Buist M. Fanning

Nowhere are the chaotic debates surrounding contemporary aspect theory more heated than in discussions of the theory’s application to Hellenistic Greek, and especially its understanding of the semantics of the Greek perfect tense. This book is a distilled academic debate among three of the best-known scholars on the subject, each defending his own unique interpretation while engaging the other two. The Perfect Storm will prove an indispensable resource for any scholar seeking to write convincingly on the Greek perfect in the future.

Verbal aspect is a significant element to be considered when interpreting a number of New Testament texts. This book surveys ways in which verbal aspect has been treated in the past century, and discusses what aspect is and how it functions in New Testament Greek. It provides a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the aspects of present, aorist, and perfect in New Testament Greek, and pulls together the results of research from a wide variety of linguistic studies. In his study Dr Fanning analyses the specific ways in which the aspects combine with linguistic and contextual features to produce various secondary meanings. He cites extensive sections of New Testament Greek as illustrative evidence, thus presenting a new approach which is a significant improvement on previous treatments and which will prove invaluable to interpreters of New Testament texts.