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Greek Lessons
- First Remove the Beam: The Greek Grammar of Moral Clarity in Matthew 7:5
- In Secret or In Public? Verbs, Conditional Clauses, and Voice in John 7:4
- Bound and Released: Conditional Clauses and Genitive Absolutes in Romans 7:3
- The Gift of Tongues as Known Languages: Witness of the Early Church Fathers
- From Jerusalem with Scrutiny: Fronting and Focus in Mark 7:1
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Monthly Archives: September 2011
Present Indicative: The Conative Present
The Conative Present
The Present Indicative is occasionally used of action attempted, but not accomplished. This use is, however, not to be regarded as a distinct function of the tense. The Conative Present is merely a species of the Progressive Present. A verb which of itself suggests effort, when used in a tense which implies action in progress, and hence incomplete, naturally suggests the idea of attempt. All the verb-forms of the Present system are equally, with the Present, capable of expressing attempted action, since they all denote action in progress. John 10:32, λιθάζετε, and Gal. 5:4, δικαιοῦσθε, illustrate this usage in the Present.… Learn Koine Greek
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Tagged Ernest De Witt Burton, ἄγει, δικαιοῦσθε, λιθάζετε
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Present Indicative: The Progressive Present
The Progressive Present
The Present Indicative is used of action in progress in present time.
Matt. 25:8; αἱ δὲ μωραὶ ταῖς φρονίμοις εἶπαν Δότε ἡμῖν ἐκ τοῦ ἐλαίου ὑμῶν, ὅτι αἱ λαμπάδες ἡμῶν σβέννυνται, our lamps are going out.
Gal. 1:6; Θαυμάζω ὅτι οὕτως ταχέως μετατίθεσθε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς, I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you.
The most constant characteristic of the Present Indicative is that it denotes action in progress. It probably had originally no reference to present time. But since, in the historical periods of the language, action in progress in past time is expressed by the Imperfect, and the Future is used both as a progressive and as an aoristic tense for future time, it results that the Present Indicative is chiefly used to express action in progress in present time.… Learn Koine Greek
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Tagged Ernest De Witt Burton, θαυμαζω
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Tenses Of The Indicative Mood
(1) The significance of the tenses of the Indicative mood may be stated in general as follows: – As respects progress: The Present and Imperfect denote action in progress; the Perfect, Pluperfect, and Future Perfect denote completed action; the Aorist represents the action indefinitely as an event or single fact; the Future is used either of action in progress like the Present, or indefinitely like the Aorist.
As respects time:
The Present and Perfect denote present time; the Imperfect, Aorist, and Pluperfect denote past time; the Future and Future Perfect denote future time.
(2) The tenses of the Indicative in general denote time relative to that of speaking.… Learn Koine Greek
The Greek Tenses
The action denoted by a verb may be defined by the tense of the verb:
(a) As respects its progress. Thus it may be represented as in progress, or as completed, or indefinitely, i.e., as a simple event without reference to progress or completion. This corresponds to what is known as aspect in Greek grammar: the viewpoint or manner in which an action is portrayed.
(b) As respects its time, as past, present, or future. This is known as temporal reference, and it is most strictly observed only in the Indicative mood.
The tenses of the Indicative mood in general define the action of the verb in both these respects: aspect and time.… Learn Koine Greek
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Greek Has 7 Tenses
There are seven tenses in Greek:-
Present, Imperfect, Aorist, Future, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect.These tenses express both aspect (the kind of action) and time (when the action takes place), though aspect is often more primary than time in many moods outside the indicative.
Those tenses which denote present or future time are called Primary Tenses. Those tenses which denote past time are called Secondary Tenses.
Since the time denoted by a tense varies with the particular use of the tense and the mood in which it occurs, no fixed or absolute line of division can be drawn between the two classes of tenses.… Learn Koine Greek
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The Greek Verb Has 4 Moods
There are four moods in the Greek verb:-
the Indicative, the Subjunctive, the Optative, and the Imperative.With these are associated in the study of Syntax the Infinitive, which is, strictly speaking, a verbal noun, and the Participle, which is a verbal adjective.
The Subjunctive, Optative, Imperative, and Infinitive are often called dependent moods.
REMARK. The term dependent is not strictly applicable to these moods, and least of all to the Imperative, which almost always stands as a principal verb. It has, however, become an established term, and is retained as a matter of convenience.
Indicative Mood
The Indicative mood is the mood of factual assertion and reality.… Learn Koine Greek
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