Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- 2. Writing Greek Letters, Accents, Diacritical Marks, and Punctuation
- 3. Present and Future Active Indicative, Present Active Indicative of the Verb “to be,” and Particles
- 4. Contract Verbs, Present and Future Active Indicative, and Future Indicative of Liquid Verbs
- 5. Second Declension, the Definite Article, and Prepositions
- 6. First Declension and the Definite Article
- 7. Adjectives, Demonstrative Pronouns, and Comparison
- 8. Personal Pronouns, Relative Pronouns, and Reflexive Pronouns
- 9. First Aorist Active Indicative
- 10. Verbal Roots, Principal Parts, and Second Aorist Active Indicative
- 11. Present Middle and Passive Indicative, Future Middle Indicative, and Future Indicative of the Verb “to be”
- 12. Imperfect Active Indicative and Imperfect of the Verb “to be”
- 13. Imperfect Middle and Passive Indicative and First and Second Aorist Middle Indicative
- 14. Third Declension Nouns and Adjectives: Part 1
- 15. Third Declension Nouns and Adjectives: Part 2
- 16. Perfect and Pluperfect Active, Middle, and Passive Indicative
- 17. Aorist Passive and Future Passive Indicative
- 18. Present and Aorist Participles
- 19. Aorist Passive Participle, Perfect Participle, Adverbial Participles, Genitive Absolute, and Periphrastic Constructions
- 20. The Athematic Conjugation (-μι verbs): Part 1 – The Indicative Mood
- 21. The Athematic Conjugation (-μι verbs): Part 2 – δείκνυμι, ϕημί, and Participles
- 22. Subjunctive Mood and Conditional Sentences
- 23. The Infinitive
- 24. Imperative Mood
- Appendix 1. Principal Parts of the Greek Verb
- Appendix 2. Summary of Paradigms
- Summary of Vocabulary to Be Memorized
- Subject Index
- Index of Greek Words Discussed
- Lexicon of Greek Words in Texts for Translation
9. - First Aorist Active Indicative
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- 2. Writing Greek Letters, Accents, Diacritical Marks, and Punctuation
- 3. Present and Future Active Indicative, Present Active Indicative of the Verb “to be,” and Particles
- 4. Contract Verbs, Present and Future Active Indicative, and Future Indicative of Liquid Verbs
- 5. Second Declension, the Definite Article, and Prepositions
- 6. First Declension and the Definite Article
- 7. Adjectives, Demonstrative Pronouns, and Comparison
- 8. Personal Pronouns, Relative Pronouns, and Reflexive Pronouns
- 9. First Aorist Active Indicative
- 10. Verbal Roots, Principal Parts, and Second Aorist Active Indicative
- 11. Present Middle and Passive Indicative, Future Middle Indicative, and Future Indicative of the Verb “to be”
- 12. Imperfect Active Indicative and Imperfect of the Verb “to be”
- 13. Imperfect Middle and Passive Indicative and First and Second Aorist Middle Indicative
- 14. Third Declension Nouns and Adjectives: Part 1
- 15. Third Declension Nouns and Adjectives: Part 2
- 16. Perfect and Pluperfect Active, Middle, and Passive Indicative
- 17. Aorist Passive and Future Passive Indicative
- 18. Present and Aorist Participles
- 19. Aorist Passive Participle, Perfect Participle, Adverbial Participles, Genitive Absolute, and Periphrastic Constructions
- 20. The Athematic Conjugation (-μι verbs): Part 1 – The Indicative Mood
- 21. The Athematic Conjugation (-μι verbs): Part 2 – δείκνυμι, ϕημί, and Participles
- 22. Subjunctive Mood and Conditional Sentences
- 23. The Infinitive
- 24. Imperative Mood
- Appendix 1. Principal Parts of the Greek Verb
- Appendix 2. Summary of Paradigms
- Summary of Vocabulary to Be Memorized
- Subject Index
- Index of Greek Words Discussed
- Lexicon of Greek Words in Texts for Translation
Summary
The simple past tense in Greek is termed the aorist tense. The term “aorist” is derived from the Greek adjective ἀόριστος, meaning “without boundaries” or “unbounded.” In other words, the aorist tense describes a past action, without further definition or qualification.
The aorist tense is formed in two different ways. These two ways are called, respectively, the first aorist and the second aorist. These two aorist forms are translated the same way. They are simply two different ways of forming a past tense, namely a regular way and an irregular way. As an analogy, compare the formation of past tenses in English. The regular way of forming a past tense is to add the suffix “–ed” to the verb stem:
watch → watched
walk → walked
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- New Testament GreekAn Introduction, pp. 83 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011