The Aorist is used in proverbs and comparisons where the English commonly uses a General Present.
1 Pet. 1:24; ἐξηράνθη ὁ χόρτος, καὶ τὸ ἄνθος ἐξέπεσεν, the grass withereth and the flower falleth. See also Luke 7:35; John 15:6; Jas. 1:11, 24.
REMARK. Winer’s contention (WT. p. 277; WM. p. 346) that the Gnomic Aorist does not occur in the New Testament does not seem defensible. The passages cited above are entirely similar to the classical examples of this ancient and well-established idiom.
