[B-Greek] KATARGEW (was Genitive in Romans 6:6c)

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Sun Jul 16 07:11:12 EDT 2006


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>snip>

> With regard to the verb KATARGEW, I would consider it among those  verbs that are essentially middle (ergative) and it 
> probably should  be lemmatized KATARGOUMAI. The active KATARGEW is essentially the  causative for KATARGOUMAI; 
> KATARGHQHN is simply the aorist of  KATARGOUMAI. It can be Englished as a passive (e.g. "be rendered in  effective") 
> but there's really no difference in meaning from the  intransitive middle "become ineffectual."

For the word PAUSOMAI, I would be happy to consider it essentially middle with the sense "cease". It is basically a 
monovalent verb that does not normally take an object. It occurs 15 times in the GNT, 14 of which are marked by the 
Friberg tags as middle, and one is active. The subject is involved in some activity that ceases, so the focus of the 
subject is not the person, but the activity which that person is engaged in. In most cases, the activity involves 
speaking of some kind. It can occasionally be impersonal as when the storm ceased in Lk 8:24, or when the commotion died 
down in Acts 20:1. Usually, the activity that ceases is further explained by a participle (in the nominative rather than 
accusative, so it is not the object). In one case in the NT, the activity that ceases is expressed by a noun in the 
genitive (1 Pet 4:1 - cease to sin).
The only active form is in 1 Pet 3:10:
PAUSATW THN GLOSSAN APO KAKOU
(He ought to stop his tongue from evil)

This seems to be a causative - cause your tongue to cease speaking evil.

However, it seems to me that KATARGEW is rather different.
Again, a find a quick look at the Friberg tags helpful. (I only have those tags for the GNT. I wish I had other 
Hellenistic texts tagged and computerized like this to assist in research). The word occurs 27 times in the NT. 12 of 
these are marked as active, 15 as passive and none as middle.
The verb is basically divalent, requiring an agent and a patient. Someone or something puts something else out of 
action. The agent is not involved in the activity or principle that is put out of action. I am not against the sense 
"cause something to be ineffective", but I would still prefer to see the active form as the basic form. Linguists have 
discussed whether a verb like "kill" is derived from "cause to die". I am not sure if there is a consensus, but I would 
say that in most languages this is not a causative derivation.

The verb is a favourite of Paul. Only two of the 27 instances are found outside of Paul's letters.
One is in Lk 13:7: THN GHN KATARGEI - it puts the soil out of action
The other is Heb 2:14: hINA ... KATARGHSHi TON TO KRATOS ECONTA TOU QANATOU
(so that ... he could put out of action the one having power over death)

All the active forms involve an agent (which may be a principle) who/which nullifies the authority/power of a principle 
or law, or removes the authority/power of somebody.

In the passive forms, the agent is not specified, so the focus is on the law, principle or whatever it is that has been 
or is being put out of action.
This can be the promise of blessing (Rom 4:14), the life of sin (Rom 6:6), the rulers of this age (1 Cor 2:6), prophetic 
utterances (1 Cor 13:8), gifts of knowledge (1 Cor 13:8), the incomplete (1 Cor 13:19), death (1 Cor 15:26), the shine 
on Moses' face (2 Cor 3:7,13), the old covenant (2 Cor 3:11,14), the stumbling block of the cross (Gal 5:11).

There are 3 special cases where the verb (all in passive form) is connected with APO:

Rom 7:2: KATHRGHTAI APO TOU NOMOU TOU ANDROS
Rom  7:6 NUNI DE KATHRGHQHMEN APO TOU NOMOU
Gal 5:4 KATHRGHQHTE APO CRISTOU

The agent is not specified, but someone or something has caused the semantic patient (grammatical subject)  to be 
removed from the authority/power of the noun in the prepositional phrase.
The main difference from the previous examples is that the focus is not on the authority being put out of action, but on 
the person who is no longer under that authority.

Iver Larsen 




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