[B-Greek] Deponents (as 1 Pe 1:15)

Cirk Bejnar eluchil404 at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 3 16:41:28 EST 2005


--- Jim West <jwest at highland.net> wrote:

> Eddie insists on insisting that deponent verbs
> require a middle/passive 
> translation.  One example is sufficient to falsify
> this claim.  The verb 
> arneomai is a deponent verb.  Its basic meaning is
> "refuse, disdain", 
> "deny".  It is used in Mt 10:33.  In Matthew Jesus
> says "whoever denies me, 
> I will deny".  yet if Eddie, and others who insist
> on a middle or passive 
> rendering of deponents were to put hand to this
> verse, they would be 
> required, by their own preconceptions, to translate
> with "whoever denies 
> himself, I will deny myself" or "whoever is denied
> himself, I will deny 
> myself" both of which are nonsensical.

And both of which leave untranslated the important
words ME and AUTON.  But the real problem is the
assumption that the only use of the middle is
reciprocal.  This is obviously not true in this case
and is not true even of 'non-deponent' verbs.  Looking
through my GNT the first example I can find is TEXETAI
in Mat 1:23.  There may be some question as to whether
the active future was availible to the author, but
I'll have to wait for someone with more time or a good
bible software program to find more examples.  TIKTW
is a verb where the active and middle forms of the
verb overlap in meaning.  The reason, I think, is
clear enough.  While one is not the direct object of
ones producing children, one _is_ intimately involved
in the process (especially if one is a mother) and
also one could be seen as as an indirect obect (one
bears children _for_ onself).  And this sense, which
Dr. Conrad calls "subject-focused" is general in
middle forms whether deponent or not.  In the case of
ARNEOMAI, one is expressing what is false in ones own
opinion and so the subject could well stand in the
Dative case.  The verb thus fits comfortably in a
suitably wide understanding of middle voice syntax and
the fact that it is 'deponent' is entirely explicable.

I found another fine example in Mat. 2:7.  TOU
FAINOMENOU ASTEROS a genetive absolute meaning "When
the star appeared".  The idea is not that "the star
appeared itself" or even that "the star made itself
appear".  But likewise, I don't think that there is
any reason to claim that there is some clearly passive
idea here and that it means "when [God] made the star
appear.  The agent is unspecified.  All the Greek says
is that the star was visibly shining.

I do want to make one furter observation on your
comment that "deponent verbs require a middle/passive
translation."  Since it seems to be a point of
confusion and also relates to the one point at which I
am not in full agreement with Dr. Conrad.  No one is
suggesting that the dictionary definitions of
'deponent' verbs are grossly defective and that in
practice an additional middle or passive force should
be added in translation.  Rather the claim is that
such verbs have, in fact, a middle force even when
the, English, translation will be semantically active.

This is why I found myself making the notation 'dep.'
besides certain forms as a made my way through the
Iliad a few years ago even after I had read and
largely accepted Dr. Conrad's theories
(http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/docs/NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf).
 I needed an additional reminder that the mediopassive
force of the form had already been taken into account
in the gloss and needn't be further added by me.  Thus
I am infavor of retaining the word 'deponent' with the
limited meaning verbs which lack an active voice since
they are, perforce, treated uniquely by lexica (using
the 1st person present indicative middle/passive as
the lemma and giving a translation of the
middle/passive paradigms).  I do, however, quite agree
with Dr. Conrad that nothing has even been 'laid
aside' by such verbs and that the traditional 'passive
in form but active in meaning' is both inaccurate and
misleading.
 
Cirk R. Bejnar


		
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