[B-Greek] passive mood vs. active mood with a reflexive pronoun

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Oct 27 10:15:36 EDT 2006


On Oct 26, 2006, at 10:11 PM, Wayne Kerrigan wrote:

> John seems to use the active verb with a reflexive pronoun to  
> signify that the subject
> is also the object of the verb (Jn. 2:24).  The Bible refers to  
> Christ as having been raised by the Father; could this also be  
> implied in John's usage of the passive verb in John 2:22, which  
> literally reads, "When he was raised from the dead"?

Texts (since our discussion concerns the Greek, we really MUST have  
these texts in front of our eyes):
2:24 AUTOS DE IHSOUS OUK EPISTEUSEN AUTON  AUTOIS DIA TO AUTON  
GINWSKEIN PANTAS.
2:22 hOTE OUN HGERQH EK NEKRWN, EMNHSQHSAN hOI MAQHTAI AUTOU hOTI  
TOUTO ELEGEN, KAI EPISTEUSAN THi GRAFHi KAI TWi LOGWi hON EIPEN hO  
IHSOUS.

Of course, "active" and "passive" are not "moods" but are usually  
termed "voices," although the Greek term DIAQESEIS "dispositions" or  
"relative positions (of subject, object, etc.)" is probably a more  
appropriate descriptive name.

I think there's some confusion here about the voices and voice usage.  
Long-term list-members know very well that this doesn't surprise me  
because I think that voice is one of the least-understood and most  
poorly-taught feature of the Greek verbal system. I would recommend  
my "introduction to Ancient Greek Voice" (http://www.ioa.com/ 
~cwconrad/UndAncGrkVc.pdf); my current thinking about ancient Greek  
voice may be found at http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html

(a) John 2:24. The verb PISTEUW in biblical Koine well illustrates  
the need to grasp the idiomatic usage of particular verbs rather than  
to rely upon a two- or three-word gloss for meaning. There is a  
lengthy entry in BDAG for PISTEUW; the usage of this verb in John  
2:24 is down in #3. "entrust" TI TINI. The usage of the verb with a  
reflexive pronoun "trust oneself to someone" is not uncommon; the  
BDAG article is worth reading in its entirety, especially inasmuch as  
this verb is so important and ranges over a breadth of usage in the  
GNT. It should be noted that the "middle" voice ordinarily indicates  
the involvement of the subject in the process of the verb and only  
very rarely that the subject is also a direct object.

(b) John 2:22 The verb HGERQH is not really passive; the form is the  
middle-passive of EGEIROMAI, "awake," "rise up." EGEIROMAI really  
ought to be seen as the primary form of this verb whereas the active  
EGEIRW is essentially a causative form of EGEIROMAI: "awaken," "make  
to rise up." There is no aorist "middle" form EGEIRAMHN and the older  
second-aorist HGROMHN that is found in Homer is obsolete, having been  
replaced by HGERQHN. The HGERQHN must be understood as the middle- 
passive aorist equivalent of the middle-passive present EGEIROMAI.  
Although HGERQHN -- or HGERQH, the form in John 2:22 -- may be  
understood as a passive when clearly indicated to be such by context  
or by an instrumental dative or hUPO + genitive agent construction,  
it ought ordinarily to be understood as an intransitive aorist  
indicating that the subject is engaged in a process.

Two third-person aorist verbs are commonly used in the GNT to state  
the resurrection of Jesus: ANESTH from ANISTAMAI and EGERQH from  
EGEIROMAI. There is no semantic difference between HGERQH and ANESTH.



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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