[B-Greek] John 12:2a

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Fri May 5 03:38:25 EDT 2006


>
> EPOIHSAN OUN AUTWi DEIPNON EKEI
>
> Strangely, EPOIHSAN is taken here as "passive in
> sense" by one commentator. What is the difference
> between a Causitive Active and an Active verb that is
> "passive in sense"?
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas

Hi, Mitch,

You are very observant and asking some good questions.
What you have here is the third person plural used in an indefinite sense. It is not a matter of "causative active". 
Some languages have an indefinite pronoun like "on" in French and "man" in German and Scandinavian languages. Other 
languages have an indefinite plural affix on the verb in addition to a normal third person plural affix. The function of 
this pronoun or verbal affix is to have a semantically empty subject slot, meaning that someone unknown or unspecified 
did the action.

English lacks both of these options. It has neither an indefinite pronoun nor an indefinite verbal affix. To compensate 
for this lack in the English language, various means are employed. Sometimes we can say "you" meaning people in general, 
sometimes we can say "one", sometimes even "they". But the most common way of saying the same thing in English is by 
using a passive construction, because the semantic function of passive is to be able to describe an action without 
having to specify the agent. I work with an African language with an indefinite suffix but no passive. So, verbs with 
this indefinite suffix are always translated by a passive in English.

Greek does not have an indefinite pronoun or verbal affix, but it quite often uses the third person plural verb form in 
this extended impersonal or indefinite sense, and Greek does that much more often than English. (Hebrew also sues the 
third person plural in an indefinite sense).

In this verse you can see that the actors in the preceding verse are Jesus (with disciples implicit) and Lazarus. Then 
v. 2 says "They prepared a meal for him there". If you say "they" in English as every literal version would probably do, 
it is confusing, because neither Lazarus, Jesus or the disciples made the meal. That is why the communicative 
translations would prefer to use an English passive as the NLT does: "A dinner was prepared in Jesus' honor." The NLT is 
a more accurate rendering in English of the semantic intent of the Greek text than the literal versions are, but it is 
further away from the Greek surface structure, because there is a mismatch between Greek and English grammar..

Another famous example that comes to mind is Matt 1:23: KAI KALESOUSIN TO hONOMA AUTOU EMMANOUHL. Which translated into 
normal English is as NLT and GNB say: "and he will be called Immanuel".

Iver Larsen





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