[B-Greek] 1 Peter 1:15
cwconrad at ioa.com
cwconrad at ioa.com
Sun Jan 2 08:55:04 EST 2005
At 2:10 AM -0600 1/2/05, Charles Rempel wrote:
>GENHQHTE
>
>2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known
>to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we became
>eyewitnesses of His majesty.
>
>EPOPTAI GENHQHNTHS - aorist passive participle nm1s
Odd: looks to me like EPOPTAI is plural; I don't recognize the form of GENHQHNTHS at all. My text (NA27) reads EPOPTAI GENHQENTES (THS EKEINOU MEGALEIOTHTOS)
>Did those present make themselves eyewitnesses to His majesty? active voice
I would have thought that this sense calls for a middle voice in Greek.
>Did they receive the status of being eyewitnesses because they were there
>when His majesty was revealed? passive sense
>Did they cause themselves to become eyewitnesses by being there? middle
>sense
>
>It is interesting that even illiterate Peter uses the range of active,
>passive and middle voices of this word in his two epistles. From Paul and
>Luke we expect literary intellect, but Peter? How commonly understood this
>word with its voices must have been
>
>By the way, the word EPOPTAI gives us the clue as to which voice should be
>used. :-) Want to guess?
I confess that I don't understand this argument. KJV translates the verse, "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. " Charles' translation of EPOPTAI GENHQENTES THS EKEINOU MEGALEIOTHTOS above is "we became eyewitnesses of His majesty." I've always thought that the verb "become" is intransitive rather than passive although I'll grant that GINOMAI in Greek may in the right context be understood as the equivalent of "be made" or "be caused to be."
There's a rather similar expression at the beginning of Luke's gospel:
Lk 1:1-2 (1) EPEIDHPER POLLOI EPECEIRHSAN ANATAXASQAI DIHGHSIN PERI TWN PEPLHROFOREHMENWN EN hHMIN PRAGMATWN, (2) KAQWS PAREDOSAN hHMIN hOI AP' ARCHS AUTOPTAI KAI hUPHRETAI GENOMENOI TOU LOGOU ...
Here I take it that hOI AP' ARCHS AUTOPTAI KAI hUPHRETAI GENOMENOI TOU LOGOU is a phrase-unit functioning as the subject of the verb PARAEDOSAN. Within this phrase the aorist-middle participle GENOMENOI appears to qualify both EPOPTAI AND hUPHRETAI. I'm wondering what clue EPOPTAI in this instance offers as to; the voice which should be used?
For what it's worth, if one wants to argue that there's some fundamental difference in meaning between EPOPTHS and AUTOPTHS, BDAG offers two senses for EPOPTHS: 1. one who sees to or attends to, with implication of careful scrutiny, a watchful observer,; ... 2. to have first-hand acquaintance with someth., with implication of special privilege, eyewitness ....
For AUTOPTHS BDAG offers the following: âseeing with oneâs own eyesâ; eyewitness
I don't believe there's any difference in meaning between the participle GENHQENTES in EPOPTAI GENHQENTES of 2 Peter 1:16 and the participle GENOMENOI in AUTOPTAI GENOMENOI of Luke 1:2.
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
http:www.ioa.com/~cwconrad
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