Greek for Bible Readers

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We noted in our previous lesson that Greek uses different forms of a verb to indicate person and number (see Greek for Bible Readers, BR 08:05). We also learned that Greek verbs are said to have a mood: in the indicative mood the speaker affirms the factuality of a statement; the imperative mood expresses a command; the subjunctive mood expresses contingency; and the infinitive mood expresses a verbal idea without specifying person or number. Lastly, we distinguished between the active and passive voice; in the former the subject performs an action, in the latter the subject is being acted upon.

Now let us turn to the concepts of tense and aspect. The tenses in Greek are the present, the future, the imperfect, the aorist, the perfect, the pluperfect and the future perfect. In the indicative mood, the usual English equivalents of these tenses are given below:

Notice that many tenses in English are formed with the present or past tense of the verb together with some part of “will,” “have” or “be.” When so used the latter are called auxiliary verbs, and the resulting combinations are called composite tenses. Other auxiliary verbs in English are “should” and “would.” Koine (koy-NAY) Greek^a has a much smaller number of composite tenses than English and only one auxiliary verb (we will examine these in our next column).

Besides tense, linguists also speak of aspect in describing the Greek verb system. The term “aspect” refers to the view of the action that the speaker chooses to present to the hearer. There are three categories of aspect in Greek: imperfective, perfective and aoristic. Imperfective aspect focuses on the process or duration of the action. Perfective aspect focuses on the state or condition resulting from a completed action. Aoristic aspect focuses on the verbal idea in its entirety, without commenting on either the process or the results of the action. Because the aoristic is the normal aspect in Greek, the use of another aspect is generally exegetically significant.

Each of these aspects intersects with the Greek tenses (with some overlapping), as illustrated by the above chart.

It is important, even in the early stages of learning, to become aware of the importance and function of aspect in the Greek verb system. Unlike English, the most significant feature of tense in Greek is the kind of action—whether it is represented as ongoing, finished or simply as an occurrence. A second consideration, and one that applies only in the indicative mood, is time of action. Hence there are really only three tenses in Greek (as in English): past, present and future. The other “tenses” are in fact merely alternative uses of these three tenses in conjunction with the three aspects (imperfective, perfective and aoristic).

In summary, then, tense in Greek is determined by the writer’s portrayal of the action with regard to aspect and (in the indicative mood) to time. This accounts for the fact that two different authors may portray the action of the same event differently. For instance, Matthew writes that Jesus “gave” (e]dwken, edoµken, aorist indicative) the loaves to the disciples (Matthew 14:19), while Mark writes that Jesus “kept giving” (ejdivdou, edidou, imperfect indicative) them out (Mark 6:41). Here Matthew focuses on the bare idea of the action, while Mark emphasizes its continuance, implying that the miracle took place in the very hands of Jesus. Even the same writer may portray the same action differently in different contexts. Paul, for example, uses the aorist participle ejgeivra~ (egeiras, “raised”) in reference to the resurrection of Christ when viewing it as a simple event (Romans 8:11), and the perfect participle ejghgermevnon (egeµgermenon, “raised”) when emphasizing the state of Christ’s risenness (2 Timothy 2:8). Hence the basic issue with regard to tense is always a question of how much—or how little—the writer wishes to say about the kind of action involved.

This column is an adaptation of the author’s Learn to Read New Testament Greek (Nashville: Broadman, forthcoming). It is used with permission of the publishers.

We noted in our previous lesson that Greek uses different forms of a verb to indicate person and number (see Greek for Bible Readers, BR 08:05). We also learned that Greek verbs are said to have a mood: in the indicative mood the speaker affirms the factuality of a statement; the imperative mood expresses a command; the subjunctive mood expresses contingency; and the infinitive mood expresses a verbal idea without specifying person or number. Lastly, we distinguished between the active and passive voice; in the former the subject performs an action, in the latter the subject is being acted […]