[B-Greek] Pennington's article on deponency

Steven Lo Vullo themelios at charter.net
Mon Jan 31 20:14:05 EST 2005


Hi all:

Just thought I would mention an article on deponency I read last night 
in the Spring 2003 issue of the Trinity Journal by Jonathan T. 
Pennington. He rejects the category of deponency altogether and frames 
his challenge and his thesis in these words:

"I want to challenge the common definitions and use of the grammatical 
category of deponency with this thesis: most if not all verbs that are 
considered 'deponent' are in fact truly middle in meaning. Therefore 
our use of 'deponent' and our assumption about the widespread 
occurrence of 'deponent' verbs needs to be reevaluated" (pp. 60f.).

He argues that two wrong turns have resulted in a misunderstanding that 
led to and perpetuates the idea of deponency: (1) Unfamiliarity with 
the Greek middle voice and our tendency to think about Greek through 
the lens of English and (2) the category of "deponent" borrowed from 
Latin that has unduly influenced our approach to the Greek middle and 
has in turn boxed us in to a way of viewing the middle that is 
misleading.

Of special interest to those who have followed Carl's arguments that 
the -QH forms, traditionally labeled passive, are actually 
middle/passive are Pennington's remarks on the history of Greek voice:

"One of the most unexpected revelations regarding the Greek voices is 
that originally there was no separate passive voice. The language 
existed for some time with only the active and middle voices. Most 
grammarians are confident that the passive voice was a later 
development that stemmed from the middle. it eventually encroached upon 
the middle in form and meaning. The result of this linguistic evolution 
is that Modern Greek has no middle forms remaining, but only active and 
passive. In the NT period, this evolution was still very much in 
process. It is only in the aorist that separate passive forms had 
become fully established (and to a lesser extent the future passive 
which is based on the aorist passive). Meanwhile, the middle form is 
losing ground on its way to obsolescence. This was occurring on three 
fronts. First, verbs that in Classical Greek took middle form in the 
future were tending to adopt future active forms instead. Similarly, 
VERBS THAT WERE TYPICALLY AORIST MIDDLE  WERE INCREASINGLY OCCURRING IN 
THE AORIST PASSIVE FORM, YET STILL WITH A MIDDLE OR ACTIVE MEANING. The 
two most common examples of this are APEKRIQH instead of APEKRINATO and 
EGENHQHN instead of EGENOMHN. In both of these instances, some of the 
aorist middle forms are residual in the NT. Thirdly, the active forms 
plus a reflexive pronoun are increasingly used where Classical Greek 
would have used the middle. Understanding this development will help us 
get a better grasp on the Greek middle, and in turn, on Greek 
deponency" (pp. 56f., my emphasis).

Pennington also tacles the issue of deponency and lexicography, 
critiquing BDAG and offering his own solution to the dilemma.

All in all, an interesting read. Maybe yet in your lifetime, Carl. :-)
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
MAR student
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School




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