Elementary New Testament Greek, 2014a

2: Introduction to Verbs in the Present Active Indicative
Though the English word “tense” suggests a focus on the “time” of an action (since
the English word “tense” is related to the Latin word “tempus” meaning “time”), the
Greek tenses of the Indicative mood express both Time and Aspect. The chart below
will help you visualize this dual signicance more readily:
present refers to “now,” however momentary or lengthy we consider
“now” to be;
future refers to “some time ahead,” however near or distant that might
be.
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Internal Aspect External Aspect Perfect Aspect
Present Time Present Tense No Greek Forms Perfect Tense
Past Time Imperfect Tense Aorist Tense Pluperfect Tense
Future Time No Greek Forms Future Tense Future Perfect Tense
By tracing the axes of this chart we can determine how Time and Aspect intersect
within each Tense in the Indicative Mood:
Time
Aspect
Present Tense = present + internal
Imperfect Tense = past + internal
Future Tense = future + external
Aorist Tense = past + external
Perfect Tense = present + perfect
Pluperfect Tense = past + perfect
Future Perfect Tense = future + perfect
But what do we mean by Time, and by Aspect?
Time in the Indicative Mood
Let’s start with the easier one rst: Time. All of us intuitively understand the distinction
between past, present and future time. No matter what scale of time measurement
we are using (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades or centuries), we
readily perceive that, from the standpoint of a speaker or writer:
past refers to “some time ago,” however recent or remote that might be;
[Of course these matters can become philosophically and linguistically complicated,
and many events will overlap two (if not all three) of these time zones. But for
the moment let’s be content with the rather unreective notion of “now-ness” as
the time frame of an action expressed by a Greek verb in the Present Indicative.
Look again at the 6 forms of and their translations above, and you will see that
each translation portrays the action as happening “now,” from the perspective of the
speaker or writer.]
Just to be clear about this, imagine showing up in forms (you have not yet seen)
denoting a different Time:
It could show up in a past time form:
“we were destroying” (Yesterday? Last year? Last month?), or
It could show up in a future time form:
“we will be destroying” (Later today? Next week? Next year?).
But in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood, we should set the action
into present time:
“we are (now) destroying” (This day? This week? This month? This
year?)
Much more important than Time for Biblical interpretation, though more difcult to
explain, is the matter of Aspect. As you saw in the table above, the Aspect of Greek
verbs in the Present Tense is said to be internal. Let’s step back for moment to look
at the three different aspects that can be expressed by various forms of Greek verbs:
internal, external, and perfect.
Aspect (Internal, External, Perfect) in all Moods
1) Internal Aspect: In expressing a given action, a Greek speaker or writer
can imagine being “down inside” the event, sensing its progressive,
repeated, or unfolding development. This “within-the-event”
perspective chosen by the writer is conveyed by using specic verb forms