Pluperfect in John 7:30

From: Larsendon@aol.com
Date: Sat Feb 06 1999 - 11:38:21 EST


Dear b-greekers,
I wonder if I am making too much of the pluperfect verb, ELHLUQEI, in John
7:30, which reads: EZHTOUN OUN AUTON PIASAI KAI OUDEIS EPEBALEN EP' AUTON THN
CEIRA, hOTI OUPW ELHLUQEI hH hWPA AUTOU. The very same hOTI clause appears in
Jn 8:20. Mounce says that "the pluperfect is used to describe an action that
was completed and whose effects are felt at a time after the completion but
before the time of the speaker." When some hELLHNES arrive on the scene in Jn
12 with their desire to see Jesus, Jesus says that his hour is come - using
the perfect of ERCOMAI in Jn 12:23. The import of the pluperfect, then, in
7:30 seems to be that Jesus' hour has a specific duration which is no longer
felt at the time of the narrator. Jesus' hour arrives in Jn 12, that hour
ticks away and concludes with Jesus' announcement in 19:30, TETELESTAI - a
perfect passive. So Jesus' hour, the hour during which he is glorified,
encompasses everything between 12:20 and 19:30. That's how I read the import
of the pluperfect in 7:30. Too much?
Thanks,
Don Larsen
Hartford, CT

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