New Testament Greek for Beginners

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

References

171. The first aorist active indicative of λύω is as follows:

	sg		pl
1	ἔλυσα	I loosed	ἐλύσαμεν	we loosed
2	ἔλυσας	thou loosedst	ἐλύσατε	ye loosed
3	ἔλυσε(ν)	he loosed	ἔλυσαν	they loosed

172. The aorist, being a secondary tense (like the imperfect), has the augment. The augment is the same for the aorist as it is for the imperfect (see §124-128).

173. The aorist, like the imperfect, has the secondary endings. It will be remembered (see §127) that these, in the active voice, are as follows:

	sg	pl
1	-ν	-μεν
2	-ς	-τε
3	none	-ν (or -σαν)

174. It should be observed that in the first aorist the ν is dropped in the first person singular.

175. Before these personal endings, there stands, in the aorist, not a variable vowel, but the tense suffix, σα, which is added to the stem of the verb. Thus, where the future has σο/ε, the first aorist has σα.

176. In the third person singular this σα is changed to σε. ἔλυσε(ν) may have the movable ν, like the ἔλυε(ν) of the imperfect.

177. The form ἐλύσαμεν - to take it as an example - may be divided as follows: ἐ / λύ / σα / μεν. ἐ is the augment, λύ is the stem of the verb, σα is the sign of the first aorist, and μεν is the secondary personal ending in the first person plural active.