[B-Greek] divine passive?
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jul 31 10:47:47 EDT 2008
While the passive-voice form may certainly be employed to avoid
mention of the subject/agent of the verb, the subject can also be
omitted from an active-voice form, provided that the subject is
readily discernible from the context. That the passive-voice form is
used deliberately to avoid mentioning God's name has always struck me
as a dubious proposition, although I know it is widely held. It is a
sort of 'argumentum e silentio': the subject/agent is not named, so it
is ASSUMED to be God? Why make such an assumption unless there is no
other conceivable agent? And why assume that there's an intention to
avoid use of God's name in the selection of the passive form? This
strikes me as somewhat similar to an argument I recall from years ago
that the so-called "accusative absolute" (involving a neuter
participle of an impersonal verb) is really a "nominative absolute":
that's conceivably true, but nobody will ever be able to prove it
because it's always a neuter singular participle involved and the
nominative and accusative neuter participle singular is the self-same
form.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
On Jul 30, 2008, at 5:20 PM, Matson, Mark (Academic) wrote:
> 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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