Re: Tense in non-indicative moods

From: Kenneth Litwak (kenneth@sybase.com)
Date: Fri Dec 01 1995 - 01:29:08 EST


    Yes, Carl, Porter would argue otherwise. He argues that the aorist
imperative commonly has durative significance, or that it refers to
something that is already happening and is used to urge readers to
continue it. As an example, he quotes Paul "greet one another with a
holy kiss", which has an aorist imperative, but urges, according to
Porter, that this has been going on in the church already, so the
aorist imperative cannot be understood as a command to do something
right now in one moment of time. He has other examples where it
appears, he argues, to have a more continuous force (I don't think
he argued that this particular verse used the aor. imper. is a continuous
sense -- unless of course it is a very long kiss).

Ken Litwak
GTU
Bezerkley, CA



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