[B-Greek] Caragounis on Middle and Passive

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Dec 7 14:15:44 EST 2004


To many B-Greekers, this report may not be of much interest, but I remain
on the lookout for more "enlightened" perspectives on the morphology and
semantics of verbal voices in NT Greek. Inasmuch as Wieland Willker has
shared with me the text of the relevant pages of the new Caragounis book
(_The Development of Greek and the New Testament:  Morphology, Syntax,
Phonology, and Textual Transmission_) I've been able to satisfy my
curiosity as to his treatment of the morphology and usage of the middle and
passive in the GNT. My impression is that Caragounis has not formulated any
new propositions in this regard, but there is nevertheless a helpful
concession:

"With the triumph of the passive over the middle, the passive endings
-QHN,-QHS,-QH,-QHMEN,-QHTE,-QHSAN evidently came to represent both passive
and middle voices. This explains why verbs of the middle voice, such as
APOKRINOMAI, have in the aorist active meaning but passive ending
(APEKRIQHN). This phenomenon is old having begun to occur already in
A[ttic] authors. The NT has many such examples. This development continued
in B[yzantine] times, while in more recent times a large number of passive
aorist endings literary Greek occur, which 'auch in der Volksprache [sc.
Demotic], einige mit activem andere mit medialer Bedeutung durchaus üblich
[sind].' This explains the confusion between the active and the middle in
the LXX, the NT, and later authors." (p.153)

What's true here is that the -QHN/QHS/QH endings did indeed come to
represent both passive and middle (semantic) voices, but it would be more
accurate to say that these endings ALWAYS represented both passive and
middle (semantic) voices, and that this is a development that didn't begin
in Attic but is already evident in Homer, whose corpus displays numerous
verbs with aorist in -QHN/QHS/QH and no corresponding forms in
-MHN/SO/TO--right in Odyssey 1.2 PLAGCQH is an aorist of PLAZOMAI, "roam,
wander."

The more complex truth is that the morphology of the NT Greek verb reveals
the Greek language in flux: Aorist alpha-endings are beginning to displace
the older thematic endings of the aorist ("second aorist") while Aorist -QH
endings are beginning to displace older aorist middles like APEKRINAMHN.
The development in the voices is in the direction of a single polarity of
aorist voice-forms: -A/AS/E/KTL in the active, -QHN/QHS/QH/KTL in the
middle-passive.

Caragounis doesn't use the term "deponent" here, but he speaks of APEKRIQHN
as having "active meaning but passive ending." In fact, APOKRINOMAI is
"active" only in the sense that the subject is agent, which is true of all
middle-voice verbs insofar as they are semantically middle; APOKRINOMAI is
a true middle in form and meaning. So is NIPTOMAI "bathe", although
Caragounis asserts (p. 152) that in Mt 15:2 (DIA TI hOI MAQHTAI SOU
PARABAINOUSIN THN PARADOSIN TWN PRESBUTERWN? OU GAR NIPTONTAI TAS CEIRAS
[AUTWN] hOTAN ARTON ESQIOUSIN) "the use of the middle NIPTONTAI with an
expressed object (TAS CEIRAS) indicates that the feeling for the fine
distinction between the active and the middle has been lost" and he cites
equally questionable instances in Acts 7:58 APEQENTO TA hIMATIA AUTWN;
26:21 hENEKA TOUTWN ME IOUDAIOI SULLABOMENOI [ONTA] EN TWi hIERWi; Eph
5:1`6 EXAGORAZOMENOI TON KAIRON, Tit. 2:7 SEAUTON PARECOMENOS TUPON. He
seems to be supposing that the "true middle" never takes an object, but OU
GAR NIPTONTAI TAS CEIRAS is structurally comparable to the French "Car ils
ne se lavent les mains."
-- 

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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