Lesson 7 | Perfect Indicatives
[4] 2nd Perfect + Pluperfect Indicatives
Let’s finish up the grammar points of this lesson with some odds and ends. Given that 2nd perfects and pluperfects appear infrequently in the NT, you are asked to merely familiarize yourself with how they work. You do not need to memorize all the details.
2nd Perfect Active Indicatives
Just as some verbs use a different stem in the aorist—what we call 2nd aorists—so some verbs also use a 2nd perfect stem. The good news is that there are only a handful of such verbs. Better still, they use the same personal endings as other perfect indicatives. How do they differ? The tense former is simply α instead of κα.
Though there are not many 2nd perfect verbs, a few occur frequently enough that you will want to be able to recognize them:
- γεγον* (47x), perfect indicative stem for γίνομαι. (Uses active endings in the perfect tense-form.)
- εληλυθ* (17x), perfect indicative stem from ἔρχομαι. Do you recognize the similarity with the future stem? (Note that the reduplication here is strange due to the use of both doubling and lengthening.¹)
- οιδ* (209x), you have already learned οἶδα (I know) in Greek II vocabulary. This is a unique word in that, in the indicative mood, it only occurs in the perfect tense form. Nevertheless, it functions as a present tense. (Note that, as a participle or an infinitive, it uses the stem ειδ*.)
Pluperfect Indicatives
There is one more tense form in the indicative mood to mention: the pluperfect. By New Testament times, the pluperfect tense was fading from use in Koine Greek. Pluperfect indicatives make up only 0.55% of the indicative verbs in the Greek NT and only 0.33% of the indicative verbs in the LXX. That is, there are only 86 pluperfect indicatives in the Greek NT and 206 in the LXX. So you will encounter pluperfect indicatives as you read Koine Greek, but those encounters will be few and far between.
We can compare the pluperfect and the perfect tense forms as follows:
Pluperfect vs Perfect
Tense-Form
Aspect
Time
Example
Perfect
Stative
Non-Past
λέλυκα (I have untied)
Pluperfect
Stative
Past
ἐλελύκειν (I had untied)
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Pluperfect indicatives communicate stative aspect and past time. Like the perfect tense-form, the pluperfect communicates stative aspect. But whereas the perfect focuses us on the present results of a past action, the pluperfect focuses us on the past results of a past action:
- We translate a perfect indicative like ἐλήλυθα into English as “I have come.” Here the perfect tense-form focuses us on the present results of a past action. The speaker wants his hearer to know: “I am here.”
- We translate a pluperfect indicative like ἐληλύθειν into English as “I had come.” Here the pluperfect tense-form communicates that the results of the past action are also in the past. The speaker wants his hearers to know: “I was here.”
Pluperfect Active Indicative
We provide the following information only to help you be alert to pluperfect forms when you encounter them. You do not need to memorize these forms.
The middle column in the chart below contains λύω as a pluperfect active indicative. On either side of the pluperfect, you can see the first aorist active indicative and perfect active indicative. Compare these with pluperfect forms of the λύω to see how they differ and how they resemble these other forms:
| λύω in the active indicative | |||||||||||
| 1st Aorist | Pluperfect | Perfect | |||||||||
| Singular | First | ἔλυσα | (ἐ)λελύκειν | λέλυκα | |||||||
| Second | ἔλυσας | (ἐ)λελύκεις | λέλυκας | ||||||||
| Third | ἔλυσε(ν) | (ἐ)λελύκει(ν) | λέλυκε(ν) | ||||||||
| Plural | First | ἐλύσαμεν | (ἐ)λελύκειμεν | λελύκαμεν | |||||||
| Second | ἐλύσατε | (ἐ)λελύκειτε | λελύκατε | ||||||||
| Third | ἔλυσαν | (ἐ)λελύκεισαν | λελύκασι(ν)/ν | ||||||||
Let’s point out four important elements of the pluperfect active indicative:
- Note that the augment occurs only sometimes.
- Like perfect active indicatives, pluperfect active indicatives use reduplication.
- The κ tense former is quite similar to the κα tense former of the perfect active indicative.
- The endings largely follow the secondary active pattern, apart from the ει connecting vowels.
Pluperfect Middle or Passive Indicative
Now let’s compare pluperfect middle/passive indicatives to other forms:
| λύω in the middle-passive indicative | |||||||||||
| Imperfect | Pluperfect | Perfect | |||||||||
| Singular | First | ἐλυόμην | (ἐ)λελύμην | λέλυμαι | |||||||
| Second | ἐλύου* | (ἐ)λέλυσο | λέλυσαι | ||||||||
| Third | ἐλύετο | (ἐ)λέλυτο | λέλυται | ||||||||
| Plural | First | ἐλυόμεθα | (ἐ)λελύμεθα | λελύμεθα | |||||||
| Second | ἐλύεσθε | (ἐ)λέλυσθε | λέλυσθε | ||||||||
| Third | ἐλύοντο | (ἐ)λέλυντο | λέλυνται | ||||||||
| * Remember, the ending here is actually εσο. | |||||||||||
Comparing the forms of this chart will clarify the four key features of pluperfect middle or passive indicatives:
- Like pluperfect active indicatives, the augment occurs only sometimes with pluperfect middle or passive indicatives.
- Like perfect middle or passive indicatives, pluperfect middle or passive indicatives use reduplication.
- Neither a tense former nor a connecting vowel connect the ending to the verb stem.
- Like imperfect middle or passive indicatives, pluperfect middle or passive indicatives use the secondary middle-passive verb endings.
Examples from the Greek NT
οὐκ ἐλήλυθα καλέσαι δικαίους ἀλλ᾿ ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν. I have not come to call righteous people but instead sinners unto repentance. —Luke 5:32
In this verse, we see one indicative verb (ἐλήλυθα) and one infinitive (καλέσαι). From the σαι tense former and the stem (καλεσαι), we can parse καλέσαι as an aorist, active, infinitive: “to call.”
Now, let’s consider the four key features for our indicative verb, ἐλήλυθα:
εληλυθ+α
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense Former]
[Ending]
Once you recognize the stem as the 2nd perfect form of ἔρχομαι, parsing it is no problem. You might wonder if you will ever remember all these various tense forms. Be encouraged. Like a child who naturally picks up on the English forms of the verb “go” (go, went, gone), you will eventually start recognizing forms like this as you read the Greek NT and LXX more and more.
That said, let’s look at how to parse this verb. As a 2nd perfect, we see the bare tense former α with no ending. We can identify the four key features of ἐλήλυθα and parse it as a perfect, active, indicative, first person, singular from ἔρχομαι: “I have come.”
Now, consider how the verb’s stative aspect focuses us on the results of the verb’s action. Jesus wants us not merely to know that he came but to focus on the results of his coming, that he has arrived to do something, specifically to call sinners to repentance. This ought to move us to worship!
εἰ δὲ ἐγνώκειτε τί ἐστιν· ἔλεος θέλω καὶ οὐ θυσίαν, οὐκ ἂν κατεδικάσατε τοὺς ἀναιτίους. Now if you had known what this is: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” then you would not have condemned the innocent. —Matt 12:7
Let’s focus on parsing ἐγνώκειτε:
εγνω+κ+ειτε
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense Former]
[Ending]
Even without knowing whether the initial ε is an augment or the doubling of the perfect stem, we can recognize this verb as a pluperfect. Why? Because we see the distinctive κ tense former and the ει connecting vowels. We can parse ἐγνώκειτε as a pluperfect, active, indicative, second person, plural from γινώσκω.
As we translate ἐγνώκειτε, we want to communicate the verb’s past time and stative aspect. Jesus refers to the Pharisees’ past act of condemning Jesus’s disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath (Matt 12:2). By condemning his disciples in this way, the Pharisees reveal that they did not truly understand Scripture. So, we can translate εἰ δὲ ἐγνώκειτε into English as “now if you had known.”
πτωχὸς δέ τις ὀνόματι Λάζαρος ἐβέβλητο πρὸς τὸν πυλῶνα αὐτοῦ… Now a certain poor man with the name “Lazarus” had been laid near his gate…. —Luke 16:20
Let’s look at the four key features of ἐβέβλητο:
ε+βεβλη+το
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense Former]
[Ending]
When we see an augment with the first stem letter doubled, then we know that this has to be a pluperfect indicative. Next, when we notice that there is neither the κ tense former nor any connecting vowels, we ought to realize that this is a pluperfect middle or passive indicative. The secondary middle-passive verb ending confirms this. We can parse as a pluperfect, passive, indicative, third person, singular from βάλλω. Once again, the author uses the pluperfect indicative to focus us on the past results of a past action: the fact that Lazarus was at the rich man’s gate.