[B-Greek] Voice: Distinguishing a Middle from a Passive

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Nov 10 07:41:11 EST 2007


On Nov 9, 2007, at 7:10 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> My Reader's Greek New Testament (I'm not going to
> ever, ever mention the word 'interlinear' again on
> this site!!!!!) lists the following words with
> definitions in both the Active and Passive:
>
> EKPLHSSW: I amaze; Passive: I am amazed
>
> MHKUNW: make long; Passive: I become long, grow
>
> I've tried to follow the discussions on Voice out here
> on this list (giving most of my attention to Dr.
> Conrad and Dr. Buth) and still am significantly
> confused, but I attribute that to my already deficient
> understanding of even English grammar, much less
> Greek. Anyway, both of these Passives to me seem like
> Middles, since the emerge/arise from WITHIN a person's
> body/soul. I simply do not understand why someone
> (complied by: Goodrich and Lukaszewski) would call
> these Passives.

There are two issues here:
(1) EKPLHSSW is active causative (transitive), something like  
"dumbfound"; EKPLHSSOMAI with an aorist of EXEPLAGHN is intransitive  
middle, "be dumbfounded." It falls in the category of mental process  
and is comparable to FOBEOMAI/EFOBHQHN (which has a causative active  
FOBEW with the sense of "srike terror into, rout"). When used  
transitively with a causal agent external to the patient, we can  
understand EKPLHSSW as active and EKPLHSSOMAI as passive, but the  
intransitive middle has the sense "come into a state of shock" and it  
indicates the subject's response rather than his/her subjection to  
external action. MHKUNW is also active causative but rare, as its  
common form MHKUNOMAI is the intransitive middle with the sense  
"lengthen" (1x only in the GNT of grain stalks growing  longer in the  
field, Mark 4:27).

(2) Why would anyone call them passives?
(a) they are thinking in terms of morphology only, not semantics;
(b) they are probably thinking in terms of English verbal usage rather  
than Greek verbal usage -- perhaps they are even thinking of "I am  
amazed" in terms of the subject as a patient affected by an external  
agency or instrumentality rather than as a copula ("am") with a  
participle functioning simply as an adjective indicating a state;
(c) they are thinking in terms of the traditional description of such  
verbs as "deponent" or (since this verb does have a little-used active  
form -- it appears 13x in the GNT but not once in the active voice)  
they are using a description that is common in lexica as in BDAG for  
this verb: "passive with active meaning." The problem with that  
phraseology is that it really means to acknowledge the active role of  
the subject, although the verb takes no object and  is intransitive;  
it would be better to use the term "agentive."
(d) The greater number of grammars and lexica and especially the  
parsing-guides describing voice-usage written in English formulate  
their categories and rules in terms of a conception of English verb  
usage that is unnuanced and more fundamentally in terms of how a Greek  
verb should be translated into English. The consequence of that  
practice is that users of such grammar, lexica, and parsing guides  
acquire the gloss they want for translating into English and don't  
think about the working of the Greek verb.

> Here is my question: What is the biggest, most
> critical distinguishing characteristic(s) that
> separates a Middle from a Passive? I suppose that at
> times the distinguishing characteristic is a bit foggy
> for some words, but could you find unambiguous
> examples (at least 3 PLEASE!) that would help me
> understand how to distinguish a Middle from a Passive?

(1) Morphology doesn't resolve the question: LOUETAI can be either  
middle ("he bathes") or passive ("he is being bathed -- by someone").  
So morphological endings are not the deciding factor in distinguishing  
a middle from a passive. So also EGEIRETAI, which can be of a  
spontaneous process of "waking up" (middle) or passive "being  
awakened" -- or "rising" (intransitive" or "being raised" (transitive  
passive) from the dead. I think it's significant that Greek doesn't  
distinguish the usages except to add an indication of an agent  
(usually hUPO + gen.) or an instrument (ususally a dat.) to clarify  
that the subject is a patient acted upon by some external factor.
(2) Fundamentally transitive verbs are most likely to have only active  
and passive usage. One good example is GENNAW, "father, beget,  
engender": this verb appears 97x in the GNT, 53x active, 20x middle,  
24x passive: there's no question that all the middle forms of this  
verb are to be understood in a passive sense. Similarly TIKTW, "give  
birth," appears 18x in the GNT, 13x active, 3x middle, 2x passive. The  
middle forms are future but all of these are transitive and show hUION  
as the object. It's true, of course, that several active verbs have  
middle futures. APOKTEINW/APOKTENNW appears 74x in the GNT: 60x  
active, 13x passive, 1x middle: the one middle form APOKTENNESQAI  
(Rev. 6:11) is clearly passive semantically. To commit suicide is  
APOKTEINEIN  hEAUTON.
(3) One should understand that QH forms, like MAI/SAI/TAI,MHN/SO/TO  
forms, may be either middle or passive semantically; one must decide  
in individual cases whether the usage is transitive and passive in  
meaning or intransitive and middle in meaning. Take note of the  
"passive" forms of hORAW: WFQHN, etc.: WFQHN is clearly middle in the  
sense "make oneself seen, appear" -- usually with a dative. Some might  
want to claim that this really is passive -- even categorize it as a  
"permissive passive." I rather think the fact that the dative of the  
person who sees is used rather than the genitive with hUPO is an  
indicator that the initiative in WFQHN instances lies with the subject.
(4) Transitive verbs may have middle forms that are indirect reflexive  
(e.g. TO PWS KOLASWNTAI AUTOUS, "how they should punish them" Acts  
4:21) or that are passive in meaning (e.g. 2 Pet. 2:9 OIDEN KURIOS  
EUSEBEIS EK PEIRASMOU hRUESQAI, ADIKOUS DE EIS hHMERAN KRISEWS  
KOLAZOMENOUS THREIN "keep the unrighteous to be punished for the day  
of judgment."
(5) There are certainly plenty of instances wherein the determination  
whether the usage is middle or passive is arguable. If in doubt, one  
really needs to look at a good lexicon that offers a nuanced account  
of usage.

> I'll worry about the ambiguous words later <:o)--

Me too.

The most recent attempt I've made at sorting out these issues is in a  
B-Greek post last month (October 16):
[B-Greek] A new stab at voice Tue Oct 16 12:14:55 EDT 2007
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2007-October/044551.html
OR
http://tinyurl.com/2yoc3f

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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