AITHSHi (John 11:22)
Maurice A. O'Sullivan
mauros at iol.ie
Thu Apr 25 07:14:23 EDT 2002
At 11:43 25/04/02, B. Ward Powers wrote:
>AITHSHi must here be second person ditto ditto MIDDLE. And this must be
>it. But why middle? Martha can't be saying, "I know that whatever you ask
>God for FOR YOURSELF, God will give you." So why middle here, instead of
>the active (which we expected)?
>
>Any light to throw upon why this middle form?
The EDNT notes of AITEW that " in nearly half of its occurrences AITEW is
used in the middle. " and later cites Stahlin ( TDNT 1: 191-195 ) " there
is no striking distinction between the active and the middle ", going on to
distinguish between the secular Greek " ( not applicable to the NT texts )
of the middle in a commercial claim, and the request which does not include
the idea of any return in the active ".
This is well covered in BDF s.316, and in 316:2 there is a note " mid. of
requests addressed to God, Mt. 18:19 etc." and it lists other verses " mid.
alternating with act. (arbitrarily ) ".
Regards
Maurice
Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list