RE: 'default' aorist

Somi Chuhon (
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 21:34:05 -0800

At 03:01 PM 10/29/96 -0800, you wrote:
>The perfect tense
>represents the results of the action, rather than the action itself. It does
>not mean that the action can never recur; in reality, all actions have results
>and the choice between aorist and perfect is just a matter of looking at the
>event vs. the results. In the case of Pilate's inscription, the permanancy
>and immutability of the event comes from the context, not the grammar.
>Don Wilkins
>UC Riverside

(This is just a comment and a question, not something that I am totally
affirming as my standpoint at the moment...well, at least, not yet)

The sense of the perfect that you are describing here seems to reflect the
English translation of the tense (e.g. "had walked", "had spoken"). My
question pertains to whether this MUST BE SO in the Greek as well. I agree
that context is crucial in understanding the fullest sense of the/a verbal
tense, but I wonder, perhaps, if there could be more of a sense of emphasis
or concentration on an action indicated in the perfect tense (as is it not
as common in occurence as other tenses) rather than a reflection of time as
you have indicated here.

Maybe someone with a more linguistical approach to the language could help here?

Graduate Student (Old Testament)
ACTS Seminary (Langley, B.C.)

For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any other powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to seperate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38,39