Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Thank you. I realise that I was oversimplifying, but I was 
concentrating (though not as explicitly as I should have done) on the 
case of one or more Greek aorist participles followed by an aorist 
indicative main verb. I think you would agree that this at least 
normally indicates sequence. Also, if I remember rightly, the sequence 
is not that of the verbs as written, for a participle written after 
the main verb still implies sequence before the main verb.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
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Subject: Re[3]: What ARE the clues for sequence in BH?
Author:  <jwest AT highland.net> at Internet
Date:    15/12/1999 12:44


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