The Aorist Tense In Koine Greek: A Simple Guide For Beginners

If you’ve started learning Koine Greek, you’ll eventually run into the aorist tense.

It’s one of those tricky grammar points that throws seminary students off at first.

But it’s actually very easy.

Once you grasp the main idea, you’ll encounter it everywhere in the New Testament and Early Church Fathers.

The simplest way to think about the aorist tense is this:

It describes an action as a whole, complete event.

Think of it like a snapshot or a single frame in a movie. It just tells you “this happened”, without getting into the details of how long it took or if it was a process.

It’s also described as a punctiliar action (like a dot on a timeline).

What is the aorist tense? Aspect vs. time

In English, we mostly think about verb tenses in terms of time: past, present, or future.

Greek is a bit different.

It cares just as much, if not more, about aspect.

Aspect describes how the author views an action - is it ongoing, or is it a single, complete event?

• Present/Imperfect Tense: This is like a video recording. It shows an action in progress, as an ongoing process (e.g., “I was walking”).
• Aorist Tense: This is like a photograph. It shows the action as a single, whole event, viewed from the outside (e.g., “I walked”).

So, when you see an aorist verb in the indicative mood (the one used for stating facts), it almost always refers to a past event. But its primary job is to present that event as a simple, completed fact, without any extra commentary on its duration.

“He died” is a classic aorist example.

The focus is on the event itself, not the process of dying.

How to form the aorist tense: First and Second Aorist

The good news is that the aorist has some clear markers that help you spot it.

The bad news is that it comes in two main flavors: First (weak) Aorist and Second (strong) Aorist.

Don’t let these names overwhelm you.

They’re both the same thing.

They’re just formed differently, like how in English we have “walked” (a regular pattern) and “went” (an irregular pattern).

One isn’t “better” or “older” than the other; they’re just different patterns.

First Aorist (the “Weak” Aorist)

This is the most common and regular pattern. You’ll see it everywhere.

The formula is: Augment + Verb Stem + σα + Secondary Ending

1. Augment: A prefix, usually an epsilon (ἐ-), that gets added to the front of verbs to show a past tense. If the verb starts with a vowel, that vowel often lengthens (e.g., ἀ becomes ἠ).
2. Verb Stem: The root part of the verb.
3. Tense Formative (σα): This is the dead giveaway for a First Aorist. If you see a sigma-alpha, you’re likely looking at an aorist.
4. Secondary Endings: The personal endings that tell you who is doing the action.

Let’s look at a common verb, λύω (I loose/destroy).

Second Aorist (the “Strong” Aorist)

This pattern is used for a smaller group of common, often irregular verbs.

It looks a lot like the imperfect tense, but with a crucial difference: it uses a different verb stem.

The formula is: Augment + Aorist Stem + Secondary Endings (the same endings as the imperfect).

The trick here is that you have to memorize the aorist stem because it’s different from the present stem.

A classic example is λαμβάνω (I take).

• Present Stem: λαμβαν-
• Aorist Stem: λαβ-

Notice the -αν- part is gone. That’s your clue that it’s a second aorist.

Here’s how it conjugates:

Again, ἔλυσα and ἔλαβον are the same type of action (a simple, completed past event).

They just look different.

The Aorist in action: Examples from the New Testament

The best way to get a feel for the aorist is to see it in familiar sentences from Scripture.

John 3:16

This is probably the most famous verse in the Bible, and it has a classic aorist verb.

…ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν…

...hōste ton huion ton monogenē edōken...

...that He gave His only begotten Son...

ἔδωκεν (edōken) is the aorist of δίδωμι (I give). The act of God giving his Son is presented here as a single, decisive, completed event in history. The author isn’t focusing on the process of giving, but on the fact that it happened.

It’s a snapshot of a foundational event.

John 1:42

Here’s an example of a second aorist from the verb ἄγω (I lead).

ἤγαγεν αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν.

Ēgagen auton pros ton Iēsoun.

He brought him to Jesus.

ἤγαγεν (ēgagen) is the second aorist. The action of Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus is told as a simple fact. He led him, and the action was completed.

The narrative just states it and moves on.

Matthew 7:28

…ἐξεπλήσσοντο οἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ,

...exeplēssonto hoi ochloi epi tē didachē autou,

...the crowds were astonished at His teaching,

Whoops, that verb, ἐξεπλήσσοντο, is actually imperfect! I put it here on purpose to show the contrast. It means they were astonished, or were being astonished. It describes their ongoing state of amazement as they listened.

But look at the verse right before it, Matthew 7:27:

…καὶ ἔπεσεν, καὶ ἦν ἡ πτῶσις αὐτῆς μεγάλη.

...kai epesen, kai ēn hē ptōsis autēs megalē.

...and it fell, and its fall was great.

ἔπεσεν (epesen) is the second aorist of πίπτω (I fall). The house’s fall is a single, catastrophic event. It didn’t “was falling”; it just fell. Bam. Punctiliar.

When you’re starting out, don’t get too bogged down in the deep grammatical weeds.

Just remember these key things:

1. The aorist tense views an action as a single, whole event - a snapshot.
2. In the indicative mood (statements of fact), it almost always refers to a past action.
3. Look for the key markers: the augment (ἐ-) plus either the σα (First Aorist) or a changed verb stem (Second Aorist).
4. First and Second Aorists mean the same thing. They’re just different spelling patterns.

When you see an aorist verb, just think to yourself: “it happened.” That will be the right translation 95% of the time and will help you keep the narrative moving.

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