[B-Greek] Acts 2:17 dream: deponens or passive?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Apr 27 17:32:12 EDT 2004
At 5:11 PM -0400 4/27/04, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>Forwarded for: "Hessel + Coby Visser" <hessel.visser at sil.org>
>To: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>Subject: Acts 2:17 dream: deponens or passive?
>Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 18:46:24 +0200
>
>hOI PRESBUTEROI hUMWN ENUPNIOIS ENUPNIASQHSONTAI
>(Acts 2:17)
>
>The word ENUPNIASQHSONTAI is usually taken as a deponens, so the meaning
>would be "they dream". But in a translation I found ""I will make them
>dream" - apparently based on the interpretation as a (divine) passive. Which
>interpretation is the more probable one? I would welcome your ideas.
Except that it's a future: "they WILL dream"; sounds to me like the version
you cite is an interpretative extension of the opening of the cited Joel
passage, inasmuch as the prophesied behavior is a consequence of the
spirit-empowerment which God says he will perform in the latter days. That
version certainly cannot be justified on the basis of the Greek text as
such.
>For your interest: Bauer says it is a "Deponens seit Hippokrates".
Yes, and LSJ cites only Aristotle as using it in the active voice.
>It is interesting that the LXX (in Joel) has the accusative for "dreams"
>("they will dream dreams"), while Acts 2:17 has a dative ("they will be made
>to dream with dreams")! So I have the impression that Luke may have seen it
>as a passive.
I hardly think Luke understands it as passive; more likely he views it as
an intransitive and construes it with an instrumental dative after the
manner of CRAOMAI: "will dream with dreams." To be sure the LXX regularly
uses it with an accusative direct object.
Hessel, if you are new to the list you probably haven't been aware of my
recurrent harangues against the misguided notion of "deponent" verbs; this
is simply a verb regularly found in the middle voice and commonly taking an
aorist and future with -QH- forms. The verb clearly falls into one of those
categories of verbal notions which commonly fall into the middle voice:
voluntary or involuntary physical or mental processes.
--
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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