[B-Greek] middle voice or passive voice?

malcolm robertson mjriii2003 at yahoo.com
Fri May 27 09:39:45 EDT 2005


Iver Larsen wrote:
 
"....or by the help of a concordance, look up the 30 instances of the verb in 
the GNT and categorize the senses according to context."
 
Which is exactly what Bauer did.  Lexica are produced through the observance of words in various contexts and their deduced meaning(s) are categorized accordingly.  The same holds true for grammars etc.
 
Cordially in Christ,
 
Malcolm Robertson
 




Iver Larsen <iver at larsen.dk> wrote:
Hi, Fred,

> On this background, what would be the most probable translation
> of EPIKALEW in 1.Kor.1:2?
>
> Malcolm suggests "all who are themselves calling upon the name
> ...". As I see it, this is only one solution.

I don't see that as a possible solution.

> The passive sense of EPIKALEW (as we find it in Acts 15:17 and
> James 2:7) is evidently to bear the name of Christ, i.e. that
> other people call you by the name of Christ and recognise you as
> one of his disciples, that is to say: that you are a christian!
>
> Now, if the middle sense is close to this sense, could it not then
> mean in 1.Cor.1:2:
>
> "all who take upon themselves the name of Christ" (i.e. - choose
> to be one of his followers, to be a christian)

It is usually the context that helps one to decide whether the sense of a
morphologically ambiguous form is middle or passive in sense.
Since you have chosen the word EPIKALEW, which happens to be one of the few
verbs that has the 3-fold distinction between active, middle and passive, I
would suggest to look at places like the following.

First, if the sense is "give a name to someone" the active and the passive
are the expected forms, e.g.:
Matt 10:25 EI TON OIKODESPOTHN BEELZEBOUL EPEKALHSAN (aorist active - since
they called the master Belzebul)
Acts 1:23 IWSHF TON KALOUMENON BARSABBAN hOS EPEKLHQH IOUSTOS (aorist
passive - who was called Yustos)
Acts 10:5 HOS EPIKALEITAI PETROS (present passive - who is called Petros)

I suppose if you give yourself a name, you might use the middle, although
more likely use a reflexive pronoun.

Second, if the word is connected with a prepositional phrase with EPI, we
get a different sense as in Acts 15:17 and James 2:7 (the only NT passages
with this sense). BAGD has this to say about it:
"The pass. is used w. hONOMA, as in the OT, in EPIKALEITAI TO hONOMA TINOS
EPI TINA someone’s name is called over someone to designate the latter as
the property of the former (of God’s name 2 Km 6:2; 3 Km 8:43; Jer 7:30;
14:9 and oft.) Ac 15:17 (Am 9:12, also 2 Ch 7:14). ... Js 2:7"

Thirdly, in the middle form and sense, the verb refers to calling for help
from someone, so that the person doing the calling benefits from it. This is
sense 2 in BAGD and the sense that is found in 1 Cor 1:2.

It is correct that "calling upon (the name of) God (for help)" is a way of
referring to Christians who habitually do that, and because it is
descriptive, the participle is to be expected. Apart from 1 Cor 1:2, you
find it in Acts 9:14 and 21.

All of this you can arrive at in at least two ways. Look it up in Bauer, or
by the help of a concordance, look up the 30 instances of the verb in the
GNT and categorize the senses according to context.

Iver Larsen
pt. Denmark



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