Developments in both New Testament Greek studies and the broader field of linguistics have necessitated a reassessment of the traditional tense-prominent model for Greek verbs in light of the grammatical concept of verbal aspect. Rather than a tense-prominent model, this thesis looks to present and defend an aspect-prominent model for the Greek verb that is fundamentally grounded in morphology, cognizant of the impact of contextual factors, and useful for exegesis. I will give an overview of the history of verbal aspect studies, explain the theory behind the aspect-prominent model, develop my own categories for verbal syntax based on an understanding of aspect, and apply the aspect-prominent model to the Greek text of Galatians, testing it for its explanatory power and exegetical value.
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Verbal systems can give prominence to tense, aspect, or mood. The morphology of the verbal system within biblical Greek provides important evidence to suggest that Greek is an aspect-prominent language, though one that also incorporates tense within the indicative mood. Certain traditional grammatical labels inappropriately treat Greek as though it were instead a tense-prominent language like English (e.g. the use of " present " or " tense formative " outside of the indicative mood). We need to reform our descriptive labels and general conception of Greek accordingly. In doing so, the simplicity and beauty of the Greek verbal system emerges, offering pedagogical advantages for teachers of Greek and challenging exegetes to properly account for Greek's particular configuration of tense, aspect, and mood.
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Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly
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This essay introduces readers to the discussion within biblical studies regarding Aktionsart and verbal aspect theories. Specifically, this essay seeks to analyze the influential verbal aspect approaches of C. R. Campbell and S. E. Porter in studying the Greek NT. Despite the recent controversies, discussions surrounding verbal aspect have done much to bring Greek studies back to the fore in NT scholarship. While there may be no unified agreement in approaches to verbal aspect studies, as evinced in the admixture of approaches over the past three decades, NT studies have benefited in at least three ways from contemporary investigations in linguistics and verbal aspect: (1) renewed research interest in Koine Greek as a result of Porter’s controversy; (2) generated interest in theories of “markedness” in terms of the paradigmatic choices (and omissions) that the biblical writers made in the NT Greek; and (3) continued interest in paving the way forward into new areas of discussion within NT studies. Nevertheless, despite the benefits of verbal aspect studies, and the contributions by Porter et al, the matter of the Greek verb has not been settled. To accept the aspect-only theory, without having first answered the words of second-century BCE grammarian Dionysius Thrax, is to run the risk of stagnation and crystallization in the study of the Greek NT that Lars Rydbeck lamented in the mid-1970s when he wrote, "There is a prevalent but false assumption that everything in NT Greek scholarship has been done already."
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Recent works on verbal aspect in New Testament Greek have departed from the consensus in general linguistics that aspect is a temporal concept. A possible reason for this departure is that linguists have often defined aspect using spatial and visual metaphors which are susceptible to misunderstanding. It is argued that a time-relational definition is to be preferred, and that such a definition sheds light on aspectual usage in the Greek New Testament, and on the interaction of verbal aspect and lexical semantics in particular.
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Verbal aspect, or simply aspect, has been an intrinsic feature of the Hellenic language from primordial times to the present. Modern conceptions of aspect are in fact trace-able to works of Aristotle. Today, as in centuries past, speakers of Greek still learn aspect naturally from birth and apply it in their daily speech intuitively and without being partic¬ularly conscious of it. Aspect is thus as much a linguistic property of Neohellenic (Modern Greek) as of Κοινή “Koine” and Classical Greek. This study purports to show that aspectual insights gained through Neohellenic can shed light on issues related to New Testament exegesis. To that end, it comes in two parts. Part One explains how Neohellenic is related to Koine and points out aspect and tense features the Koine and Neohellenic verb systems share. Part Two critiques verbal aspect views by various scholars and offers insights through Neohellenic. My intention is to render a concise description of the grammatical relationship between Neohellenic and Koine, and on that basis elucidate aspectual issues.
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