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

Terry and Gail Cook cookie99 at fuse.net
Tue Jun 28 08:00:40 EDT 2005


Dr Conrad,
I get the dreaded "the page cannot be displayed" error code when I click on 
the links below.
Terry Cook
sDg



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: "B-Greek b-greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: <Marty.Cauley at sfrep.com>
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] GINOMAI: Middle or Passive in Tit 3:7?


> 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/
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
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> 





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