[B-Greek] BOULEUSETAI in Lk 14:31

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 28 09:05:25 EST 2003


At 8:54 AM -0500 2/28/03, Jennifer Chiou wrote:
>Luke 14:31 ... PRWTON BOULEUSETAI EI DUNATOS ESTIN ...
>
>I'm translating it "will first take counsel (with himself) if he is
>able", taking the middle BOULEUSETAI to mean "to take counsel with
>oneself" (cf. RWP, BAGD)
>
>How should this middle be classified? The force seems to suggest
>"Reciprocal Middle", if we could think of the subject to be plural (as,
>he's having a conference amongst himself, one says this, the other says
>that...). Or is this really a "Indirect Middle", with the emphasis on
>he's having a conference BY HIMSELF?

It's worth noting that some lexica, including BDAG, list this verb as
BOULEUW although BDAG rightly notes that it is found only in the middle in
the GNT and the middle is common even in Attic prose. I think the simple
fact is that the sense of deliberation naturally falls into the middle
voice with its focus upon self-interested action, so that the sense of
BOULEUSETAI in the Lucan passage is, "will deliberate (in his own interest)
whether he is capable ..."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/


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