[B-Greek] Heb. 10:22 -- Perf. Pass. Ptcs & Accusatives

CWestf5155 at aol.com CWestf5155 at aol.com
Tue May 18 12:08:34 EDT 2004



In a message dated 5/17/2004 3:16:10 PM Mountain Standard Time, 
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:
At 4:32 PM -0400 5/17/04, A. Philip Brown II wrote:
>Chairein,
>
>Hebrews 10:22 reads "PROSERCWMEQA META ALHQINHS KARDIAS EN PLHROFORIAi
>PISTEWS hRERANTISMENOI TAS KARDIAS APO SUNEIDHSEWS PONHRAS KAI LELOUSMENOI
>TO SWMA hUDATI KAQARWi"
>
>I was working through this with my 2nd year Greek students and was a bit
>puzzled by the the phrases
>hRERANTISMENOI TAS KARDIAS
>LELOUSMENOI TO SWMA
>
>I took the participles as middles and the Accusatives as direct objects.
>My students took them as passives and the accusatives as accusatives of
>reference. They thought it strange to view hRERANTISMENOI TAS KARDIAS APO
>SUNEIDHSEWS PONHRAS as something we do to ourselves.
>
>BDAG parses both as middles, giving the sense of hRERANTISMENOI TAS KARDIAS
>APO SUNEIDHSEWS PONHRAS as "after we have purified our hearts of an evil
>conscience."
>
>I wasn't sure how to defend my analysis (apart from bald appeal to
>authority).

Philip, you might, if you haven't yet done so, take a look at my "Active,
Middle, and Passive: Understanding Ancient Greek Voice" at
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/UndAncGrkVc.pdf (hold down option key
while clicking on it to download). I think that both these participles are
middle; the distinction between the middle and the passive is actually
pretty vague, inasmuch as the m-p form may mean "having gotten
(oneself/one's heart) cleansed"--one's initiative is involved even if the
agent of cleansing is another. Grammatically it is easier to understand TAS
KARDIAS as direct object than as object of a passive verb. The notion of
accusatives of reference with passive verb is time-honored but BDAG is
really right here; there's surely a parallelism, moreover, in the two
participles with their accusative objects.
-- 
Philip and Carl,

Though I find Carl's arguments about the middle generally convincing, in this 
context I would take hRERANTISMENOI as a passive, because the phrase forms a 
tie with 9:14 where the blood of Christ KAQARIEI THN SUNEIDHSIN hHMWN--that 
is, the context has stated that our consenciences are cleansed by Christ's blood 
to qualify us for access and service (cf. 9:8-10, 11-14). Similarly, in the 
context of entering the Holy of Holies, body washing would refer to the 
cleansing of Levites (Num. 8:7--where Moses is the "waher"), so I would take it as 
passive also.  If baptism is being treated as a counterpart to the Levitic 
washing, that reinforces taking this as passive--it is done to the believer.

The argument here is that Christ's work as a priest (which specifically 
includes cleansing) gives us confidence to enter the Holy of Holies.  To take the 
cleansing by sprinkling or washing as something one does for oneself is to miss 
the preceding context.

Cindy Westfall
Adjunct Faculty Denver Seminary



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