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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Question for Rolf on the JW outlook on the Hebrew
  • Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:26:25 +1100

Hi Harold,

I agree with your assessment.

But it is exactly BECAUSE that is not always the case that the Greek aorist is claimed to be tenseless by some these days. Rodney Decker, for example, in his monograpgh follows Mari Broman Olsen in looking for uncancellable meaning and so rejects anything to do with tense.

Regards,
David Kummerow.


Dear Rolf,
>
> When I ask the question: "Is past tense an uncancelable part of the
> WAYYIQTOL form?," I seek a scrupulous distinction between semantics and
> pragmatics when I answer the question, and I use "scrupulous" as defined by
> Websters.
>
>
HH: What you are seeking for seems unrealistic. An essential idea of the
Greek aorist is that it is a preterite; it expresses past meaning. But
that is not always the case. Sometimes the aorist can be used in
contexts which indicate a present meaning. And it can be used in
contexts which imply a future meaning. I was just reading about it:

http://books.google.com/books?id=BExv_MTYrZkC&dq=uses+of+aorist+Greek&pg=PA22&ots=gXedHFoi0S&sig=Xpoo7X4iOYetqTTFLw0tPx4R2u0&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Duses%2Bof%2Baorist%2BGreek%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=2#PPA16-IA4,M1


Language is not as rigid as you seem to propose.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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