[B-Greek] Mt 5:42 APOSTRAFHS passive or active?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Dec 14 05:26:43 EST 2006
On Dec 14, 2006, at 12:13 AM, Oun Kwon wrote:
> Mt 5:42 the last clause is
>
> MH APOSTRAFHS
>
> Shouldn't this verb active? In the references, this is parsed as
> passive. What gives?
The parsing is correct. The verb APOSTREFW/APOSTREFOMAI means "turn
away"; the active forms are causative (make someone turn away), the
middle-passive forms are "ergative" intransitive (APOSTREFOMAI = "I
turn away (from)." The form APOSTRAFHiS IN MT 5:42 is the ergative/
intransitive form (middle-passive -- conventionally termed passive).
APOSTRAFHN is simply the aorist form of the middle-passive APOSTREFOMAI.
There are actually quite a few Greek verbs of this sort that have
active causative forms and middle-passive intransitive/ergative
forms. You might compare phrases like ANESTHSEN TOUS NEKROUS ("he
raised the dead" and ANESTH AUTOS ("he himself rose [from the dead]").
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list