Matth.24:7&11
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Dec 8 01:05:12 EST 2002
>
> Hi Iver:
>
> There is contextual, albeit a wider context, support for the idea that
> these supposedly MP forms should be taken passively. 2 Thess 2:11
> indicates that it is God who causes a strong delusion to come upon them
> so that they would believe a lie.
>
> If EGERQHSONTAI of Mt 24:24 is taken passively, it does not follow that
> God is intending to deceive the elect, but that it may not be possible.
> Rather, the intent to deceive comes from the near YEUDOCRISTOI KAI
> YEUDOPROFHTAI.
Yes, I accept that my response was rather quick and probably not clear on
the main point I had in mind.
It is better to check all the occurrences of EGEIRW, and we addressed this
in the discussions last year. There are many so-called passive forms of this
and other verbs that in context cannot be interpreted as passive in the
English sense of passive. So, my point is that we should not start off with
the assumption that all passive (MP2) forms of a Greek verb necessarily have
a passive sense. Many of them are better understood as middle. However, some
of them could well be interpreted as passive, just as some MP1 forms could
be understood as passive in sense, depending on context and how this
particular verb is normally used.
For many verbs in the MP forms the distinction between passive and middle is
not important in the Greek. If a person rises up, it is often not specified
whether the grammatical subject is the agent/cause as well as experiencer
(rise) or whether the agent is different from the experiencer (be raised).
What the MP verb tells us is that the person is now raised up or has risen,
not what or who caused it. The problem we have in translation is that when
an English passive is used, it usually indicates that the agent is different
from the experiencer. That is why a passive in English is sometimes an
inaccurate translation of the passive in Greek. These grammatical categories
do not match across language boundaries.
Iver Larsen
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list