The Aorist Indicative's Prior to Past Usage: A Mental Space Theory Analysis

This article examines the prior to past usage of the aorist indicative with Michelle Cutrer's model in Mental Space Theory. The prior to past usage of the aorist indicative is commonly translated by the past perfect tense form in English. This has led some scholars to conclude that the aorist indicative may in these instances have the same meaning as the pluperfect. In contrast, other scholars argue that our translations should not determine our understanding of Greek. This article contends that scholars in general have not yet provided a satisfactory explanation as to why the aorist indicative is able to be used in such an obviously different manner from its normal usage to refer to a simple past action. A novel explanation is possible with the implementation of Cutrer's model. This model is especially adept at tracking a shift in deixis. In applying Cutrer's model, this article finds that the temporal deixis shifts to the past when the aorist indicative is used to refer to a prior to past action. It may be concluded that the aorist indicative does not have a change in meaning when referring to a prior to past action, but a shift in deixis.