Of Tooth Extraction

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Oct 22 06:18:23 EDT 2002


Thanks to both Richard and Carl.
Thanks to Richard and Carl. I'll leave the sealing and the painful tooth
aside, but
would like to bring up another point that might further clarify or confuse
the issue, I don't know which.

[Richard:]> >EXELKETAI TON ODONTA or hO ODOUS EXELKETAI
> >
> >"He is having his tooth dragged out" or "His tooth is being dragged out".

>
[Carl:]> Thanks, Richard. I wondered about these verbs, but then it occurred
to me
> that alternativeS would be XURAW, "shave" (the middle XURAOMAI having the
> sense, "have oneself shaved") and KEIRW, "cut the hair" (the middle
> KEIRASQAI having the sense "have one's hair cut").
> --

Acts 12:2 ANEILEN DE IAKWBON TON ADELFON IWANNOU MACAIRHi

Herod killed James with a sword.
The verb is active aorist. How does that translate into English?

RSV: He killed James the brother of John with the sword
NIV: He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword
GNB: He had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword
NLT: He had the apostle James (John's brother) killed with a sword
NCV: He ordered James, the brother of John, to be killed by the sword.

It does not seem to be much of a problem in Hebrew and Greek to say that "X
did Y" and leave it to the reader to understand that X did not do Y himself,
but he had someone else do it for him.
This idea is not common in ordinary English, and that is why many
translations clarify that he did not do it himself, but he caused it to be
done. So instead of saying "X did Y", they say "X had Y done".

What I am wondering about is how this pragmatic understanding interferes
with the function of the middle. Since Acts 12:2 (and many other places in
the Bible) have this phenomenon both with active and middle verbs, I am not
so sure that this aspect is really part of the significance of the middle
form.

Could the middle of KEIRW not just mean "he cut his own hair" in contrast to
cutting someone else's hair? Whether he actually cut his hair himself or had
someone do it for him, may go beyond the grammar into pragmatics. The same
applies to shaving.
I can shave another person (active), shave myself (middle), have someone
shave me (middle) or be shaved by someone (passive).
Herod can kill a person (active), have someone kill him (active) or be
killed by someone (passive).

Iver Larsen




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