AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PORTER/FANNING DEBATE D.A. Carson Students of elementary Greek tend to learn a large number of rules to which subsequent courses add the exceptions. The more reflective students ultimately ask themselves if the sheer number and variety of exceptions in some instances call in question the validity of the rule first articulated. Few areas of Greek grammar have produced more puzzlement of this kind than the verbal system. The history of the study of the language betrays the difficulty