Evyenia's Koine Greek Weblog

τούτο δε όλον γέγονεν
and this all occurred

ίνα πληρωθῇ
in order that it might be fulfilled

το ρηθέν υπό κυρίου
that which was spoken by the lord

διά του προφήτου λέγοντος
through the prophet saying . . .

Yes, the verse breaks off there, and we need to wait for the next verse to find out what the prophet was saying.

Let's start with the first line:

τούτο δε όλον γέγονεν
and this all occurred

The 'δε', (usually 'and' or 'but), is post-positive, as we've seen before; that is, it comes second in the Greek, but first in an English translation.

The words 'τούτο' and 'ὀλον' mean 'this' and 'all', respectively; so, 'all this'.

All this -- what?

The verb here is 'γἐγονεν', which is the third person, perfect active indicative of the verb 'γίνομαι᾿, which means something like--
'to come into being, to begin to be, to become, to arise, to happen'.

The perfect tense in Greek is similar to the English perfect: something has happened rather than something happened. The perfect is usually explained as indicating an action in the past whose consequences continue to the present.

For example, if you slipped on the ice and fell down, and were telling this story to friends later, you would say:

I slipped and fell down (aorist tense). You would not say, I have slipped and fallen down (perfect tense). The latter implies that you are still down on the ice.

On the other hand, if you slipped and fell down, and can't get up, and are desperately calling for help on your cell phone, you would say I've slipped and fallen down (perfect tense). Come help me, please. Oh, you could have said I slipped and fell down--perhaps being in pain, and not concerned about the fine points of the aorist vs. the perfect tense--but here the perfect tense would be . . . perfect, since the essential point of your communication is that the consequences of the actions of slipping and falling are continuing to the present.

More on this verse next time. Χαίρετε!