Present Indicative: The Aoristic Present

The Aoristic Present

The Present Indicative is sometimes used of an action or event coincident in time with the act of speaking, and conceived of as a simple event. Most frequently the action denoted by the verb is identical with the act of speaking itself, or takes place in that act.

Acts 16:18; Παραγγέλλω σοι ἐν ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ.

See also Mark 2:5, ἀφίενταί; Acts 9:34, ἰᾶταί; Acts 26:1, Ἐπιτρέπεταί; Gal. 1:11, Γνωρίζω and the numerous instances of le,gw in the gospels.

REMARK. This usage is a distinct departure from the prevailing use of the Present tense to denote action in progress (cf. Progressive Present). There being in the Indicative no tense which represents an event as a simple fact without at the same time assigning it either to the past or the future, the Present is used for those instances (rare as compared with the cases of the Progressive Present), in which an action of present time is conceived of without reference to its progress.

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