From: Moon-Ryul Jung (moon@saint.soongsil.ac.kr)
Date: Sun Dec 17 2000 - 20:24:18 EST
Dear Kimmo,
In a recent discussion, there was some debate on the aspect of John 3:16.
Here is a quote:
> For example, here is a familiar phrase:
>
> John 3:16a
>
> hOUTWS GAR HGAPHSEN hO QEOS TON KOSMON.
>
> Does John mean by using the Aorist here that God's love
> for the world should be viewed as complete or as a whole?
You said:
This expression of God's love in sending His Son can be viewed as a
perfective whole.
>
> "Completion" is not even a characteristic of LOVE. How would
> one view God's love as a "whole" ? What would that even mean?
You said:
Here it refers to an expression of God's love. Perfectivity and
countability go together: what is countability with noun phrases is
perfectivity with verb phrases.
Logically speaking, "AN" expression of God's love (the fact that
he loved the world) was sending his Son to the world. God's love
was the basis of sending his Son. So, taking "God loved the world" to
refer to AN expression of his love comes down to confusing
the basis and the outcome.
I understand your claim. "to love" itself is unbound like uncountable
nouns. But uncountable nouns can be made countable as in "two coffees,
please". Similarly verbs that are lexically open-ended can be made bound
by the aorist coding. It seems to be a nice and systmetic explanation of
aorist aspect.
But this theory seems to go against my intuitive understanding of John
3:16. My understanding is: "God loved the world" is simply the past
version of "God loves the world". The imperfect form of "
God loves the world" does not seem to correspond to the
simple assertion "God loves the world". The aorist form was used
simply because the reference time interval for the assertion was
past.
What would be evidences that are For your understanding and
against my understanding ?
Moon
Moon R. Jung
Associate Professor
Dept of Digital Media
Sogang Univ,
Seoul, Korea
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