Elementary New Testament Greek, 2014a

12: Aorist Tense
The Personal Endings of Assembly Line “A”
You may have noticed that the Personal Endings used above are the same as those
used by the Imperfect. Since both the Imperfect Indicative and Aorist Indicative
are past-time Tenses, it is only natural that they both would use Secondary Personal
Endings.
Don’t be too distracted by the wrinkles (!!!) that have emerged at three (3) points.
(The “expected” components are set in brackets, while the actual “outcomes” lie
beyond the arrows.)
Aorist Active Indicative
Aorist Middle Indicative
!!! μ μ
!!!
!!!
In the 1st Singular Active: The Personal Ending () is not actually used,
exposing the alpha () to be the last letter of the word.
In the 3rd Singular Active: The alpha () is exchanged for an epsilon
(), perhaps under inuence from another Tense. The nu () shown
in parentheses is not a personal ending, but the moveable nu easing
pronunciation if the following word (in a given sentence) begins with a
vowel.
In the 2nd Singular Middle: The regular contraction to omega () occurs
between alpha () and omicron () when the sigma () of the personal
ending drops out. You may recall that intervocalic sigmas often drop out.
165
μ μ μ μ
The “no problem” Verbs of Assembly Line “A”
Several verbs we have learned add sigma-alpha () very easily to the verb Root when forming the 3rd Principal Part.
1st PrinPart
(Dictionary Entry)
Translation
Verb Root
3rd PrinPart
(Aor/Act/Ind/1s)
Translation
Comments
I am destroying I destroyed Perfectly regular and obvious
I am hearing I heard Perfectly regular and obvious
I am believing I believed Perfectly regular and obvious
Short vowels at the end of a verb root are lengthened as the sigma is added: to ; to ; and to .