Notes On Koine Greek: Part 46

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1. Pluperfect Active Indicative: In the previous two installations of these

“Notes”, we looked at the Perfect Tense form. Here, we want to add to our
arsenal the Pluperfect Active Indicative. Once we have done this, we will pretty
much have covered all 6 tenses of the Active Indicative.
2. What’s with all this Perfect Stuff ?: I know that it can all seem confusing:
Imperfect, Imperfective, Perfect, Perfective, Pluperfect, etc. So, we must strive to
understand the precise function of each of these things. One of the easiest things
to remember about the pluperfect is that it is the past tense of the perfect. This
just means that in translation, you’re helping or auxiliary word is essentially going
from “have” (perfect) to “has” (pluperfect).

Present Future
1st / 2nd Aorist
Imperfect Pluperfect Perfect
n men sa samen n men a men w men w men
j te saj sate j te j te eij te eij te
- n -nd n/ san - san - si (n) ei ousin ei ousin
2 Aor. Suffixes
are same as Imp.
Act. Ind.

I was loosing I loosed I had loosed I have loosed I am loosing I will loose

Starting with the “Present” circle, work both ways, paying attention to each tense change.

3. The formation of the Pluperfect: In terms of suffix morphemes, the only

difference between the perfect and the pluperfect is the 3rd person plurals. In the
perfect, we have “si(n)” and in the pluperfect we have “san”. As noted above,
the reduplicated past-time prefix morpheme is maintained. Two big differences,
however are as follows: 1) An augmented prefix is placed before the reduplicated
consonant, and 2) Instead of “ka” where the “a” almost acts as a phonetic cushion,
here, “ei” is used as the connecting neutral morpheme. Here are some examples
of the pluperfect being formed:

Perfect Pluperfect
le|lu|ka|men e|le|lu|k|ei|men
pe|pisteu|ka|men e|pe|pisteu|k|ei|men
be|blh|ka|men e|be|blh|k|ei|men

nd
4. 2 Pluperfect: The 2nd Pluperfect is derived and built from the Pluperfect just
like the 2nd Perfect is from the Perfect. Again, the only thing that really changes
is that the “k” drops out. Here’s an example: e|lh|luq|ei|men.
5. Meaning of the Pluperfect: If we remember that the Pluperfect is the past
tense of the Perfect, we can understand its meaning: If the Perfect expresses
finality, the Pluperfect expresses a “state” or “condition” following the finality of
an event. See Jn. 4.8 where “after” Jesus has finally spoken to the woman, the
disciples go to buy food. The word used there is apelhluqeisan. In addition to
this, in the future, something will be said about the Intensive Pluperfect.