Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

yochanan bitan-buth wrote:
> 
> RE:     vayyiqtol and Greek aspect
> 
> Rolf wrote:
> >I accept the conclusions of Porter and
> >Broman Olsen that Aorist does not code for past tense, only for the
> >perfective aspect.
> 
> That is too bad. (Though irrelevant to vayyiqtol=perfective since all admit
> aorist is perfective.)

Not all.  At least 30 years ago Frank Stagg, writing in JBL, referred to
it ast "the abused aorist" and pointed out that the aorist is exactly
what its name implies: the undefined simple past (at least in the
indicative).  The truth is that much has been claimed for the aorist
that it can't bear.  And since the Greek aorist is an entirely different
sphere than the Hebrew verb system we're comparing apples and ducks here
in any event.

Dave, who is still developing a sig file on his new system.