New Testament / Koine Greek 28: Basics of Biblical Greek Ch 22 Bill Mounce: 2nd Aorist Indicative

Lecture 28 in New Testament or Koine Greek covers chapter 22 of William (Bill) Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek textbook, the second aorist indicative verb. The lecturer is independent Baptist professor Thomas Ross.

In chapter 22 of Basics of Biblical Greek (either the 3rd or the 4th edition) students learn the 2nd aorist indicative. The aorist indicates an undefined, snapshot, or summary action usually occurring in the past. Beginning students should translate the aorist with the simple past tense in English, that is, as “I ate,” not “I was eating.” Greek forms the aorist in two different ways. The second aorist, the topic of chapter 22, uses the unmodified verbal root for its aorist tense stem, which will always be different from the present tense stem. The second aorist, then, is formed by using an augment, second aorist active tense stem, connecting vowel, and secondary endings.

The difference between the imperfect and aorist is one of aspect—snapshot action versus continuous action—not of time, for both the aorist and the imperfect describe past time. Second aorists (this chapter) and first aorists (the next chapter, Basics of Biblical Greek chapter 23) are different in form but identical in meaning.

The word “aorist” comes from ἀόριστος, which means “unmarked.” This is the essence of its significance. Basics of Biblical Greek defines the aorist as follows: “The aorist tense describes an undefined action that normally occurs in the past.” That is a definition that is worth memorizing, although students can also substitute “snapshot” for “undefined.”

The 2nd aorist has the same set of connecting vowels and personal endings as the imperfect, so there are no new endings to learn; the same secondary personal endings used for the imperfect in chapter 21 apply to the 2nd aorist in chapter 22. The 2nd aorist looks very irregular if students do not recognize the difference between the root and the present tense stem, but if they do know the difference, they will see that the 2nd aorist is actually the most regularly formed of all the stems! In the 2nd aorist the root almost always comes into the 2nd aorist tense stem without modification. Thus, the 2nd aorist is actually extremely regular, as long as one knows that the 2nd aorist comes from the root, not from the present tense stem. There is no difference in meaning between the 1st and 2nd aorist; the difference is only in the form. The overwhelming majority of verbs found in the New Testament employ either a 1st or a 2nd aorist, but not both.

Since λύω has a 1st aorist, not a 2nd aorist, the 2nd aorist paradigm will employ λαμβάνω, “I take,” which is derived from the root *λαβ. This root *λαβ comes directly into the 2nd aorist unmodified. The Master Verb Chart specifies that the 2nd aorist active indicative is formed from with an augment, the 2nd aorist active tense stem (which is usually the same as the root), a connecting vowel, and secondary active personal endings. The result is forms like ἐλάβομεν, formed from the augment ε, the tense stem *λάβ, the connecting vowel ο, and the secondary active ending (here for the 1st person plural) μεν. The complete paradigm of the second aorist active indicative verb is:

ἔλαβον
ἔλαβες
ἔλαβε(ν)
ἐλάβομεν
ἐλάβετε
ἔλαβον

The forms mean “I took,” “you (singular) took,” “he/she/it took,” “we took,” “you (plural) took,” and “they took.” The connecting vowels and the secondary active personal endings are those already learned with the imperfect, namely, ν, ς, --, μεν, τε, ν.

What about the second aorist middle indicative? The 2nd aorist middle indicative paradigm will not use λαμβάνω, since it does not have a 2nd aorist middle deponent stem. Instead, the 2nd aorist tense stem of γίνομαι will be employed for the 2nd aorist middle deponent paradigm. γίνομαι means “I become, am, exist, happen, take place, am born, am created” (BBG vocabulary). The 2nd aorist ἐγενόμην is derived from the verbal root *γεν, resulting in forms such as the 1st person singular aorist middle indicative ἐγενόμην. (Note that the aorist passive comes from an entire different tense form which is learned in chapter 24 of Basics of Biblical Greek.)

In order to form the 2nd aorist middle indicative, one takes an augment (ε), add the aorist active/middle tense stem, a connecting vowel, and secondary middle/passive personal endings. The complete aorist middle paradigm is:

ἐγενόμην
ἐγένου
ἐγένετο
ἐγενόμεθα
ἐγένεσθε
ἐγένοντο

The familiar connecting vowels are employed, and the same secondary middle/passive personal endings μην, σο, το, μεθα, σθε, ντο.

The second aorist looks just like the imperfect except for the stem. If a verb has a 2nd aorist form, the 2nd aorist tense stem is always going to be different from the present tense stem. For proper verb identification, memorize the root and the present tense stem exactly, and consider if an inflected form has the same tense stem the same as the present tense stem / lexical form.