Re: 1 Cor 11:2

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Dec 16 1998 - 12:08:23 EST


At 11:06 AM -0500 12/16/98, Bill Combs wrote:
>I originally wrote:
>
>>>Should MEMNHSTHE in 1 Cor 11:2 be parsed as a middle or passive?
>
>Jonathan and Carl replied that it is middle. My original question was
>prompted by Accordance, which lists it as a passive in 1 Cor 11:2.
>
>Bill Combs
>DBTS

Okay: I think what's happened here is that (correct me, Dale Wheeler,
please) MIMNHSKOMAI has been classified in Accordance's database as a
"passive deponent" --meaning "passive" on grounds that it has -QH- forms in
the aorist and future "tenses," and "deponent" on grounds that its meaning
is NOT passive.

Here we come again to one of my pet peeves; I'm hoping that I can finish my
revised short treatise on terminology, morphology, and usage of middle and
passive in Greek. Briefly stated, however, my thesis is this: BOTH the
-MAI/-SAI/-TAI (+ -MHN/-SO/-TO) endings AND the -QHN/-QHS/-QH (+
-QHSOMAI/-QHSHi/-QHSETAI) sets of endings had originally and primarily a
middle/reflexive sense. In verbs that have functioning forms in the active
voice, these endings MAY be used to give a passive sense to the verb,
depending on the context, BUT in verbs that do NOT have functioning forms
in the active voice, these endings should be understood as middle/reflexive.

I don't believe that MIMNHSKW appears at all in the active voice in the
GNT, although it is not uncommon in older Greek in the sense "remind"; in
the GNT the standard verb for "remind" is the compounded form ANAMIMNHSKW.
For "remember" or "call to mind," "recollect" the sense really is
middle/reflexive and the middle form MIMNHSKOMAI is what is used.
Personally, I don't think that even the -QH- forms of this verb should be
parsed as "passive"--but I'm probably in a minority of one here--most will
want to parse all -QH- forms as "passive" whether or not they really are.

At any rate, in 1 Cor 11:2-- EPAINW DE hUMAS hOTI PANTA MOU MEMNHSQE KAI
KAQWS PAREDWKA hUMIN, TAS PARADOSEIS KATECETE -- it is surely clear that
PANTA is a direct object of MEMNHSQE which must here have the sense "you
have committed to memory everything I told you and exactly as I presented
the tradition to you." There's no way MEMNHSQE can be passive here.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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