[B-Greek] middle voice - still looking for more answers

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 24 14:53:22 EST 2009


Correction:  I did NOT SAY that λυμαινομαι LUMAINOMAI was always deponent.  I never mentioned anything in the context of being deponentt (or even mentioned the word).

If you check LSJ you will find that ἀντιτάσσω ANTITASSW does indeed have a subject focus. In the active it has the sense "range in battle" while in the middle it has the sense of "oppose" (i.e. "set one's self against").  I'll not take the time to check further, but it is quite possible that a similar situation may prevail in other cases as well.
 george
gfsomsel 


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________________________________
From: Louis Sorenson <llsorenson at hotmail.com>
To: B-Greek List mail to all <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>; George Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>; edmishoe at yahoo.com; Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 12:19:17 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] middle voice - still looking for more answers


I generally keep out of such arguments, and will probably regret this email. I think both statements are innaccurate.  The middle form cannot always be construed as being subject focused.  Neither can the middle form be relegated for "deponent verbs" as being only active, and not subject focused.  (Perhaps I am not representing Eddie's and Mark's arguments correctly).  Those of us who are not at the SBL conference are perhaps missing some of the input of the usuals. Taking Carl Conrad's suppostion that the middle is primarily subject focused.  We could understand the passages as following

Acts 8:3
Σαῦλος δὲ ἐλυμαίνετο τὴν ἐκκλησίαν κατὰ τοὺς οἴκους εἰσπορευόμενος, σύρων τε ἄνδρας καὶ γυναῖκας παρεδίδου εἰς φυλακήν.
Saul focused himself on destroying the church....or... Saul devoted himself to destroying the church....or...Saul was preoccupied with destroying the church....
BDAG:  Saul was making it hard for the (Christian) community 
Romans 13:2
 ὥστε ὁ ἀντιτασσόμενος τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ διαταγῇ ἀνθέστηκεν, οἱ δὲ ἀνθεστηκότες ἑαυτοῖς κρίμα λήμψονται.

ἑαυτοῖς λήμψονται.....  Those opposing (it) will accept(?) judgement against themselves. 
ESV:Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 

(my comments:) Is not λήμψαονται  subject focused.  Accepting something is a subject focused event. "Took to himself".  Just because the reflexive ἑαυτοῖς is used does not negate that λημψονται is not reflexive.  Because A imples B does not mean that B implies C.  

My initial reaction is to say that both responses are wrong.  You can never say something as an absolute when talking about language.  

Eddie is arguing(?) that middle forms always have a middle (=subject focused?) element? ....

    "I have not run up against a Middle verb? that I would say is Active in meaning"Mark is arguing that some middles have no middle force.  His argument is that the writer chose to add εαυτοις.  If it were middle, the writer would not have had to add the reflexive pronoun.  (I think this is a moot argument - an analysis of all reflexive pronouns would have to be proved to rely on this argument).

G. Somfsel state that λυμαινομαι has always been deponent and carries that baggage with it.  A quick search of TLG shows that the word (searching for λυμαιν -- the present) has 1891 occurances.  I could only find several (less than 10) which were active.  Almost all were middle/passive.  

Just some thoughts,

Louis Sorenson







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