Biblical Greek - Lesson 21

Dr. Bill Mounce
Biblical Greek
NT201-21
Imperfect Indicative
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:01] Well, good morning. This morning, we're going to learn chapter 21, which is the chapter on what is called the Imperfect Indicative. The imperfect tense is the tense that is used to describe a continuous action. Normally in the past time, whereas in the present you can have it either be continuous or undefined. In the imperfect, it is always a continuous action that is being described. Greek has another past tense, used to describe undefined actions. So the imperfect is always continuous. Normally in the past time. The imperfect is formed from four basic parts. It starts with what is called an augment and then the present tense stem. Then a connecting vowel and then secondary personal endings. So there's two new things in there that you haven't seen before. The augment and the secondary personal endings. So, for example, let's take the present tense STEM, Lou. And the augment in this case is the epsilon. So you have Epsilon and then Lou, and then a connecting vowel and then a secondary personal ending. In this case, NU, and you get 11, which means I was losing or I was destroying. Now, if you want to make that middle passive, then you just use middle passive, secondary personal endings. And so, for example, you have L2 or main, just a different set of endings. Okay, Let me say something about what an argument is. An argument is basically a prefix that is stuck on to the beginning of the verb to indicate that it's a secondary tense, that it's in past time. In this case, there's a couple of different ways to form an argument if the present tense term begins with a consonant. Then the augment is an epsilon. So you have the present tense stem. Lou starts with a consonant, so you augment it with an epsilon and you get L1.

[00:02:15] However, if the present tense term begins with a vowel, the augment lengthens that initial vowel. So the present tense stem aga pop goes to a gap zone. See what happened there? The alpha lengthened to an ADA. Now I know you're used to Alphas lengthening to alphas, but when it comes to augments, alphas lengthen to eight, just like epsilon. So a gap porn is an imperfect. The ADA is the lengthened initial stem vowel. And that's what serves as an augment. What about the root, Ariel to the present tense term begins with a vowel. So the augment is lengthening. The vowel epsilon is lengthened to ADA and you get a real tone. Okay. What about a compound word? What about a word like cut to buy? No. If you realize that the argument is indicating past time, that is the secondary tense, then it wouldn't make any sense to augment the prepositional part of the compound verb wouldn't know. It only makes sense to augment the verbal part of a compound verb. So if you have a compound verb, it's not the preposition that gets augmented, but it's the second part that gets augmented. So cut by nil goes to cut by non. Now, there's a couple of things going on there. What usually happens is that the preposition that is used to form the compound verb ends in a vowel. Usually that vowel is dropped and you have a regular argument. In this case, the epsilon before the beta. Now, sometimes what happens if the final vowel of the preposition is in a Yoda, especially if it's Perry? Then the Yoda stays there and you still have a regular epsilon as an augment. But the important part to see is that it's the verbal part of the compound that's augmented is the preposition ends in a vowel.

[00:04:25] Normally that preposition drops its final vowel, and if it keeps its final vowel, that final vowel generally does not contract with the augment. And finally, one more situation You have the root Q risk. In the imperfect, it's hubris gone. In other words, it is very common for initial diff thongs to show no change when they're augmented now sometimes on Epsilon Epsilon. The epsilon may go to an ETA, but generally initial dip thongs stay the way they are. They don't show the augment. You remember in the master personal lending chart, there are four quadrants to this chart. We know the top left and the bottom left. Those are the primary active and the primary middle passive. In this chapter, we're going to learn the other two parts of the master personal lending chart. In the upper right, we find the endings that are secondary active. And so, for example, the paradigm oluwole is illusion. LAUSD elsewhere. Element alluded to illusion and the true endings are new sigma nothing men to new. Now you notice a couple of things about those endings. The first singular and the third plural are the same. Surprisingly, that doesn't get that confusing when you read it in context. Usually there'll be some kind of indication whether the subject is I or they. So generally isn't a problem. But notice also the similarities with the primary act of endings. Second, singular, it's got a sigma. First plural is the men. Second, plural is a tier. So there actually are some pretty good similarities there. But that's the secondary act of personal endings and the paradigm for the imperfect active of LOOL. And as I said, the imperfect indicates always continuous action. Normally in the past time. So I was losing. You were loosing he she it was loosing and so forth.

[00:06:34] In the lower right quadrant of the master personal lending chart are the secondary middle passive endings. And the endings are main saw to Mr.. The Hunter. Then you stick them on the augmented lool and you get alu I mean L2 allure to l2 on with a louis the alu on to again the second person singular has got that sigma the drops out and you have contractions and there are some similarities and yet some differences with the active as well. Well. So there you have it. The master personal lending chart is now complete. Every tenths that you're going to learn from here on out is either going to use these endings or some slight variation. So it's just critical you all that you commit this chart to perfect an absolute memory and the upper left hand corner is primary active. And those are the endings we used with the present, active in the future active. And then in the lower left hand corner, we have the primary middle passive endings, and those are the innings we used in the present middle, passive and the future middle in the upper right hand corner. We have the secondary active endings and we use those in the imperfect active. And then the lower right hand corner we have a secondary middle passive and that's used for the imperfect middle and passive. And finally, we have two more lines on the master verb chart now. Are you all keeping up with your master verb memorization? All right. Yes. Just one or two lines. A chapter. But if you procrastinate and put it off, all of a sudden there's going to be five or six. So make sure you keep up with your memory work. The Imperfect active is formed with an augment, the present tense stem with the connecting vowel and the secondary act of personal endings.

[00:08:26] And so, for example, we have illusion. And then in the imperfect middle, passive, and again, like the present, the middle and passive are identical in form. In the imperfect, we have an augment and a present tense stem connecting vowels, and then secondary middle passive endings. And so, for example, you have alarming. Okay, so that's the imperfect continuous action. Normally in the past time. Good job.