Re: Present tense copulative verbs  Date: Fri Aug 21 1998 -
23:37:36 EDT  Dear James:  In a message dated 8/21/98 7:53:22 PM
Pacific Daylight Time, you wrote:  << I have two reasons why
EIMI in Jn 8:58 is not a Perfective Present (IMHO).  I don't
think anyone has suggested that EIMI in John 8:58 is a
"Perfective Present." The Perfective Present is only found with
a limited number of verbs, such as hHKW, AKOUW and others. No
one is saying that EIMI, by itself, assumes a "Perfective"
sense.  <<One, Burton in his Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of
New Testament Greek states that Perfective Presents
are,"...accompanied by an adverbial expression denoting duration
and referring to past time."(10, section 17) Examples of true
Perfective Presents and their adverbial expressions are: "so
many years" (TOSAUTA ETH, Luke 15:29); "a long time" (POLUN HDH
CRONON, Jn 5:6); "so long a time" (TOSIUTWi CRONWi, Jn 14:9);
"from the beginning" (AP ARCHS, Jn 15:27); and "from ancient
times" (EK GENEWN ARCAIWN, Acts 15:21). >>  Not