[B-Greek] GINOMAI: Middle or Passive in Tit 3:7?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Jun 27 21:12:29 EDT 2005


Most simply put, what I have argued (in the post in the BG archives  
to which you refer and elsewhere) is that aorist forms of the verb  
GINOMAI in the NT Koine period are in process of shifting from the  
still predominant so-called "middle" forms EGENOMHN/EGENOU/EGENETO/ 
EGENOMEQA/EGENESQE/EGENONTO to what are called "passive" forms  
EGENHQHN/-HS/-H/-HMEN/-HTE/-HSAN.
I don't believe that there's an ounce of semantic difference EGENOMHN  
and EGENHQHN: both are simply aorists of GINOMAI, the former older,  
the latter more recent and destined to be the standard form in later  
Greek.

The verb GINOMAI with aorist EGENOMHN or EGENHQHN is essentially  
middle:it means come to be or get to be. If an agent or instrumental  
construction indicates that "getting to be in X state" or "getting to  
be in X position" is brought about by some factor or agency other  
than the subject of the verb, then you may term the particular verb  
form passive in meaning. But the forms themselves do not bear  
distinctly middle or distinctly passive sense. Although some  
instances of the GENHQH- form could be argued to bear authentic  
passive sense, the fact is that most such verb usages can be  
illustrated with the middle GENE- forms just as well.

You needn't be surprised that BibleWorks tags GENHQWMEN as passive:  
that designation is really a designation by form rather than by  
semantic force of the verb. I have argued that it would be preferable  
to use MP1 and MP2 for the "middle" and "passive" forms, since both  
forms can bear either middle or passive sense.

If you care to follow up on what I have written on Greek voice you  
may find it in PDF form as:

     http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf

and

     http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/UndAncGrkVc.pdf

On Jun 27, 2005, at 6:02 PM, Marty Cauley wrote:

> Clarification please,
>
> In an interesting discussion of the middle and passive usage of  
> GINOMAI
> which I have read on this site
> (http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2001-November/ 
> 019274.html), this
> statement was made concerning Tit 3:7 and GENHQWMEN that it looks  
> passive:
> "Let us be made heirs," but suggests the middle: "Let us make good our
> status as heirs."
>
> It would appear that the middle versus passive meaning is being  
> entertained
> for the same reading. The passive meaning "be made" is self  
> evident, which
> BibleWorks flags as passive for the critical reading of GENHQWMEN
> entertained in the previous discussion. However, for the alternate  
> reading
> in the majority text, GENWQWMEN, BibleWorks labels this as middle. So
> BibleWorks poses middle versus passive translation based on the  
> form found
> in the text.
>
> First, is the claim being made in the above discussion that the  
> word may
> have middle meaning regardless of which reading is preferred?
>
> Second, how active is the middle meaning? For example, does it mean  
> to make
> yourself through deliberate effort or to allow oneself to be made  
> through
> passive consent? How active is the middle translation of "become"  
> as apposed
> to the passive understanding of "be made."

What I say about the middle and passive forms is that the involvement  
of the subject may be conscious and deliberate or may be wholly  
unconscious as a process which the subject undergoes: EGENETO "he  
came to birth"; this verb-form does NOT mean "was delivered (by a  
mother) but "entered into existence. On the other hand, we read in  
John 1:3 PANTA DI' AUTOU EGENETO ... ; here one may interpret the  
form EGENETO as bearing a passive sense, although it still means  
essentially "came into existence"; it's just that the qualifying  
phrase DI' AUTOU clearly indicates that things did not come into  
being of their own volition but through the agency of the LOGOS.

One ought not to get boxed in to supposing that questions of voice  
are to be resolved in simple EITHER/OR terms. What these middle- 
passive verb forms most essentially indicate is that the verb's  
subject is undergoing some process or alteration, whether by its own  
or by some other person's or factor's initiative.

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




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