[B-Greek] hHiDEIS Mt 25:26
Tom Moore
tom at katabiblon.com
Wed Dec 3 03:41:29 EST 2008
(Oun, the rough-breathing is a typo--should be HiDEIS, right?)
This description "perfect with present meaning" has long bugged me, so I, too, am interested in the answers to this question.
I have, though, my own conjecture based on trying to make sense of the various inflections of OIDA, which perhaps someone can approve or reject.
First, OIDA has a stem ID- with athematic present indicative endings (ISMEN [=ID+MEN], ISTE, ISASIN) and with athematic present imperative endings (ISQI [=ID+QI], ISTW, ISTE, ISTWSAN), and a stem OID- with 2nd-perfect indicative endings (OIDA [=OID+[K]A], OIDAS, OIDEN, OIDAMEN, OIDATE, OIDASIN).
But then it also has a stem EID- that confusingly has both perfect/pluperfect and present/imperfect endings. While EID- appears to be a true perfect-reduplicate of ID- (can anyone explain, though, how one gets from ID-/EID- to OID- in the perfect indicative?), it's perfect/pluperfect endings are easily mistakable for the present/imperfect.
My conjecture is that any distinction in meaning between "to be aware" and "to have been aware" was so completely lost that the tense-endings themselves became misunderstood and interchangeable.
In Koine Greek , the pluperfect of OIDA is HiDEIN [=E+EID+[K]EIN],HiDEIS, HiDEI, HiDEIMEN, HiDEITEI, and HiDEISAN (s. Smyth 798).
However, the Classical pluperfect of OIDA (Smyth 794) is HiDH [=E+EID+[K]H], HiDHS, HiDEI, HiDEMEN, HiDETE, and HiDESAN. Of these, HiDHS, HiDEMEN, HiDETE, and HiDESAN look exactly like, and probably came to be confused with, a present stem EIDE- with athematic imperfect endings (e.g., HiDEMEN = E+EIDE+MEN instead of E+EID+[K]EMEN]).
Further, the perfect subjunctive (EIDW [=EID+[K]W], EIDHiS, EIDHi, EIDWMEN, EIDHTE, EIDWSIN) is indistinguishable from a present stem EIDE- with present subjunctive endings (EIDW = EIDE+W), as also is the perfect infinitive EIDENAI [=EID+[K]ENAI] indistinguishable from a present infinitive EIDE+NAI.
Unambiguiously imperfect forms followed: HiDHSQA [=E+EIDE+SQA] and a new stem EID-: HiSMEN [=E+EID+MEN], HiSTE [=E+EID+TE], HiSAN [=E+EID+SAN].
And then so followed the future: EIDHSOMAI [=EIDH+SOMAI] and EISOMAI [=EID+SOMAI].
In short, so far as I can tell, it is this confusion of tense-endings that indicate to us that OIDA has no (meaningful?) distinction in meaning between the present and perfect.
Regards,
Tom Moore
> -------Original Message-------
> From: Oun Kwon <kwonbbl at gmail.com>
> Subject: [B-Greek] hHiDEIS Mt 25:26
> Sent: Dec 03 '08 04:59
>
> BDAG has it under OIDA, the first line reads
>
> really the perf. of the stem EID- (Lat. video), but used as a pres.
>
> What does it mean by really the perf. ~ but used as a pres? Is it common?
>
> Oun Kwon.
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