[B-Greek] Is hEUREQH middle or passive?

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Sat Feb 4 05:04:35 EST 2006


>From Iver Larsen to Carl Conrad et.al.

It looks like the main difference of opinion between Carl and me is that Carl may still be convinced that hEUREQH is 
middle in sense, while I agree with the majority of tradition that it is best interpreted as passive.

I have occasional problems with the > insertion in Outlook Express, so I'll just keep a few of Carl's comments below to 
interact with:

Carl said:
Now the reason I originally raised the issue of the phrasing of Mt
1:18 and in particular of the verb-form hEUREQH is (a) I am convinced
that this is an instance of a -QH- aorist that is not really passive
but rather the aorist form of the middle hEURISKOMAI, and (b) it
seems reasonably clear that hEURISKOMAI is a distinct idiom in NT
Greek, very like derivative from the Hebrew NiMTSa' and not unlikely
to bear a meaning very close to French 'se trouver' and German 'sich
finden', which verbs bear the sense "become." I don't fancy that I've
won over all my readers to my point of view about this, but some seem
to think I might be right about it.

Iver Larsen:
It is correct that there is a tradition in French versions to use "se trouver" in Matt 1:18, but the situation in German 
versions is more complex. I am not ready to accept that either of those expressions bear the sense "become". If that is 
the best English rendering, then that is a problem with English. The Luther Bible says "Fand es sich dass sie schwanger 
war" where the neuter form es does not refer to the femine Mary. It is an impersonal construction, similar to Carl's 
later suggestion "it came to light" (as far as I know German, which is not very much.) The Gute Nachricht says "Da 
stellte sich heraus dass Maria ein Kind erwartete..." (I don't know the best translation of that.)

CC again:

Here's my English
paraphrase wherein I endeavor to add nothing that is not clearly set
forth in the Greek text:

"This is how Jesus Christ was born. His mother Mary and Joseph were
engaged to be married but had not yet consummated their marriage when
it came to light (or "she realized")  that she was pregnant by the
Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband-to-be, since he was a Law-
observant man and didn't intend to subject her to scandal, decided he
would quietly dissolve the marriage arrangement. That's what he had
in mind, but in a dream the angel of the Lord appeared to him and
said, 'Joseph ben David, don't be afraid to accept Mary as your wife:
what she's conceived comes from the Holy Spirit.' "

I really would prefer "she realized" for hEUREQH here, on grounds
that she's the only one who could reasonably suspect that the seed
sown in her came from the Holy Spirit. Clearly she must have told
Joseph, probably even told him that SHE was sure that this was the
Holy Spirit's doing, but from the sparse narrative of the evangelist
it would appear that he surely had his doubts about that and only a
special revelation could overcome them.

Iver:

Your translation "it came to light" is a much better rendering of our Danish "det viste sig" than "it emerged" as I 
first suggested. Thank you.
I think the main reason you prefer "she realized" is your assumption that hEUREQH is to be understood as middle in sense 
rather than passive.

Can that assumption be supported by NT usage? The thread has gone a bit astray from Greek by discussing the semantic 
range of "find oneself" in English. This English expression is not equivalent to the Greek hEUREQH which one can easily 
see by trying to use it in other places where the Greek word occurs.

The aorist indicative passive of this verb is used 17 times in the GNT. In 15 of these cases, a passive (impersonal) 
rather than a middle sense is clearly the best interpretation. For those who need these references, they are:
Lk 9:36, 15:24,32, 17:18
Rom 7:10, 10:20, Gal 2:17, 1 Pet 2:22
Rev 5:4, 12:8, 14:15, 16:20, 18:24, 20:11,15

The two main instances where one might argue for a middle are Mat 1:18 and Acts 8:40, and both have featured prominently 
in the discussions, because they were selected as examples of a possible middle sense. However, the passive sense is 
also possible in both cases and as far as I can see is the better interpretation in these two cases like in all the 
others. One of the problems with understanding a passive sense of hEURISKW is that people tend to translate by English 
"find" and then exegete from the passive usage of that word in English.

Although grammatically, the Greek constructions can be said to be "personal", semantically they are "impersonal" in most 
cases, because the experiencer is normally not expressed. Carl is quite right in saying that one of the most common 
reasons for using a passive is the freedom to not have to express the agent, or in this case the experiencer. In the few 
cases where the experiencer is explicit, it is always expressed by a dative.

Let me look at an interesting case from Rom 10:20. Interesting because of its parallelism:

hEUREQHN TOIS ME ZHTOUSIN
EMFANHS EGENOMHN TOIS EME MH EPERWTWSIN

"I was found by those who are not seeking me
I became visible/known to those who are not asking for me"
(Apparently a reordered quote from the LXX of Isa 65:1).

The semantic subject (experiencer) is in both cases the dative "those who did not seek me".
The semantic patient/object is God (the grammatical subject)

Some, including BAGD, prefer to take the second line in a middle sense (I revealed myself), but that is IMO unwarranted, 
and it changes the focus ever so slightly. The focus in this text is the contrast between the Jews and non-Jews, one 
group recognised/came to know/found God, the other didn't.

Acts 8:40:
When Philip appeared in Azotus, the next sentence has him preaching publicly all over the place, so the sense of 
"appearing" and become known/visible fits very well.
The various English translations waver:
RSV: But Philip was found in Azotus  - not a good translation. Too literal, wrong connotations.
NIV: Philip, however, appeared at Azotus - Good, since he had just disappeared from a previous place, and this catches 
the similarity between the passive of hEURISKW and the passive of EMFANIZW (occurs twice: Mt 27:53, Heb 9:24), and the 
more common passive of EFANW (appear/be seen).
NET: Philip, however, found himself - Questionable, because it introduces a focus on Philip as experiencer that I don't 
think is intended in the passive hEUREQH, based on the usage of this verb elsewhere in the GNT.

So, to sum up, for Mt 1:18 I agree with the interpretation that is expressed by Carl's excellent rendering in English 
"it came to light". This agrees with how the verb is used in a passive and impersonal sense all other places in the GNT, 
and it fits the context. It avoids the need to make explicit who realized it, because that should be left to the 
context. It seems clear that Mary would be the one to first discover it, and I reject any suggestion of a public 
investigation as contradicting the context and quite unnecessary. That this came about by the Holy Spirit, is something 
that Mary would have known, but not Joseph at that time. Once Mary told Joseph of her condition (or he found out 
himself, the text does not tell us), she probably told Joseph about the Holy Spirit and the visit of an angel, which he 
naturally had a very hard time believing. Or maybe she didn't tell him, because she knew he wouldn't believe her. We can 
speculate, but such speculations should not be added to the translated text, nor should they decide the interpretation 
of the Greek verb.

Iver Larsen 




More information about the B-Greek mailing list