness by Christ,(TON THS PISTEWS <<ARCHGON KAI TELEIWTHN>> IHSOUN) gets
expressed in the climactic verses of the review of heroes of faith in
chapter 12: TOIGAROUN KAI hHMEIS TOSOUTON ECONTES PERIKEIMENON hHMIN NEFOS
MARTURWN, OGKON APOQEMENOI PANTA KAI THN EUPERISTATON hAMARTIAN, DI'
hUPOMONHS TRECWMN TON PROKEIMENON hHMIN AGWNA, AFORWNTES TON THS PISTEWS
ARCHGON KAI TELEIWTHN IHSOUN.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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