AITHSHi (John 11:22)

B. Ward Powers bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
Fri Apr 26 00:25:15 EDT 2002


Dear Maurice and Carl,

At 12:14 PM 020425 +0100, Maurice A. O'Sullivan wrote:
>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


Interesting. I had not previously recognized the extent of middle usage of 
AITEW. I see now that this is the case, but I still do not understand (in 
terms of the usual usage of the middle) why this should be so. I guess this 
is just one of those things you just accept because it IS. That (as Carl 
says) it indicates strong personal concern.

Thanks.

Regards,

Ward.


                                http://www.netspace.net.au/~bwpowers
Rev Dr B. Ward Powers        Phone (International): 61-2-8714-7255
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AUSTRALIA.                         Director, Tyndale College




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