The external
viewpoint (outside the action) is known as “perfective aspect”; the internal
viewpoint (inside the action) is known as “imperfective aspect.” Perfective
aspect views an action as a whole and is often used to present an action in
summary form. Imperfective aspect views an action from within it and is often
used to present an action an unfolding or in progress . . . All Greek scholars
agree that the aorist is perfective in aspect, while the present and imperfect
are imperfective in aspect . . . [there is] the obvious fact that many Greek
verbs do not conform to their expected temporal reference. The statistics are
quite overwhelming for some tense-forms, such as the so-called present
indicative, which refers to the present only about 70 percent of the time. The
aorist, Greek’s default “past” tense, refers to the present or the future about
15 percent of the time. The Greek perfect, which is supposed to refer to a past
action with present consequences, does this less than half the time. In fact,
the only Greek tense-form that consistently refers to the time it is supposed to
is the future . . . There are several ways in which understanding verbal aspect
may shape our reading of Greek text. First, it will correct certain mistakes
that are commonly made in interpretation. For instance, the claim that the
aorist indicative in Romans 5:6 ( “For while we were still weak, at the right
time Christ died [απεθανεν] for the ungodly,” NRSV) proves the once-off
nature of Christ’s death is mistaken. The aorist does not prove the “punctiliar”
nature of Christ’s death since it conveys a summary of the event, from an
external perspective. A similar mistake has been made concerning the aorist
imperative in John 17:17 (“Sanctify [αγιασον] them in the truth;
your worth is true,” NRSV), claiming that the aorist proves that sanctification
is an instantaneous event. But the perfective aspect of the aorist imperative
conveys a specific command, not an instantaneous one. And there are many other
such examples. (Constantine R. Campbell, “Aspect and Tense in New Testament
Greek,” in David Alan Black and Benjamin L. Merkle, Linguistics and New
Testament Greek: Key Issues in the Current Debate [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Baker Academic, 2020], 37-53, here, pp. 38, 46, 50-51)
