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
259A Trafalgar Street Phone (Australia): (02) 8714-7255
PETERSHAM NSW 2049 email: bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
AUSTRALIA. Director, Tyndale College
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