[B-Greek] divine passive?
vunzndi at vfemail.net
vunzndi at vfemail.net
Thu Jul 31 01:11:30 EDT 2008
The passive, in most cases is the same as the middle, can have many
different usages or meanings. The whether or not something is "divine
passive" can in some cases be open to interpretation. In many cases a
question of what was in the mind of the author. Whereas the "blessed"
of the beatititudes is something almost everyone would acknowledge as
the use of a "divine passive", the example s from the Lord's prayer
are not so clear.
The "divine passive" as such is common in many languages. It would be
unusal to say the least however for someone to say I am now going to
use a "divine passive". The question one should ask is what is being
said here, what is being ment here. The answer one gives however,
depends as much on ones view of how the kingdom comes. Those who view
the coming of the kingdom as an act of God say it is a divine passive,
those who view the coming of the kingdom as dependent upon human
response would argue otherwise.
Regards
John Knightley
Quoting "Matson, Mark (Academic)" <MAMatson at milligan.edu>:
> Dear List:
>
> I have been doing a lot of research on the use of the third person
> imperatives in the Lord's Prayer (am reading this weekend at CBA on
> this). There are tons of questions about the use of these third person
> imperatives. Mine here is fairly precise.
>
> In Betz's commentary on the Lord's Prayer, and in a few other
> references, Betz emphasizes that at least two of the imperatives are
> passive, and he points to Blass-Debrunner for support that this is a
> passivum divinum, a divine passive. The references in BDF are sections
> 130(1), 313, and 342 (1).
>
> By suggesting this is a divine passive (i.e., a passive that seeks to
> avoid directly naming God), he is suggesting that it really is
> functioning equivalent to a second person imperative, and thus God is
> the agent for the actions (hallowing his name, doing his will; and by
> extension bringing in his kingdom). And a corollary to this, then, is
> that this is eschatological in focus, since all of this will not be
> "done" until the eschaton. For a lot of reasons I have problems with
> this, but mostly they focus on the nature of the third person
> imperative, not the passive aspect.
>
> My question concerns this concept of the divine passive. How extensive
> of a concept is it? Frankly, BDF's comments are obscure, and mostly (2
> of the 3 entries) seem to be based on Jeremias's Eucharistic Words of
> Jesus book. Jeremias seems to see a lot coming out of Aramaic. I could
> not find a direct reference in Robertson or Moulton.
>
> Is the heavy influence of Aramaic presence really that apparent and
> common in biblical prayers? In contemporary Greek, was a passive
> commonly used in prayers to avoid naming God? What little I could find
> (including much earlier Homer, but also some Eleusinian prayers) it
> seems that God is pretty directly named. And 2nd singular active
> imperatives often used. But I very much might be missing something
> here. I would welcome your input on this.
>
>
> [P.S. I have a hunch the passive is there for far more mundane reasons,
> like obscuring or shifting the agent]
>
> Mark A. Matson
> Academic Dean
> Milligan College
> http://www.milligan.edu/administrative/mmatson/personal.htm
>
>
>
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