[B-Greek] middle voice or passive voice?

Apologeten post at apologeten.no
Sat May 21 07:25:59 EDT 2005


Hello greek scholars!

Maybe it is a silly question, but anyway, here it is:

Recently I read that the greek verbs have identical forms in the present and the imperfect tenses in the middle voice and in the passive voice. I have also read that it is possible to decide whether a verb is in the middle voice or in the passive voice in these tenses only by context. Now to my question: What in the context is it that can tell the difference? What markers to look for? Do the scholars make a good guess, or do they know for sure?

My question springs from my study of the word "epikaleo" in the NT. The "Blue letter Bible" tells me that this word is in the middle voice quite a few times. Can I be sure that this information is correct? Let me give you 1.Corinthians 1:2 as a concrete example to discuss. How is it possible to determine that "epikaleo" here is in the middle voice and not in the passive voice?


I have also read that the middle voice more or less had gone out of use i NT times. Do you have any comments to this?

Greetings,
Fred
(Norway)


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