[B-Greek] Gal 1:12 EDIDACQHN

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun May 22 16:54:00 EDT 2005


 
On Sunday, May 22, 2005, at 03:47PM, William Hassold <sarwilha at atlantic.net> wrote:

>I believe EDIDACQH is a so-called numinous passive, where Paul, as a good 
>Jew hesitates to name the name of God.  Rather he uses the passive voice to 
>indicate that God was the teacher.

That's sometimes called a "divine" passive; I've never been convinced that any native Greek-speaker has used that, nor am I wholly convinced that it's ever a satisfactory understanding of a Greek "passive" voiice.

What EDIDACQHN means in the simplest English is "I got instruction"; that's capable of either a middle ("I acquired learning of my own volition" or a passive understanding ("I was given instruction"), but the Greek verb-form isn't concerned with HOW the speaker/writer got instruction. I'd probably prefer to understand this as passive, but especially not as a "divine passive," precisely because Paul says OUTE EDIDACQHN--he did NOT gain instruction.

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
>To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2005 2:07 PM
>Subject: [B-Greek] Gal 1:12 EDIDACQHN
>
>
>>
>> OUDE GAR EGW PARA ANQRWPOU PARELABON AUTO, OUTE
>> EDIDACQHN, ALLA DI' APOKALUYEWS IHSOU CRISTOU
>>
>> The reason for the following question is because I am
>> unable to see any difference in "receiving it" and
>> "being taught it."
>>
>> Is it remotely possible to take EDIDACQHN as Middle? I
>> think this might be a stretch, but I would then
>> understand Paul to be saying something like this:
>>
>> I neither received it from a human nor did I teach it
>> (that is, it wasn't something I concocted and taught
>> on my own) but [I received it] through a revelation
>> from Jesus Christ
>>
>> I believe I've read in earlier posts here where there
>> is a fairly close affinity between the Middle and
>> Active, and as can be seen, my English translation
>> above must use the English Active Voice to try to get
>> this Greek Middle idea across.
>>
>> Even if I'm wrong (which I suspect is highly likely),
>> being corrected will help me understand the extent to
>> which a Middle voice can be used.
>>
>>
>>
>> Mitch Larramore
>> Sugar Land, Texas
>>
>>
>>
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>> 
>
>
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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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