From: Wayne Leman (wleman@mcn.net)
Date: Wed Apr 12 2000 - 23:30:47 EDT
<x-charset iso-8859-1>>Friends discussing Ephesians have a question concerning the tense of the
>verb "angry" in this passage. Some references seem to indicate the text is
>a continual command, i.e., "continually be angry."
Louise the aspect (tense is a misnomer which has been used for many years)
of this imperative verb is imperfective, meaning that there is not a
definitive point in time (signaled by the other aspect, aorist) at which the
action is to take place. The action can, indeed, take place over a period of
time, which is characteristic of the imperfective aspect of Greek. I,
personally, do not think there is enough evidence, though, simply from the
grammatical aspect of the verb to extrapolate to saying that the verb is a
command calling for continuous action. That's reading too much into just one
aspect (so to speak!) of the grammar of this verb.
Roberts Word Pictures
>states that be angry is "permissive imperative" and specifically NOT a
>command to be angry, but rather a way to indicate the sinful danger
>inherent in being angy.
Roberts can be interesting but he is not considered one of the best scholars
of Greek. Instead, I have found his writings to be more homiletical,
spiritually well intentioned, but not always based on the best language
evidence.
IMO, the safest translation of ORGIZESQE KAI MA AMARTANETE in Eph 4.26 is
simply:
"Be angry but do not sin"
Wayne
--- Wayne Leman Bible translation site: http://bibletranslation.lookscool.com/--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
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