Basics of Biblical Greek, Bill Mounce, ch 24: Aorist & Future Passive Indicative Verbs: NT Greek 35

Class 35 in New Testament or Koine Greek lectures through chapter 24 of the textbook Basics of Biblical Greek, William (Bill) Mounce. The aorist passive indicative verb and the future passive indicative verb are covered. The lecturer is independent Baptist professor Thomas Ross. Both the 3rd and the 4th edition of William Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek (BBG), are acceptable textbooks.

Chapter 24 discusses the aorist and future tenses, specifically the aorist and future passive forms of the verb.

BBG notes that in this chapter students learn that:

• the aorist and future passives are formed from the same tense stem. It is listed sixth and last in the lexical entry;
• the aorist passive is formed with an augment, aorist passive tense stem, tense formative (θη or η), and secondary active endings.
• the future passive is formed with the unaugmented aorist passive tense stem, tense formative (θησ or ησ), connecting vowel, and primary passive endings.

In the aorist, the middle and the passive have different, distinct forms. Furthermore, the future passive is formed from the aorist passive tense form. In the aorist passive, the stem will be augmented, while in the future it will be unaugmented, and there will be a few other changes. However, it remains the fundamental fact that the future passive is formed from the aorist passive stem, which explains why the chapter covers the two together.

In a lexicon the sixth and final tense form is the aorist passive. However, in Basics of Biblical Greek if a word never occurs in an aorist passive, but it does occur in the future passive, the last tense form in the BBG vocabulary will be the future passive; in all other cases the aorist passive form will be listed. If there is neither an aorist nor a future passive form in the NT then there will just be “—,” an empty line.

To form the first aorist passive indicative, start with an augment (ἐ), add the aorist passive tense stem, add the tense formative (θη), and then finally add secondary active personal endings. The θη tense formative is easy to notice in verbs you will run across in the NT, so first aorist passives are usually very easy to identify. Note that the aorist passive employs secondary active personal endings, not secondary passive personal endings. So, after combining the augment + aorist passive tense stem + tense formative (θη) + secondary active personal endings, one ends up with forms such as ἐλύθην from the ἐ + λυ + θη + ν.

The 1st aorist passive paradigm is:

ἐλύθην, I was loosed
ἐλύθης, Thou was
ἐλύθη He/she/it was loosed
ἐλύθημεν, We were loosed
ἐλύθητε, Ye were loosed
ἐλύθησαν, They were loosed

The only major difference between the first and the second aorist passive is that in the 2nd aorist a different tense formative is employed, namely, η instead of the 1st aorist θη. The 2nd aorist passive is formed with the augment ε, the aorist passive tense stem, the tense formative η, and secondary active personal endings (note again we have secondary active endings on the aorist passive, just like we have secondary active, not secondary passive, endings on the 1st aorist) resulting in forms such as, for the model verb γράφω for the 2nd aorist passive, ἐ + γραφ + η + μεν → ἐγράφημεν. Note that γράφω is the model verb because it has a 2nd aorist passive, although it has a 1st aorist active, not a 2nd aorist active. However, since the aorist active and the aorist passive are different tense forms, they can vary.

The 2nd aorist passive paradigm is:

ἐγράφην, I was written
ἐγράφης, Thou wast written
ἐγράφη, He/she/it was written
ἐγράφημεν, We were written
ἐγράφητε, Ye were written
ἐγράφησαν, They were written

Only a few basic changes differentiate the aorist passive and the future passive indicative. The same aorist passive tense stem, the 6th tense form, is used. The future passive is unaugmented. The tense formative is slightly different: for the 1st future passive it is θησ, not θη as with the 1st aorist passive or just η as with the 2nd aorist passive. Finally, primary middle/passive personal endings are employed for the future passive, not the secondary active endings employed for the aorist passive; primary tenses are unaugmented, while secondary tenses employ an augment.

Thus, to form a 1st future passive indicative, take the unaugmented aorist passive tense stem, add the tense formative θησ, add a connecting vowel ( ο / ε ), and then add primary middle/passive personal endings, resulting in forms such as λυ + θησ + ο + μαι → λυθήσομαι.

One way to remember the future passive tense formative θησ is to think of the θη of the aorist passive in combination with the σ of the future active.

The paradigm for the 1st future passive indicative is λυθήσομαι, λυθήσῃ, λυθήσεται, λυθησόμεθα, λυθήσεσθε, λυθήσονται.

The 2nd future passive indicative forms are ἀποσταλήσομαι, ἀποσταλήσῃ, ἀποσταλήσεται, ἀποσταλησόμεθα, ἀποσταλήσεσθε, and ἀποσταλήσονται.

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