Jn 13:10; NIYASQAI

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 21 12:10:02 EST 2001


Carl:

You wrote:

-------
>As I said, a more wholly literal version would be: "Jesus
>says to him: 'The one who has been cleansed doesn't have need to wash
>himself except for the feet, but is clean altogether, and you are clean,
>but not all of you.'" But "wash himself" is NOT natural English, hence the
>transformation in most English versions (if not all of them) into the
>passive. That does NOT mean that the translators have misunderstood the
>Greek.
--------

There seems to be a significant difference in my mind between "wash himself" 
and "be washed" (without an agent stated). That is, "be washed" can be 
understood as completely Passive; while "wash himself" requires the subject 
to "do" or "allow" some action upon him.

Would it not be NECESSARY to add the implied agent if we choose to smooth 
the English out a little by translating it "be washed." ?? I seem to recall 
the "allow yourself to be washed" as a "divine passive." Is there such a 
thing as the "divine middle"??

Mark Wilson



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com




More information about the B-Greek mailing list