Re: Perfect and Subjunctive/Future

Carlton L. Winbery (
Mon, 9 Sep 1996 19:39:28 +0400

akio itou wrote;

>>*elhluquian* is the perfect active participle modifying BASILEIAN. It
>>asserts that "they will see the Kingdom having come (present) in power."
>>The participle like and verbal adjective describes the Kingdom which they
>>see as present.
>That solves the question about the perfect tense, but how is it related to
>*hEWS AN IDWSIN*, which seems to imply the future time for the coming of
>the Kingdom.
"Until they see the Kingdom of God having come with power." At the time of
the seeing the coming is an accomplished fact, a reality.
The whole thing is in the future because of hEWS AN, "Until".

>>>The other is *apolesei* in Mk 8:35. Am I supposed to take this a variant
>>>form of subjunctive, or a case of the indicative future fomr used for a
>>>subjuctive? What are opinions of those eminent Greek scholars?
>>*apolesei* appears to me as a prediction, "he will destroy it (his life).
>>The subjunctive is QELHi used with the particle EAN. This construction is
>>part of an indefinite relative clause, "Whoever wishes to save his live".
>>This relative clause serves as the subject of the future verb APOLESEI.
>Sorry, I did'nt quote the sentence. The *apolesei* I am talking about is
>the other one in the same verse: *hOS D'AN APOLESEI THN YUCHN AUTOU ...*

There is a textual variation associated with this APOLESEI. In the N-A27
the variant is given as APOLESH supported mostly by Byzantine witnesses but
also by f13, 28, and theta. The future tense is supported by mostly
Alexandrian including apparently P45, and also f1 and some minuscules with
non-byz. tendencies.

The primary reason to go with the reason in the text is that it is the more
difficult reading though the use of the future in a place where the aorist
subj. is expected happens in the NT and some other Hellenistic Greek.
Hence I would agree that this the the future used with the AN which usually
takes a verb in the subjunctive. This is not strange since all
subjunctives are in some way future.

Carlton L. Winbery
Prof. NT & Greek La College