Lesson 5 | Future Indicatives
[1] Future Active Indicatives
Future indicatives are non-past in time and perfective in aspect. Now, that sounds a bit strange. But remember that with perfective aspect the author summarizes the verb’s action. We see the whole action of the verb from beginning to end. This is not hard to imagine for a verb that is located in the past. How does this work for a verb that is non-past?
For a past perfective indicative, the author looks back in time to summarize the verb’s action: he ate, she came, they won, etc. For a non-past perfective indicative, the author looks forward in time to summarize the verb’s action: he will eat, she will come, they will win, etc. Thus, future active indicative verbs usually describe actions that will happen from the author’s perspective. So, we typically use the future tense to translate Greek futures into English.
Knowing that future indicatives combine non-past time with perfective aspect should help you guess some of their key features before knowing them. Since they are non-past, future indicatives follow the primary verb pattern for their endings and lack an augment. Since they are perfective in aspect, future indicatives use a σ tense-former and sometimes use a stem similar to the aorist. Like aorists, future indicatives distinguish their active, middle, and passive voice forms. We will learn about future active indicatives in this step. Let’s begin by seeing how λύω forms as a future active indicative:
| λύω in the active indicative | |||||||||||
| Present | 1st Aorist | Future | |||||||||
| Singular | First | λύω | ἔλυσα | λύσω | |||||||
| Second | λύεις | ἔλυσας | λύσεις | ||||||||
| Third | λύει | ἔλυσε(ν) | λύσει | ||||||||
| Plural | First | λύομεν | ἐλύσαμεν | λύσομεν | |||||||
| Second | λύετε | ἐλύσατε | λύσετε | ||||||||
| Third | λύουσι(ν) | ἔλυσαν | λύσουσι(ν) | ||||||||
In the table above, you can see the four key features of future active indicatives: 1) no augment, 2) future stem (often similar to the verb’s aorist stem), 3) the σ tense-former, and 4) endings that follow the primary active verb pattern.
Practice
Before we look at some examples of future active indicatives from the Greek NT, use this quizlet to practice parsing λύω as a future active indicative:
Examples from the Greek NT
ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν ὅτε οἱ νεκροὶ ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες ζήσουσιν. Truly, truly I am saying to you that an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. —John 5:25
This is one of those passages where we must stop and worship before diving into the grammar. Behold the life-giving power and love of our Lord Jesus Christ! He speaks and his words create life in those who are dead. Praise the Lord!
Let’s focus in on the final two verbs in this sentence: ἀκούσουσιν and ζήσουσιν. We will begin with ἀκούσουσιν:
ακου+σ+ουσιν
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
We see that there is no augment and that we have the primary active verb pattern. This means that we have a non-past indicative. Then, when we see the σ tense-former, we know that this is a future tense-form. With all four key features, we can parse ἀκούσουσιν as a future, active, indicative, third person, plural from ἀκούω: “they will hear.”
Our next verb, ζήσουσιν, is a bit trickier. Noting the four key features, we can parse ζήσουσιν even though we are unsure what its lexical form is: future, active, indicative, third person, plural.
Now, what verb does this stem come from? The stem cannot come from ζηω because ζηω is not a Koine Greek verb. Sometimes, however, scheming σ can affect a contract verb (a verb stem that ends in an extra vowel like ἀγαπάω or ποιέω) by lengthening the extra vowel at the end of the stem. So, can we shorten the η in ζηω to give us a verb that we recognize? Yes: ζάω: ζα+σουσιν = ζησουσιν, “they will live.”
ζα+σ+ουσιν
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
...καὶ γράψω ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ μου... ...and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God… —Revelation 3:12
Our main verb is γράψω. Although we cannot yet identify the stem or tense-former, we can immediately fill in two of the four key features: no augment and endings that follow the primary active verb pattern. This means that this verb is an active voice verb in either the present or future tense-form.
When we look at the stem, we can probably rule out the present. We do not know any verbs that have γραψ as the stem. However, if this is a future tense-form, we know that scheming σ could affect the stem because future active indicatives use a σ tense-former. Let’s try pulling out the σ and see what we get: γραψω [arrow] γραφ+σω. Now γραφ is a stem we know: γραφω “I write.” Also, this verb fits in well with the context: “and _____ upon him the name…” After that detective work, we can fill out the rest of the four key features:
γραφ+σ+ω
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
With the rest of these key features filled in, we can parse γράψω as a future, active, indicative, first person, singular from γράφω: “I will write.”
Parsing Practice: Future Active Indicatives
We have now seen three examples of future active indicatives from the Greek NT. Now, let’s practice parsing other future active indicatives. Use the quizlet below to practice: