Greek Folly

Gregory of Nazianzus, on Greek:

Why, every one knows that in practice we very often find tenses interchanged when time is spoken of; and especially is this the custom of Holy Scripture, not only in respect of the past tense, and of the present; but even of the future, as for instance “Why did the heathen rage?” when they had not yet raged and “they shall cross over the river on foot”, where the meaning is they did cross over. It would be a long task to reckon up all the expressions of this kind which students have noticed.

[Third Theological Oration (Oration XXIX.V)]

This was a guy who spoke Greek, talking about students who spoke Greek, who noticed Greek tense forms do funny things.

And here am I doing a research project on Greek tense forms, and why they do what they do (in particular cases).

Wish me luck, internet.