The Doan hearing: An in-tense debate
One of the debates running through the Lurita Doan hearing is a question of tenses, specifically the hortatory subjunctive tense.
We'll use it for a sidebar to the Doan story for Monday's issue. To be honest, I don't know what the hortatory subjunctive tense is. I've even
Googled it without much help so far. The best definition I've found so far is
this one:
Hortatory subjunctive
a) This is a statement urging others to join in some action (commanding oneself and one's associates). It is roughly the same as first-person imperative, which does not exist in Greek.
b) It is easily identified because it will always be the first-person plural form of the subjunctive mood. This verb form will often come near the beginning of the sentence.
c) It is usually translated "let us…." Thus, as a mnemonic device, it can be referred to as the salad subjunctive.
d) Examples:
i) Hebrews 10:22
"Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith."
ii) Hebrews 12:1
"Let us run the race that is set before us."
iii) 1 John 4:7
"Beloved, let us love one another."
We're all going back to our grammar books to figure out the tense debate.
Posted by Christopher Dorobek on Jun 13, 2007 at 9:17 AM