[B-Greek] Acts 2:40 SWQHTE

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 3 05:11:13 EDT 2008


Here's another item that somehow fell through the cracks. I'm  
forwarding it to the list and I'll offer a response of my own.

From: "Brant Clements" <clements at grics.net>
Date: April 2, 2008 1:20:46 PM EDT
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Acts 2:40 SWQHTE

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Acts 2:40

  ἑτέροις τε λόγοις πλείοσιν  
διεμαρτύρατο καὶ παρεκάλει αὐτοὺς  
λέγων Σώθητε ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς τῆς  
σκολιᾶς ταύτης
HETEROIS TE LOGOIS PLEIOSIN DIEMARTURATO KAI PARAKALEI AUTOUS LEGWN  
SWQHTE APO THS GENEAS THS SKOLIAS TAUTHS

When I translated this verse from next Sunday's lectionary, I came up  
with:

And by many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, "Be  
saved from this crooked generation."

I took SWQHTE as the aorist passive imperative second person plural of  
SWZW.

Comparing my translation to the New Revised Standard Version, I found  
that SWQHTE was translated "Save yourselves...." Digging into other  
versions, I found that many of them supply the reflexive prounoun,  
though some (including Dr. Nyland's translation) agree with my "Be  
saved...."

I find neither a middle voice nor a reflexive pronoun in the Greek to  
justify the translation "Save yourselves...." Am I overlooking  
something, or are some of the standard English versions just wrong on  
this verse?

Thank you,

Brant Clements
==========
It is of course true that the form σώθητε (SWQHTE) is "passive"  
in terms of morphological paradigm. The question is: How can you  
command a person to be acted upon by another or others? A command  
requires action on the part of the person to whom the command is  
issued. The usual workaround for this problem is to call SWQHTE a  
"permissive passive" and assert that the command is an exhortation to  
do something that will result in the completion of the action  
indicated by the verb: "Get yourselves saved" might express this  
notion well. On the other hand, some might say that "Save yourselves"  
really conveys the same meaning -- that those to whom the command is  
given will take an action that will result in their salvation, even if  
the salvation is not something that they bring directly upon themselves.

 From the perspective of the morphology and meanings inherent in the  
middle-passive forms, I think it should be noted that there is no  
SEMANTIC differentiation between such a form as SWSASQE or SWSATE  
hEAUTOUS or SWQHTE. SWSASQE doesn't appear in the GNT although we do  
find such expressions as SWSON SEAUTON (Mk 15:30) and SWSAI THN YUCHN  
AUTOU ("save one's own soul"). That is to say: all these expressions  
indicate that the subject acts in such a way as to bring about or  
effect his/her salvation. An argument that I have been urging in this  
very forum for some time is that the aorist and future "passive" forms  
in -QH- should be understood as capable of bearing either a middle or  
passive semantic force just as do the MAI/SAI/TAI/MHN/SO/TO forms in  
the other five tense paradigms. I don't think it makes a bit of  
difference whether you call the form SWQHTE a "permissive passive" or  
a "permissive middle" -- the form really means "get yourself saved":  
the person(s) addressed is commanded to take an action that will  
result in salvation, whether or not the salvation is an effect that he/ 
she/they perform or rather is performed by an external agent.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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