PERIPHRASTIC FORM OF THE PRESENT
One of the clearly marked peculiarities of the Greek of the New Testament is the frequency with which periphrastic forms composed of a Present or Perfect Participle (Luke 23:19 is quite exceptional in its use of the Aorist Participle; cf. Ev. Pet. 23), and the Present, Imperfect, or Future Indicative, or the Present Subjunctive, Imperative, Infinitive, and even participle, of the verb εἰμί, (rarely also ὑπάρχω), are used instead of the usual simple forms. Cf. The Predicative Adjective Participle, and see the full discussion with examples in B. pp. 308-313, and the list (not quite complete) in S. pp. 131ff.
Instances of the periphrastic Present Indicative are, however, few. The clear instances belong under the head of the General Present.
Matt. 27:33; εἰς τόπον λεγόμενον Γολγοθᾶ, ὅ ἐστιν Κρανίου Τόπος λεγόμενος, unto a place called Golgotha, which is called Place of a Skull. See also Matt. 1:23; Mark 5:41; 2 Cor. 2:17; 9:12.
