Date
5-2022
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Master of Arts in Biblical Studies (MA)
Chair
Anthony Chadwick Thornhill
Keywords
aspect, future, Greek, perfective
Disciplines
Linguistics | Religion
Recommended Citation
Price, Casey Lou, "Revisiting the Future: The Future Indicative and Perfective Aspect in Johannine Literature" (2022). Masters Theses. 875.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/875
Abstract
As Greek aspectual studies continue to develop, there remains a significant gap in research on the future as it pertains to aspect. The nature of the future indicative is debated, especially as to whether or not it conveys aspectual value. Using Buist Fanning’s premise that aspect and Aktionsart interact to produce predicable outcomes, Mark O’Brien has shown that future STATIVE verbs consistently create an ingressive meaning that mirrors that of STATIVE verbs in the aorist tense. He has used this to demonstrate that the aorist and future share the same aspect-Aktionsart interactions and that they therefore both communicate perfective aspect. O’Brien’s method serves as a useful format for studying the possible aspect of the future tense. It is the goal of this work to utilize O’Brien’s method as a means of studying the aspect of the future with greater depth. This thesis supplements the research on the future and aspect (1) by studying Fanning’s other Aktionsarten categories (ACTIVITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CLIMAXES, and PUNCTUALS) and (2) by studying the behavior of the future and comparing it to the additional behaviors of the aorist described by Fanning (the constative, consummative, gnomic, and proleptic). This is accomplished by identifying the Aktionsart and behavior of every future verb in the Johannine literature and by comparing the patterns observed in the future to those established in the aorist. By using Fanning’s idea that aspect and Aktionsart interact to produce predictable behaviors, this thesis finds that the future tense-form mirrors the behaviors found in the aorist-tense form. This result indicates that the aorist and future have similar aspect-Aktionsart interactions and that the aorist and future carry the same inherent aspectual value of perfective aspect.
