Tuesday, December 5, 2023

David L. Mathewson on the Periphrastic Construction

  

A periphrastic construction consists of two elements: (1) an auxiliary verb, usually ειμι or sometimes γινομαι, and (2) a participle that immediately precedes or follows the auxiliary verb, with only modifiers and adjuncts coming in between the two elements.

 

. . .

 

Future perfect periphrastic (no corresponding simple form): future tense ειμι + perfect participle.

 

καὶ ὃ ἐὰν δήσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται δεδεμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν λύσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. (Matt. 16:19; cf. 18:18)
And whatever you bind upon the earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose upon the earth will be loosed in heaven.

 

This is one of the best-known occurrences of the construction of the New Testament, and one with potential important theological ramifications. The interpretive question concerns whether the earthly binding and loosing is determinative for the heavenly counterparts, or whether the earthly binding and loosing merely ratifies what has already taken place in heaven. The future perfect periphrastic construction only expects a future state of affairs, which does not necessarily entail that the heavenly binding and loosing is completely contingent on the corresponding earthly acts. (See Matthewson and Emig, Intermediate Greek Grammar, 224-25) (David L. Mathewson, Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach [Essentials of Biblical Greek Grammar; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 163, 165)