Open AccessTo tell a story in present tense (on the use of the verb tenses in the gospel narratives)
Author(s) -
Pavlin Sabev
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
proglas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2367-8585
pISSN - 0861-7902
DOI - 10.54664/oxhg4762
Subject(s) - present tense , verb , gospel , semitic languages , past tense , linguistics , narrative , history , future tense , literature , philosophy , art , arabic
It is a well-known fact that the evangelists (excluding Luke) prefer the Present tense for their stories. Is there any particular grammatical code behind the account of the past which occurs in the Present tense (the Gospels were written at least two to three decades after the events they describe), as most theologians today think? The analyzed examples show the lack of such a code and the influence of oral Semitic speech.