Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joe A. Friberg" <JoeFriberg AT email.msn.com>]

Jim,

I would, given the opportunity, strongly contend for Peter Kirk's original
point: an aorist participle preceding the main verb necessarily implies
sequence of an action leading up to the action of the main verb.

But I bear in mind that the reference to Greek is here simply illustrative
material, and not the main point.

Nevertheless, **do you have any counterexamples to the above stated
principle?**

God Bless!
Joe A. Friberg

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim West" <jwest AT highland.net>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: What ARE the clues for sequence in BH?


> At 08:50 PM 12/15/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >As I understand it, the aorist participle in NT Greek and the
> >perfective participle and gerund in Russian encode sequentiality, i.e.
> >an action which is completed before the action of the main verb.
>
> dont know about russian- but this is not precisely correct regarding
greek.
> in greek the participle takes on the "time reference" of the main verb of
> the clause.  the aorist ptc in particular may OR MAY NOT refer to an
action
> before the time of the main verb, depending on the tense of that main
verb.
>
> They
> >stand opposed to their present and imperfective counterparts which
> >encode simultaneity. A Greek aorist participle with an aorist main
> >verb encode not just the perfective aspect of two completed actions
> >but also the sequence of those actions.
>
> in a sense this is true- but it is not absolute.
>
> >And sometimes you can get
> >quite a string of aorist participles with one main verb, which are
> >presumed to be in sequential order. Is that right?
>
> In part that is right.  the relationship between participles and main
verbs
> depends on a number of factors.  tense, voice, mood, and the dozens of
> variations therein possible make it a bit morecomplex then you here
suggest.
>
> Jim
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Jim West, ThD
> jwest AT highland.net
> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
>
> "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."  Winston
Churchill