Sunday, December 3, 2023

David L. Mathewson on Prospective

  

Prospective

 

This is the usage that most grammarians would identify as central to the semantics and function of the future tense form. In certain contextual environments the future form, indicating expectation of intention, implicates future time reference in terms of a prediction of events expected to take place. The notion of expectation in the future is not dissimilar to projection, found in the subjunctive and optative moods.

 

οὕτως ἐλεύσεται ὃν τρόπον ἐθεάσασθε αὐτὸν πορευόμενον εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. (Acts 1:11)

So he [Jesus] will come in the same manner you saw him going into heaven.

 

τὸ θηρίον τὸ ἀναβαῖνον ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου ποιήσει μετ᾽ αὐτῶν πόλεμον καὶ νικήσει αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀποκτενεῖ αὐτούς. (Rev. 11:7)

The beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and will overcome them and will kill them. (David L. Mathewson, Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach [Essentials of Biblical Greek Grammar; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 133)