Dennis, > Just recently I went through this passage. I work part-time for the > Lockman Foundation, and we are currently revising > the Amplified Bible. I hadn't heard about the Amplified Bible being revised. Very interesting. Is this a very extensive revision? Sounds like a lot of fun.... > So, recognizing this, the action of the imperfect HUCOMHN was no > longer valid when Paul was writing. When it was valid > is uncertain, but it seems to me it was during the time Paul was a > Christian and was afraid the majority of Jews who > had rejected Christ as their saviour would be permanently lost. It sounds as Greek grammar alone is not sufficient to decide the issue....in this case. Theological considerations (as always I guess) must inform us..... [Co-Chair's note: while it may well be true that theological considerations inform how one considers the legitimate alternatives for understanding the Greek text, we do not discuss theology on B-Greek. cwc] > But this > new revelation made that sacrifice unnecessary, and that is why Paul > used the imperfect tense here ("I was wishing"). That is a very intriguing thought.... > The Aorist is not always past, so it would have been ambiguous if > Paul had used it to mean "I wished" or "I wish". But > the imperfect tense is not ambiguous--the time it was valid was > expressed as being in the past. I hope this answers > your question. This seems to be a very good point. Paul selected a "tense" that did have some time value rather than the possibly ambiguous aorist. Thanks, Mike Wine mikewine@juno.com --- B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu