[B-Greek] Heb. 10:22 -- Perf. Pass. Ptcs & Accusatives
CWestf5155 at aol.com
CWestf5155 at aol.com
Wed May 19 11:00:56 EDT 2004
In a message dated 5/19/2004 4:02:20 AM Mountain Standard Time,
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:
>Fair enough. I'm with you in reference to the Greek not drawing the
>distinction between the semantic middle and passive. I think you'[ve drawn
my
>attention to the fact that I've broken my own rules by calling the form
>passive since
>its formally "ambiguous" (is there a better word?).
>
>But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Where I'm balking is
>on the idea that these two participles are actually stressing that the
>subject through some decision has "set things in motion to be acted on",
>or that the
>intiative of the subject is stressed (and therefore it is a middle). If the
>Greek form is not intended to draw a distinction, I don't see how it stresses
>the subject's initiative unless it is clear from the semantics or context.
Cindy, I do not, in fact, argue that the subject's initiative is stressed;
what I see underscored rather is that the subject has undergone the
experience--whether or not he/she has initiated the experience. The
ambivalence of the verb GINOMAI is in fact almost "prototypical" of verbs
such as EGEIROMAI which indicate subject-affectedness, whether
subject-initiated or not.
Carl,
That's how I understood your comments, but I'm glad you added this in virtue
of what had been said in the discussion.
I agree--when there is no distinction in form, the normal focus of the
sentence is on the grammatical subject(s), apt here within this string of three
hortatory subjunctives.
Cindy
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