Roman 3:23
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Jul 2 17:36:15 EDT 2002
> The verb hUSTEREW appears 16x in the GNT, 8x in active forms, 8x in MP
> forms, including one QH participle which is indeed middle rather than
> passive in meaning. There doesn't really appear to be any difference in
> sense between the active and middle: all the forms are intransitive in
> sense.
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad
I am curious if there might be a slight difference of meaning between the
active and middle. Looking at these 16 instances in the GNT, I am proposing
a hypothesis which may be just speculation.
Would it be possible to think of the active forms as "lacking completely"
and the middle forms as "falling short"?
It would correspond to two nuances of the statement: "I lack money":
a) I don't have any money at all
b) I have a little money but not enough, i.e. I am short of money
(Such a minor distinction would probably be neutralized in a negative
expression like "I am not lacking anything")
I looked up in BAGD, but found nothing useful in terms of trying to
distinguish the active forms from what they call the passive (what is better
called middle or MP).
By the way, Carl, I hope you over there will soon adopt the metric system
and join ranks with the rest of us -:)
Iver Larsen
Denmark
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