[B-Greek] hAPTOMAI - touch vs. take hold of
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Jan 15 14:56:47 EST 2005
At 2:04 PM -0500 1/15/05, Jeff Smelser wrote:
>Jeff Smelser here,
>
>KAI IDOU LEPROS PROSELQWN PROSEKUNEI AUTWi LEGWN, KURIE, EAN QELHiS DUNASAI
>ME KAQARISAI. KAI EKTEINAS THN CEIRA hHYATO AUTOU LEGWN, QELW KAQARISQHTI.
>(Mt. 8:2-3a)
>
>Why in such passages as Mt. 8:3, Mk. 1:41, Lk. 5:13 do we suppose hAPTOMAI
>is "touch" rather than "take hold of"? Might it be equally arguable that
>Jesus "took hold of" the leper, that the gesture associated with the miracle
>was a strong one rather than a delicate one? See also Mt. 8:15, Mt. 9:20f,
>etc.
>
>Or is it sufficiently clear from non-biblical Greek that "touching" rather
>than "taking hold of" was associated with divine blessing, as per BDAG on
>hAPTW, paragraph 2c?
>
>(Of course, in Mt. 9:29 and 20:34, "touched their eyes" makes much more
>sense than "took hold of their eyes"!)
It should be noted that the active hAPTW is essentially used only of
igniting a fire or lighting a lamp: "making something 'catch' fire"; the
middle hAPTOMAI yields the standard "Aktionsart" for this verb, which is
essentially middle, "bring oneself in contact with" with a genitive of the
thing contacted.
This verb is a good example of a sizable class of Greek verbs that are
fundamentally middle and have active forms that are fundamentally CAUSATIVE.
I think one can decide only by the context upon whether hAPTESQAI means
simply "make contact with" (i.e. "touch") or "hold on to," The question has
been raised in particular about John 20:17 where the risen Jesus says to
Mary Magdalene, MH MOU hAPTOU. OUPW AR ANABEBHKA PROS TON PATERA. Is it
"Don't touch me" or "Don't cling to me"? One might suppose there's a hint
here of quasi-intangibility, and one could even take the present-tense
injunction as conative: "Don't try to come into contact with my body ..."
I'm not really speculating on what may be implied in this narrative beyond
what possibilities may reside in the chosen FORM of the verb:
present-tense middle: MH MOU hAPTOU.
--
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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