[B-Greek] TARASSW voice

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue May 29 14:16:45 EDT 2007


Here are some sample texts that offer evidence supporting the notion  
that TARASSW involves participation from the subject when inflected  
either middle-pass or aorist-pass.

1PET. 3:14 ALL' EI KAI PASCOITE DIA DIKAIOSUNHN, MAKARIOI. TON DE  
FOBON AUTWN MH FOBHQHTE MHDE TARACQHTE,

JOHN 14:1 MH TARASSESQW hUMWN hH KARDIA: PISTEUETE EIS TON QEON KAI  
EIS EME PISTEUETE.

JOHN 14:27 EIRHNHN AFIHMI hUMIN, EIRHNHN THN EMHN DIDWMI hUMIN: OU  
KAQWS hO KOSMOS DIDWSIN EGW DIDWMI hUMIN. MH TARASSESQW hUMWN hH  
KARDIA MHDE DEILIATW.

All three of the above are commands which clearly imply that the  
addressees have some level of control over or participation in the  
process/state referred to by TARASSW. I would argue that in regard to  
voice  MHDE TARACQHTE in 1PET. 3:14 is semantically quite similar to  
MH TARASSESQW hUMWN hH KARDIA even though the figurative expression  
hUMWN hH KARDIA alters the dynamics somewhat.

Two interesting texts texts that involve IHSOUS:

JOHN 11:33 IHSOUS OUN hWS EIDEN AUTHN KLAIOUSAN KAI TOUS SUNELQONTAS  
AUTHi IOUDAIOUS KLAIONTAS, ENEBRIMHSATO TWi PNEUMATI KAI ETARAXEN  
hEAUTON

The expression ETARAXEN hEAUTON might be called an active reflexive.  
It clearly demonstrates that TARASSW involves the participation of  
the person affected. Compare it to the following which is inflected  
as an aorist-pass but most likely is semantically middle.


JOHN 13:21 TAUTA EIPWN [hO] IHSOUS ETARACQH TWi PNEUMATI KAI  
EMARTURHSEN KAI EIPEN: AMHN AMHN LEGW hUMIN hOTI hEIS EX hUMWN  
PARADWSEI ME.

Thank you Carl, this is a topic the needs some attention from those  
who write text books. The tour I took of the currently available  
reference grammars wasn't very encouraging.

Elizabeth Kline


On May 29, 2007, at 3:15 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>
> On May 29, 2007, at 1:04 AM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
>> I have been reading on the topic of voice for over a week now,
>> starting with all the standard reference grammars including some not
>> so standard like Guy Cooper, and having refreshed my memory about the
>> traditional framework, today I spend several hours reading the main
>> body of Carl's paper and would like to pose a question about TARASSW
>> when it is used to describe a state of human consciousness either a
>> single human or a group.
>>
>> MATT. 2:3 AKOUSAS DE hO BASILEUS hHRWiDHS ETARACQH KAI PASA
>> hIEROSOLUMA MET' AUTOU
>>
>> It seems that hO BASILEUS hHRWiDHS is a participant in the process or
>> state referred to by ETARACQH and for that reason it could be read in
>> a middle sense as defined in Carl's paper.
>
> I would characterize TARASSW/TARASSOMAI as a "middle verb" in terms  
> of §3 of my account at http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html:
>
> 3.  In lieu of the term “deponent” I would suggest that we speak  
> of “middle verbs.” I would use this term for verbs whose primary  
> present-tense form is middle-voice; that would include all the  
> verbs that are traditionally or conventionally termed “deponent”  
> but it would also include a sizable number of essentially  
> intransitive verbs that display common middle-voice present-tense  
> forms but also have a transitive active-voice form in the present  
> tense, e.g. ἐγείρομαι (EGEIROMAI) “awake” or “rise  
> up” with present active ἐγείρω (EGEIRW) “awaken” or  
> “rouse” or “raise up,” or ἵσταμαι (hISTAMAI)  
> “stand up” with present active ἵστημι (hISTHMI) “cause  
> to stand” or “establish,” ἀγείρομαι (AGEIROMAI)  
> “assemble together” with present causative active ἀγείρω  
> (AGEIRW) “bring together” or “cause to gather.”
>
> In the GNT the verb TARASSW/TARASSOMAI appears 17x: 6x active, 11x  
> middle-passive. In the LXX it appears 117x: 24x active, 83x middle- 
> passive.
>
>
> 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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