[B-Greek] m/p participles in Colosians
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Oct 23 19:30:08 EDT 2003
At 6:04 PM -0300 10/23/03, John Colby wrote:
>Another question from Colossians.
>
>Col. 1:6 reads:
>KAQWS KAI EN PANTI TWi KOSMWi ESTIN KARPOFOROUMENON KAI AUXANOMENON- even
>as in all the world it [the gospel] is bearing fruit and growing.
>Col.1:10:
>EN PANTI ERGWi AGAQWi KARPOFOROUNTES KAI AUXANOMENOI THi EPIGNWSEI TOU
>QEOU- in all good work bearing fruit and growing in reference to the
>knowledge of God. >
> In these verses there is three middle/passive participles. My NASB
>translates them as present, therefore I am assuming they are thought to be
>middle.
> My question: In these participles (KARPOFOROUMENON, AUXANOMENON,
>AUXANOMENOI) is there any difference between the meaning of the present
>and the meaning of the middle? Or are they thought to be passive? Thank
>you for your time.
The present tense has distinct forms for active and middle-passive voice,
or perhaps I should say active and middle-passive forms exist in all the
Greek tenses;it's not as if present-tense sense (essentially uncompleted
action or state) and voice-meanings (relationship of the verb to the
subject with regard to performance or experiencing) were in antithesis to
each other.
AUXANW, etc. in the active normally means "cause to grow/increase" whereas
AUXANOMAI, etc. in the middle-passive normally means "experience growth."
Thus a farmer might say that the rain and the sunshine cause the grain to
grow: TON SITON AUXANOUSIN hO TE hHLIOS KAI hOI IMBROI, but if he wants to
say that the grain is growing/increasing (i.e. undergoing the process of
growth) he'll use the middle-passive: hO SITOS AUXANETAI. If we add an
agent or instrumental construction we can specify that this form
(AUXANETAI) has a passive sense: AUXANETAI TA hRODA TWi TE hHLIWi KAI TWi
OMBRWi, "The roses are made to grow by the sun and the rain."
In the texts you've cited above, in 1:6 KARPOFOROUMENON is middle-passive
as qualifying the implicit subject EUAGGELION: the gospel "is
engaged/involved in the process of being fruitful--or "is being fruitful."
However, in 1:10 the congregation at Colossae is exhorted to continue to be
productive/to continue bearing fruit-- KARPOFOROUNTES (active) while at the
same time they are growing (AUXANOMENOI--undergoing the process of growth.
While it is sometimes said that one must distinguish sharply between a
middle or a passive meaning when confronting a middle-passive verb form, I
think that is misleading. The middle-passive verb form always indicates
that the subject is undergoing an experience or process; he/she may be
doing so voluntarily or involuntarily: EGEIRETAI: "he/she wakes up"--that's
presumably involuntary, but one wouldn't understand the verb-form as having
a PASSIVE sense unless we are told that the impulse bringing about the
awakening is external, as EGEIRETAI hO NEANIAS TWi hHLIWi TWi ANATELLONTI,
"The young man is awakened by the rising sun."
--
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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