Elementary New Testament Greek, 2014a

12: Aorist Tense
12: Aorist Tense
The Aorist Indicative (logic and ideas)
To this point we have learned three (3) verb Tenses in the Indicative Mood: the
Present (Active and Middle/Passive), the Imperfect (Active and Middle/Passive),
and the Future (Active, Middle, and Passive). Just as importantly, we have learned
not only how they are formed (on the basis of the First, Second and Sixth Principal
Parts) but also where they are located on a unied verb chart. We can discern many
important features of a Tense by examining its position on the chart as it intersects
such columns and rows as Aspect, Voice, Mood, and Time.
Now as we turn to the Aorist Indicative, we will discover that we have already done
most of the heavy lifting back in chapters Ten and Eleven. With an understanding of
the Principal Parts (as formed from the verb Root) along with an overall conceptual
map of the Greek verb, we can engage the Aorist Indicative fairly directly. From the
unied chart re-presented on the next page you can see key features of the Aorist
Indicative without much trouble:
only that the writer’s perspective, presentation, and interests are External,
“outside the event,” viewing it as a whole.]
3) You can see that the Aorist Tense will have three (3) sets of forms which
express Active, Middle and Passive Voices distinctly. [In other words,
there is no sharing of forms by the Middle and Passive as in Present and
Imperfect Tenses.]
4) You can see that the Aorist Active and Aorist Middle will be formed from
the Third Principal Part, while the Aorist Passive will be formed from the
Sixth Principal Part.
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1) The Aorist Tense in the Indicative Mood is as past-time Tense. The three
(3) past-time Tenses of the Indicative (Imperfect, Aorist, and Pluperfect)
will signal past-time by their augments, and can be found in a horizontal
row within the Indicative.
Important Note: As you look down the column of External Aspect, you will notice
that all of the boxes (except for the Future Tense] are named “Aorist.” But only in the
Indicative Mood does “past-time” horizontally intersect the column of Aorist Tenses.
This means that the Aorist Tenses, outside the Indicative Mood, have no necessary
reference to the past. Therefore in the Subjunctive, Imperative, Optative, Innitive,
and Participle the Aorist Tense essentially indicates External Aspect: an action
viewed and presented as a whole. This is why it is absolutely necessary always to
distinguish the Aorist Indicative from Non-Indicative Aorists! Put another way, only
in the Indicative Mood does the Aorist Tense signify External Aspect and past-time!
2) You can see that the Aorist Indicative expresses External Aspect. [By and
large, the entire External-Aspect column contains verb forms that view
an action as a whole, not as a progressive or staged series. This does not
mean that the action itself is not progressive or staged “in the real world,”