[B-Greek] John 11:4 and the Middle/Passive of DOXAZW

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Feb 19 05:24:59 EST 2011


On Feb 19, 2011, at 12:28 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw at com-pair.net>
> To: "'B Greek'" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: 19. februar 2011 05:45
> Subject: [B-Greek] John 11:4 and the Middle/Passive of DOXAZW
> 
> 
>> Dear List,
>> 
>> I am curious about the following:
>> 
>> Ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Αὕτη ἡ ἀσθένεια οὐκ ἔστιν πρὸς θάνατον, ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ τῆς
>> δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ διʼ αὐτῆς.
>> 
>> AKOUSAS DE hO IHSOUS EIPEN, AUTH hH ASQENEIA OUK ESTIN PROS QANATON, ALL' hUPER
>> DOXHS TOU QEOU, hINA DOXASQHi hO hOIOS TOU QEOU DI' AUTHS.
>> 
>> My question concerns δοξασθῇ DOXASQHi. The lexicons give it as Aorist Passive
>> Subjunctive 3rd Person Singular. Thus, after hINA + Subjunctive we have a
>> purpose clause, but my question is it really a Passive or more like a
>> Middle/Passive giving it the idea of "for the purpose of the Son of God
>> glorified in Himself through it"? This may be a stretch, but with the QH ending
>> I really wonder if this is not a Middle.
>> 
>> En Xristwi,
>> 
>> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
> 
> But again, we don't have a purpose clause here. We do have the ellipsis with ALL'. This particular sickness (emphasis on THIS) is not towards death. However, now that is has happened, it will be for the glory of God, resulting in the Son of God being honored/raised up/glorified/seen as great through it (the sickness).
> 
> I see no reason to take the verb as anything but passive. Jesus did not glorify himself. It was God's intervention, so it first brings glory to God, but by extension also glory to his Son.

Nor do I, and I'm pleased that, if there is to be such a "rule of medio-passivity" ("If it ain't clearly marked as passive, then it must be middle") as Mark Lightman prefers to apply in this instance, that he has adopted that rule as his own; I certainly don't acknowledge it as mine. The verb DOXAZW is transitive and normally takes an object; I can  see no direct-reflexive  "make himself glorious" or indirect-reflexive "make glorious for his own sake" here. There's no reason to see this as anything other than a passive.

> CEV: "His sickness won't end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son."

And I'll have to agree with Iver on this one too. And it should be noted that John's usage of the verb DOXAZW is consistently with reference to the death of Jesus as the manifestation of God's glory. The raising of Lazarus is the "trigger" in the Johannine sequence leading to the crucifixion.  NET has a nice note here, i.e. with reference to John 11:4): "So that the Son of God may be glorified through it. These statements are highly ironic: For Lazarus, the sickness did not end in his death, because he was restored to life. But for Jesus himself, the miraculous sign he performed led to his own death, because it confirmed the authorities in their plan to kill Jesus (11:47–53). In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ death is consistently portrayed as his ‘glorification’ through which he accomplishes his return to the Father."

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






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