Verb – ε-contract (lengthening)

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The morphology of ε-contract verbs when the ending begins with a consonant
• The performative use of the aorist

VocabularyVocabulary

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – ε-contract (lengthening)

• If the ending begins with a consonant, the ε is lengthened to η, e.g. κρατέω → ἐκράτη σα
• Some stems like καλε- ‘call’ do not always lengthen before a consonant, but they do in some forms

SemanticsSemantics: Verb – Aorist (6 – Performative)

Verb – Aorist: all 7 parts on one page →Also in Lesson 11.1, Lesson 12.1, Lesson 14.1, Lesson 21.1, Lesson 24.2, Lesson 31.2

The meaning of the augment has been the subject of some debate in recent New Testament Greek grammatical studies. Traditionally, the augment has been associated with past tense, and that is how we have described it as well. This view has been challenged because there are some contexts where the Aorist does not seem to be referring to the past. Probably the most famous example is Mark 1:11:

• (242) σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα You are my beloved son, I approve of you

The Aorist εὐδόκησα is best translated into English with the simple present, and it has made some call into question the semantics of the augment as referring to the past. God approves of his son at the time of speaking, and he is not saying that he approved of him at some past time.

This use of the Aorist only occurs in certain syntactic environments – specifically, it is only found when the verb is in first person singular. This gives us a strong hint about what might be going on. There is a special use of some verbs called a performative that is only compatible with first person singular. A performative both expresses something and performs something at the same time. The well-known sentence I now pronounce you man and wife is the classic example where the pronouncement also performs some action in the world. The verb must be first person singular because it is the speaker that is both speaking and performing the action at the same time. This seems to be what is going on here. God is not only speaking, but he is declaring his approval of his son at the same moment. A fuller semantic explanation for why the Aorist is used (and why this is not necessarily an argument against it being a past tense) is given in Exegesis C, but we here note the simple observational fact that the Aorist can be used this way.