[B-Greek] hAPTW

Tom Moore tom at katabiblon.com
Wed Jul 23 01:53:47 EDT 2008


re: "But who on earth structures it that way?"

Sorry, I guess I spoke "inartfully" on this point. I agree that "Who is the one being touched by me?" is incorrect. My point was supposed to be that what *looks* like a passive construct (which is what I meant by structured) is in fact not a passive, as a lead-in to my question about 1 Cor 7:1. 1 Cor 7:1 is (I think) the only case in the GNT of hAPTW mp + gen where the voice is not obvious from context (it could make sense whether read as a middle or as a passive). It's these other cases therefore, such as Luke 8:45, that show that the mp form in 1 Cor 7:1 is middle voice, that the man is doing the touching and the woman is the one being touched.

That is, if hAPTW means "to touch" in this verse. But it seemed a reasonable question to me, given "burn" in 7:9, that perhaps Paul could be playing on hAPTW's other meaning,"to light" or "to kindle." (Could one not say LUCNOS hAPETAI [a lamp is lit] or PURA hAYAMENH [upon a fire being kindled]?) I've seen no other examples of passive hAPTW, so perhaps it is not a possibility, and so I asked.

Thanks for the answer,
Tom


>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
>  Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hAPTW
>  Sent: Jul 22 '08 22:08
>  
>  
>  On Jul 22, 2008, at 5:22 PM, Tom Moore wrote:
>  
>  > hAPTW
>  >
>  > hAPTW in the active morphoparadigm is to light a lamp (Luke 8:16,  
>  > 11:33, and 15:8) or to kindle a fire (Luke 22:55 and Acts 28:2).
>  >
>  > hAPTW in the middle-passive (mp) form + genitive is to touch someone  
>  > or something. For example, when Jesus in Luke 8:45 asks, "Who  
>  > touched me?" (TIS hO hAYAMENOS MOU;) the question is structured as,  
>  > "Who is the one being touched by me?"
>  
>  But who on earth structures it that way? It should be (if we're trying  
>  to represent the Greek structure in an English paraphrase), "Who is  
>  the one having laid a hand on me?"
>  
>  > My first question is: How should the voice in the second usage be  
>  > classified: active? middle? middle-deponent?
>  
>  Middle. This is one of those verbs that should probably be lemmatized  
>  with the middle form hAPTOMAI; it is really the active form that is  
>  secondary. You might note that the verb appears 39x in the GNT, 4x in  
>  the active, 35x in the middle. There are certainly no passive usages  
>  of this verb in the GNT.
>  
>  > ***
>  >
>  > My second question:
>  >
>  > Περὶ δὲ ὧν ἐγράψατέ, καλὸν  
>  > ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι. (1 Cor  
>  > 7:1)
>  > PERI DE hWN EGRAYATE, KALON ANQRWPWi GUNAIKOS MH hAPTESQAI.
>  >
>  > If we follow the second usage, then "KALON ANQRWPWi GUNAIKOS MH  
>  > hAPTESQAI" would be translated "It is good for a man to not touch a  
>  > woman" rather than "to not be touched by a woman."
>  >
>  > But in light (pun not intended) of 1 Cor 7:9--"For it is better to  
>  > marry than to burn"--could 1 Cor 7:1 actually be a passive of the  
>  > first sense: "It is good for a man not be set on fire [that is,  
>  > aroused to desire] by a woman"?
>  
>  No, no, no, no! That's putting the cart before the horse; the middle  
>  form is standard; the active form is causative: "bring into contact."  
>  You might have a look at my page on ancient Greek voice: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html
>  
>  Carl W. Conrad
>  Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>  
>  
>  
>  



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