[B-Greek] Indirect Middle

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Thu Jun 9 12:45:54 EDT 2005


On Jun 9, 2005, at 10:15 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> I may be wrong, but it appeared to me that each
> Indirect Middle verb that Wallace treats in his GGBB
> has a Direct Object. Is that right, is that true by
> definition? Would that make the "subject" the
> "indirect object"?

I think that in most of the instances that Wallace cites, it's true  
that the subject is
equivalent to a reflexive indirect object; Romance languages, and  
German also,
actually use a "disjunctive" reflexive in such instances to express  
what in English
we'd call an "indirect object." But note that generally English does  
NOT actually
use a reflexive indirect object -- it's simply understood in the  
usage. Note Mt 27:24:

     hO PILATAOS ... APENIYATO TAS CEIRAS tr. by Wallace as
     "Pilate washed his hands ... "
That's proper English, where "his" = "for himself"; French would say/ 
write
     Pilate s'est lave/ les mains. where "s(e)" = "for himself"

What is perhaps more problematic in Wallace's account, as he clearly  
enough notes (p. 420)
in the paragraph on "The Middle Voice and the Nature of NT Greek," is  
that perspectives on
what the Middle voice is and how it functions in Koine vary  
considerably. And this, of course,
is one of the matters that his exercised my own reflective efforts  
for some time now.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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