[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/





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