Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Harold,

In the study of a dead language we can never draw a conclusion and believe 
that this is the final word, this is the truth. But by the use of different 
approaches we can try to come as close the the correct understanding as 
possible. I have also applied my model to New Testament Greek, although I 
have not yet analysed all the verbs of the NT. You are correct in your 
observations that the aorist may have non-pastreference - it can even has 
future reference (e.g., Jude 1:14). My  conclusion so far is that past tense 
is not a  part of the aorist, but it represents the perfective aspect. I 
take the imperfect as as past tense + the imperfective aspect, present as 
the imperfective aspect, and future as future tense.




.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Holmyard" <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 1:02 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Question for Rolf on the JW outlook on the Hebrew


> 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.

RF
I think you misunderstand my position here.

> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
> _______________________________________________


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo