BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament NIGTC International Greek New Testament Commentary NIV New International Version. It has also been a joy for me to attend and facilitate his online classes for many years.
Keener for having the privilege of attending his Acts Seminar at Asbury Theological Seminary. I would not have been able to persevere on this journey in the United States without his advice and heart-felt help. Most of all, I express my immense gratitude to Pastor Youngsam Choi for his support and prayers over the years.
My beloved fiancé, Heesuk Choi, has been patient with me for years as I have completed this project. Without their financial and emotional support, I would not have been able to continue working on this study.
INTRODUCTION
V. Evans (2001)
Sauge argues that the notion of the intensive perfect can explain most perfective forms. Γέγονα denotes not only the traditional meaning of perfect, but also the present tense in the Greek New Testament. In Homeric Greek, the current meaning of the Perfect is the rule rather than the exception.
Allan states that the prototypical meaning of the perfect at this stage was to express a resulting state. The perfect βέβηκας denotes the continuous condition in the present that came about because of the implied past. The perfect τέθνηκα is another example of the resultative-stative notion.55 Examples of this verb include.
Because of the many occurrences of perfect middle passive forms in the Greek New Testament, listing them is a useful way to introduce these forms. In summary, most perfect middle/passive forms in the NT express a resultative-stative nuance, while some of them show a stative meaning. 210 Robert Crellin, “The Semantics of the Perfect in the Greek of the New Testament,” in Greek Verb Revisited, 432.
Diachronic development of the Greek perfect helps to understand this "abnormal" behavior of the perfect. The Greek New Testament shows a large number of verbs that convey the typical idea of the perfect—the anterior or present relevance perfect. See Amalia Moser, "The History of the Perfect Periphrases in Greek" (PhD diss., University of Cambridge.
It is likely that the semantic change of the perfect took place in the Classical Greek period, with the rise of the transitive perfect. The consequences of the semantic change of the perfect are easily observed in the anterior perfect in Classical literature. Bentein provides the uses of the perfect periphrastic in the fourth and fifth centuries BC.
This text contains current-relevance transitive perfects
The brevity of Revelation 2:3-5 lies in the way in which the resurrected Lord now rebukes the Church of Ephesus for leaving their first love. This indicates the milieu that they were separate from the Lord during a certain period of time in the past. The current state of fallenness (πέπτωκας) is the result of abandoning their first love for Christ at some point in the past.
The fallen status continues from the past to the present moment, when Christ warns of removal. He claims that the aorist summarizes the event (ἐβάστασας "you endure") and the perfect (κεκοπίακα) emphasizes the action of not being tired.89. Following Porter's markedness theory, Mathewson maintains that πέπτωκας highlights the need for repentance.90 However, the mere use of πέπτωκας as an emphasis for "repentance" does not necessarily support Porter's statives perfectly.
To highlight the need for repentance, as Mathewson argues, the implied antecedent event πέπτωκας is required. Therefore, Mathewson's "highlight perfectly for the need of repentance" supports the preceding action of the perfect πέπτωκας ("fell") rather than a mere stative sentence.
The next notable anterior perfect is from Revelation 3
By illustrating σέσωκεν, Runge states that the perfect provides relevant information about what precedes it (Runge, . “The Discourse Function of the Greek Perfect,” in The Greek Verb Revisited, 480). 127 Julius Carroll Trotter, Jr., "The Use of the Perfect Tenses in the Pauline Epistles" (ThD thesis, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Due to the rise of the transitive perfect, the perfect expanded the range of expression in the classical era.
Looking at the diachronic development of the perfect clarifies its current nuance of relevance in the Greek New Testament. The confusion of the perfect with the aorist is also observed in the papyrus.14 Moulton explains,. In contrast, Mandilaras states that in the third century B.C. the ratio of perfect to aorist was almost equal in the papyri (91 perfects and 78 aorists with 42 letters).
Between the first and third centuries AD, the union of perfect and aorist also affected periphrastic constructions. So far we have explored the semantic change of the perfect from the past past to the simple. Fanning says that the aorist use of the perfect is rare in the NT (Fanning, Verbal Aspect, 112, n74).
Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (Nashville: Broadmans. Mathewson fails to resolve decisively the role of the perfect among the seven aorists in the text. Gentry, “The Function of Augmentation in Hellenistic Greek,” in The Greek Verb Revisited, 353-78; Christopher J.
McKay argues that a writer can emphasize a point by using the perfect (McKay, “The Use of the Ancient Greek Perfect,” 16). There remains criterion (c), which is strong enough to transfer the perfect to the sphere of the aorist. The Greek New Testament preserves cases of the perfect denoting the simple past (89 times).
The historical development and semantic change of the perfect better explain these puzzling uses of the perfect in the Greek New Testament.
CONCLUSION
