G5777
Tense: Aorist “I went” or rarely ’I have gone’.
The aorist tense has more theology (theories) associated with it than all the others combined. We truly may not understand the Koine Aorist tense.
The aorist tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action. There is no perfect or clear English equivalent for this kind of action.
The events described by the aorist tense are classified into a number of categories by grammarians. The most common of these include a view of the action as having begun from a certain point ("inceptive aorist"), or having ended at a certain point ("cumulative aorist"), or merely existing at a certain point ("punctiliar aorist"). The categorization of other cases can be found in Greek reference grammars.
The English reader need not concern himself with most of these finer points concerning the aorist tense, being fine points of Greek exegesis only.
The common practice of rendering an aorist by a simple English past tense should suffice in most cases, the alternate rendering of a simple perfect tense will suffice for almost all others for blending into sentences with multiple tense verbs. A simple supplied ’while’, ’when’, or ’after’ can allow you as the reader/translator to follow the flow of the action through the sentence or paragraph. Translating the Aorist as a present tense destroys the punctiliar action expressed in the Greek.
Aorist Subjunctive are excluded from this when not set as main verb.
Aorist Imperative is always present tense due to the English idiom of we don’t talk or make ’commands’ in the past tense. They are not punctiliar.