New Testament Greek for Beginners

(Based on the book with the same title by Gresham Machen, The MacMillan Company, 1923)

References

169. It should be observed, however, that the aorist tense is often translated by the English perfect. ἔλυσα, therefore, may mean I have loosed as well as I loosed. The Greek perfect, which will be studied in Lesson XXIX, though it is indeed often to be translated by I have loosed, has a very different range from that of this English tense. Where the English I have loosed merely asserts that the action has taken place in past time without any implications as to its present results, it is translated by the Greek aorist.

Examples: ἠκούσατε τὴν φωνήν μου, ye have heard my voice. This sentence merely asserts that the action has taken place at some unspecified time in the past. But if a then were added, and thus the interval between the past action and the present time when the assertion is being made were clearly marked, the English would have the simple preterit. Thus τότε ἠκούσατε τὴν φωνήν μου would be translated then ye heard my voice.