In 1 Peter 2:23, 2423Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:23‑24), ἀνένεγκεν is an aorist, the three preceding verbs imperfects, these referring to what Christ was during His life, that to what He did once for all on the cross.
But the imperfect is not simply a continuous doing. In English we have really more accuracy as to this than the Greek. “He read,” “did read,” “was reading,” are all different, yet all used for the imperfect; only “read” is also aorist, the historic fact, and really an aorist, though used for Greek imperfect when the fact or “what” is denoted without specific note of time. But it is so far imperfect as” ein abgeschlossenes,” doing, not done. “Was” is need while present continuous time is going on, that is, present doing of something else, then going on though now past; as What was John doing when I came in? He was writing. So even in Greek ἦν διδἀσκων, more positively continuous in Greek than in English, where it may be only that the act was doing. But, where the fact, rather than its continuity is to be noted, I say, “read,” not “was reading.” Then if I introduce time, I must have the time at which specified by another word to give it a time, as He read the scriptures to us of an evening. Aorist in Greek is only historic or moral (the latter in English with “has"), a single act. Angels came (προσῆλθον) and ministered (imperfect): this was not a single act, but what they did; in English not “were ministering” but “ministered,” because, “were ministering” being a continuous act in past time, the time when must be specified. It was present when the time alluded to in “were” was so. But in “ministered” there is the simple fact of what they were doing, the what. In Greek it is the imperfect. For this “was” or “were” does not suit in English, but the imperfect when only a fact characterizing what they did without specified time, is in English the same as the aorist, or is one; “was,” affirms present existence at a past time, but the time must be specified or understood. But in Greek it is not a simple act as aorist, but what characterized the action at a given time. This is in English the simple imperfect or aorist, not present participle and perfect auxiliary: that fixes the mind on time, so far as the tense goes; “did do” marks the thing to be over. “Came and ministered” —after coming they did that: continuance here is only from the sense of the word. I would say, Came in, and fell down dead: it is a true historic aorist. Imperfect is properly a present continuing fact in past time.
But the imperfect in Greek constantly is rightly represented in English, not by “was,” &c., but by what is an aorist, if you please to call it so: “taught in their cities,” “angels ministered to him,” when the act is meant, or what is in the mind, not the continuance of time, marked by another word involving “while.” It is only rightly used in English where time is not the special point, but what he did. “Was” is always at a specific time: “as I came in, he was,” &c. The Greek aorist is one specific point of past time: “he came;” the imperfect is what he was doing at a certain period. “Did” emphasizes; the act may, or may not, last. But “was,” &c., does not habitually represent the imperfect in Greek; it is never a past abgeschlossenes thing, but, I repeat, what the person did as ode looked at as present in a past time or continuous, so that it is really characteristic. “Angels ministered” may have been in one act; but it is looked as doing, not done; not abgeschlossenes when spoken of “came” is. “The virgins grew drowsy,” an abgeschlossenes thing, and “slept” their state, here continuous, but what state they were in; imperfect in Greek if continuous; and in English aorist, because it only states “what” with no specific note of when. What is imperfect in Greek, is in such case preterit or aorist in English, still imperfect as not a closed act. The ἐνύσταξ is evidently passed, nodding drowsy, for they then were actually asleep; they grew drowsy and slept. So 1 Cor. 3:66I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6): the acts of Paul and Apollos, aorist; God gave, imperfect, not “was giving” as a period of time; but characteristic. The increase was from God, not from Paul or Apollos. It was when or at least that occasion. Here therefore there may be a question in English, because the mind may rest on who gave it as a fact or on the occasion when. On the whole I prefer “gave,” though there is partially a when, because the fact who gave is the main point of the passage. If I say, “We read, while we worked,” it is a characteristic fact, what he did an aoristic imperfect, perhaps habitual. “He was reading while we were working” is a specified time as to which this is asserted. He was doing that at a given time. In result the simple or aoristic imperfect is characteristic, what was done; the compound imperfect, a fact at a given time. In 1 Peter 2:23, 2423Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:23‑24), imperfects are clearly characteristic (what He did), the aorist one actual finished fact. In English the present is an unabgeschlossenes aorist, the same as imperfect, only of course not past time: he eats, does eat, is eating. The difference is the same as in the imperfect. “Is eating” is specific as to time, and so on; “eats,” what he does; and “does eat” is emphatic.
Thus the aorist expresses an act, the imperfect characterizes it, and indeed so in English. What was he doing? Writing. “He wrote” is the fact. Hence it, the imperfect, may be continuous, because it is the character which abides while the act abides; but constantly it simply characterizes. Thus “angels came,” which is the simple fact, “and were ministering to him.” This characterizes what they did when they had come, and hence implies continuance as characterizing. Hence one may often use either: Matt. 19; 13 (aorist), His disciples rebuked them. This was the fact that happened, ἐπετίμησαν. In Mark 10:1313And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. (Mark 10:13) it is ἐπετίμων. This is the character of what they did. In fact the duration is just the same, the conception of the writer is different. But when we reflect on it, character supposes something abiding. Again, Heb. 11:1717By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, (Hebrews 11:17), in the same verse Abraham offered, it is the fact, and what is peculiar, the perfect; then προσέθερεν, here not the fact but the character of it. He who had the promise and this only-begotten Son in whom they were, did that. I suspect that προσθέρω is used because he was not in fact sacrificed (ἀναθέρω); but in Abraham's mind by faith he had wholly offered and given him up to God (προσενήνοχεν), and in this case never withdrawn. It was a complete surrender.
But I think the aorist has also this characterizing sense, of course the fact being stated. “He has written the letter,” gives a more moral effect than, “He wrote the letter.” “He brought Greeks into the temple” is not as just as “he hath brought Greeks into the temple.” The last implies more moral character in the act. The fact was suggested in the participle (διδάσκων) as a questionable fact, and then he was affirmed to be guilty of it, or to have done what was wicked. “1-19 brought” is merely the fact.
So, in Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23), the historical tense (or preterit) in English would not do at all, that is, all sinned. “All have sinned” gives the fact with its moral character; it is what all have done. The affirmation is in “have,” the fact. Then I say, “have” what? Sinned, if I say, “all sinned,” I am relating a history. So 1 Cor. 7:2828But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. (1 Corinthians 7:28).
On the whole I am fully convinced that the English tenses do not correspond. The aorist is peculiar; it states the fact to have occurred; the various uses of it are because no one tense answers to it. It is perfect, or historical tense, or pluperfect; but all this is only because other elements in the sentence give it this force, to which in another language the time of the verb must be adapted. Thus, “when they had accomplished all things [aorist], they returned” [also aorist]; but in English I must say “had,” because the relative time of “returned” requires it. In Greek both are mere facts; in English I must have historical order to make sense. In Matt. 14:3, 4, 53For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. 4For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. 5And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. (Matthew 14:3‑5), the preterit would be just as good as the pluperfect, as historically relating the fact. So John 6:22; 11:3022The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone; (John 6:22)
30Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. (John 11:30): either “met him,” quite as good, the aoristic fact, not the relative time. Chapter 18:4 is history only; ἐξελθὼν, supposes the act done, which we may express by the present aorist, “going forth spake,” for that expresses the past as regards εἶπεν. Unless emphasis is to be laid on it, the present aorist is never in English, because it has no time, but a fact on which the verb is dependent, hence morally antecedent. I have shown elsewhere there are no proper tenses in English: only an abgeschlossenes and an unabgesehlossenes aorist. ηύδόκησα is the fact of having found His good pleasure in the object spoken of with τινι, ἐν, είς. All the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him. (Compare Col. 2:99For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9).) It may be delight or sovereign good pleasure, or even human satisfaction, as 2 Cor. 5:66Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (2 Corinthians 5:6). But as to the tense it is the simple fact affirmed that He has found His good pleasure. See Matt. 3:17; 12:1817And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)
18Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. (Matthew 12:18) Peter 1:17; Heb. 10:66In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (Hebrews 10:6); Luke 12:3232Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32); 1 Corinthians 1:2121For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21).
I doubt the reference of 2 Peter 1:1414Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. (2 Peter 1:14), to John 21:18, 1018Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. (John 21:18)
10Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. (John 21:10), though often thought of on account of ταχινή, and then “has showed me” is the right English, not the historic preterit. The imperfect is anything doing at a given point of time, but here, save in rare cases, we have not the accuracy of the English. “Was doing” is it present, act going on, doing, at a past time, “was,” which the rest of the sentence states. “Was” is an historical preterit. He was, but he is not. He wrote a letter—a past historical fact. “Was writing,” is the historical preterit, with a present act in activity. But in English we often have to use the preterit which gives the fact, its time appearing from the sentence. “John forbade Him.” “John was forbidding Him” would in English put the forbidding before Christ's coming to the baptism: that gives the point of time when John was already forbidding Him: be forbidding was going on when Jesus came up. Here in Greek the imperfect is the moral attitude of John when Christ came to be baptized. Rom. 8:3030Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) puts itself at the close of God's ways and dealings to give the whole and security of them, and then gives all as fact and history, His plan laid out as facts, sure in every case, and so viewed as accomplished.
John 13:3131Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (John 13:31) is the single fact of the cross looked at as accomplished, as just exactly from the beginning of the chapter, the Lord does. He had been Son of God, Son of David, to take the place of Son of Man. He must die. (John 11; 12) In this the hour was come that He should depart out of the world to the Father who had now put all things into His hand. Then, when Judas went out, it all was settled: he was to do it quickly; and now the Son of man's true glory began in the cross. God was glorified in Him, and all Christ's glory as man came about by the cross where He glorified God, and which was the Son of man's glory, as indeed it was. Comparing in English “he wrote,” “he has written,” in themselves, the first is history of a past fact, and, as it is a past fact, may be set aside, but says nothing about it. “Has taken” is a past fact “taken,” a present one in “has;” that is, it affirms at the present time the past fact. But in English it is often necessary to employ it for the aorist, because the aorist does not say, that the thing is past and gone, only affirms the fact; whereas English, having so accurate an expression as the auxiliary verb gives the preterit, being historical in English contrasted with this, implies in general, though it does not say, that it does not still continue, at least it often does. I admit that this is not always and necessarily the case, but often it would mislead.
Still in English we have a positively accurate way of putting a by gone past act or thing, that is, the past participle and auxiliary. “He was pleased.” Here I state it only of the past fact formally. I avoid the present time, and fix the statement on the past. Only occasionally the past participle implies an abiding state. Thus if I say, “This is my beloved Son in abiding I found my pleasure,” it is a by-gone thing, a historical preterit. “I have found my pleasure” is the fact simply. “He has found His pleasure in Him.” “This is my beloved Son,” makes me know that it is a constant and subsisting thing, but “found” would make it a bygone thing. “Have found” is of no time: only it was already true.
In Mark 3:2626And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. (Mark 3:26), “Rose up,” will not do therefore; it is a past by-gone thing, too much of an historical past. It takes the fact as an aorist does regularly as a happened fact, not as a past history, which tends to put it out of present time. The preterit is essentially an historical tense in English of a by-gone fact, and very commonly implies that the thing is not true now. “He wrote the history.” It results in this that the English preterit is more preterit past (abgeschlossene Sache) than the aorist, which is past, present, and, in spite of Winer, future in sense as governed in sense by the phrase. The pretense of translating the aorist uniformly by an English tense which answers to it is absurd. There are cases where the verb substantive and past participle best express it, or the auxiliary “have” with it. “If Satan rose up..."(Mark 3:2626And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. (Mark 3:26)) is pretty nearly nonsense. He is mixing up historical fact and moral bearing, “has risen,” or “be risen,” for the Lord is occupied with a present fact, whose moral bearing He is discussing. So in passive: “if once (Luke 13:2525When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: (Luke 13:25)) the master of the house be risen, (have risen up) and have shut to the door, and ye begin ἐστάναι (perfect present)... ἄνοιξον, “have it open.” So often, where the aorist and present imperative go together, and the first must be done for the other to take place. The very name, “aorist” shows the time is not determined, the fact is affirmed, the context if needed, shows the time and whether supposed still to exist. “Many took in hand,” Luke 1:1111And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. (Luke 1:11), would be absurd. “It hath seemed good:” he had not changed his mind, but that was not the question. The treatise was then the proof he had had that mind and involves the present effect, But “it seemed good” would be just as good sense and grammar; one is historic “seemed;” “has” brings it down to present thought about it. And that is the real difference. Preterit states the fact historically, the auxiliary and participle give the speaker's present estimate of or acquaintance with it. “He wrote a letter” is historical fact; “he has written a letter” is my present acquaintance with, and recognition of, the fact; for “has” is present, my present affirmative. In 2, “have seated 'themselves' is alone right.
It seems to me that the different moods and tenses with μή, ἵνα, &c. are, by reason of the transient shade of thought, in the writer's mind; or the character of the thing spoken of is in question, not the purpose it should be. Thus πότε with future makes it a present when the time of πότε is arrived; with the present, the thing spoken of being there, it is character, not purpose of or the contrary. Luke 11:3535Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. (Luke 11:35): take heed that the light that is in thee be not of that character; and Gal. 4:1111I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. (Galatians 4:11), lest as a present fact the labor should be in vain. There is no future purpose. He fears as to the character of labor already bestowed.
The perfect is the present of past labor. The subj. by itself is always, I think, the idea of how, if a question as usually (perhaps always), thus represented by “should” (so there). Quere as to its force with οὐ μή, where it takes clearly a future force? If we examine the use of the subj. aorist with οὐ μή, we shall find I think, (though “will in no wise, never,” is practically the sense in English because we speak from the present time), yet its real force is “will have,” “never have,” “shall not, have;” and it is constantly a long period looked at. “I shall not have drunk at an of it, till.” So with εἰς τὸν αἰᾶνα often. “There shall not have been left one stone upon another which shall not have been cast down.” It is a future perfect or past in thought. With the future indicative it is not so, it is intention as to anything at the time of speaking. The aorist always supposes a past period to which the negated word refers, and denies the subject of the verb during that period: οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθης ἕως ἄν till. Thou wilt have stood in all that time. οὐ μὴ πίω ἕως ὅταν. Future indicative: ἱλεώς σοι, κύριε οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο. There is no period. It is simply a thing that, as Peter trusted, would never happen.
Such a passage as ἐν αὑτῶ ἐκτίσθη brings the operative power into the person himself, that which created was in Christ, so He casteth out devils, ἐν τῶ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίων. The power that operated was inherent in Beelzebub. It is more intimate and immediate, as πειρασμῶν ἐν ταῖς ἐπρβούλαις. Were it διὰ τῶν, the πειρασμός might be some things else than the lying in wait, whereas the temptation and trial was in the lying in wait itself. It is not the means by which, but that in which, the power of the thing resides. διά is the means or instrument, and εἰς the intention. Thus God created διὰ αὐτοῶ by Him as an instrument, and εἰς as an end. (John 1:3, 103All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)
10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. (John 1:10); Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3); 1 Cor. 8:66But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. (1 Corinthians 8:6))
Note here, by the bye, πρός with acc., supposes the thing to be “arrived at,” (but the accusative supposes direction towards). εἰς is only the objective direction it may reach, of course. πρός is not going towards the thing spoken of, but is at that which is governed by it. The Word was πρὸς τὸν θεόν, He did not go towards. εἰς would not do, being in the mind of the agent as an object; πρός, with or at, but distinct from the object it governs. (See Mark 11:11And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, (Mark 11:1).) Hence the gifts were πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμόν, they operated to that. While they were working, this effect was being produced—was there. But they were given with a view to (είς) the work of the ministry, and to the edifying of the body of Christ.
As to ἐν, further, ἤγετο ἐν τῶ πνεύματι, ἦλθεν ἐν τῶ πνεύματι, it was the working in which He went, not an instrument which led Him, as a means distinct from Himself. ἡγίασται ὀ ἀνὴρ ἐν τῆ γυναικί, διά would be actual sanctification, an effect produced. Here, as we have seen, it characterizes things in the nature and spirit of them, ἐν πνεύματι, ἐν ἀληθεία, ἐν δόλψ, &c. It is never the means, but the power and state of the agent, or what characterizes the subject.
This is fully confirmed in πρός (with acc.), the action of that which is πρός, always reaches to that which πρός governs. You speak πρός, this is the object of what is πρός. It is not motion to, but something which reaches to, and an often is” with” or “by.” In cases of time, πρὸς ἐσπέραν, the force, to my mind, is the time they were in reached to the evening; so James 4:1414Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14), our life, is πρὸς ὀλιγόν, reaches only to the end of a very short period. In other cases it is simpler, prayer πρὸς τὸν θεόν, sickness πρὸς θάνατον. Various derivative meanings are found, but all having this as the literal and material. So πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον, στόμα πρὸς οτόμα, λαλεῖν πρὸς τὸ οὗς. The action is at, or reaches to the word governed. It is used for the ground thing or cause, but, still having the same etymological force—πρὸς τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὐμῶν. It was addressed to that; that hardness being there, such permission was given, “in the case of;” so πρὸς τοὺς ἀγγέλους, in the case of the angels. The word addressed itself to the case they were in; it was adapted to, reached, their state and circumstances, as we say, touching them, or such or such a thing. In Luke 18:11And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (Luke 18:1). His parable reached to, or touched, this point. It was its object, and applied to it as the result, short of which it did not stop.
So we have seen Eph. 4:1212For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:12). It was for that, and dealt with it. The secret of εἰς and πρός, I suspect to be: εἰς has the mind and intention of the moving person in view; πρός the goal or object which anything is to (πρός). εἰς is the object or aim of what moves; πρός carries the mind with what is to or πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμόν, the present proper effect, but with a view to the two other things: only εἰς is not the object of καταρτισμόν, but of the gifts. So Luke 14, in the matter or case of these things He spoke of, so as to meet them. This is common, as Rom. 8:3131What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31), so as be really up to them; the answer reached to, comprehends, touches this matter. So πρός, according to; that was what one reached to, it was its measure. (Cf. Gal. 2:1919For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:19).) So the sufferings do not reach to the coming glory. This explains James 4:55Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? (James 4:5): ἐπιποθεῖ πρός, reaches to this. This, however, suffices to show its force. With a dative it does not reach to, but is actually at, πρὸς τῶ ὄρει. εἰς does suppose motion towards, while it consequently, if not hindered, gets there, or if it be that which has capacity, into. We say in English, What are you at, or about? This is πρός. We have πρὸς and εἰς in Rom. 14:22For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. (Romans 14:2), είς τὸ ἀγαθόν πρὸς οἰκοδομήν, the present effect reached, the characteristic effect of the seeking to please him. It was not to please him, to get his good-will, but for his edification, the effect being that which was good.