Middle vs. passive voice

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Jack_Hairston
Posts: 1
Joined: October 8th, 2021, 8:37 am

Middle vs. passive voice

Post by Jack_Hairston »

This is my first post.
1 Corinthians 11:23 “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed” (παρεδίδετο)
Analytical lexicons show παρεδίδετο as passive voice. Sometimes middle voice has the same form, which would change the meaning to “surrendered himself.”
Can anyone confirm that middle voice for this word has the same form as passive?
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Middle vs. passive voice

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Welcome to B-Greek, Jack.

It depends on the tense. present, imperfect and perfect use the same forms for both middle and passive. The future and aorist use different forms. παρεδίδετο is imperfect, and so has the same form for both.

1) The reflexive middle is not all that common even in classical Greek, even less so in Koine.

2) Context usually makes it clear whether a middle or a passive is intended. Do you think the overall context indicates a middle here? The verb has consistently in the history of interpretation since ancient times been understood of betrayal, e.g, Jerome renders tradēbātur.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Stirling Bartholomew
Posts: 1141
Joined: August 9th, 2012, 4:19 pm

Re: Middle vs. passive voice

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Chrysostom in his commentary on 1Cor 11 employs a string of passives to describe the events and then sums up later using an active παρέδωκεν.

Οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὐδὲ ἄνευ λόγου τινὸς, ἀλλ’ ἵνα
μεθ’ ὑπερβολῆς κατανύξῃ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ. Κἂν
γὰρ αὐτόλιθος ᾖ τις, ἐννοήσας ἐκείνην τὴν νύκτα,
πῶς ἦν μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν ἀδημονῶν, πῶς παρεδόθη,
πῶς ἐδέθη, πῶς ἀπήχθη, πῶς ἐδικάσθη
, πῶς καὶ τὰ
ἑξῆς ἔπαθεν ἅπαντα, κηροῦ γίνεται ἁπαλώτερος,
καὶ τῆς γῆς ἀπαλλάττεται καὶ τῆς ἐνταῦθα
φαντασίας ἁπάσης. Διὰ τοῦτο πάντων ἐκείνων εἰς
μνήμην ἡμᾶς ἄγει, διὰ τοῦ καιροῦ καὶ τῆς τραπέζης
καὶ τῆς προδοσίας ἐντρέπων καὶ λέγων, ὅτι Ὁ
μὲν Δεσπότης σου καὶ ἑαυτὸν παρέδωκεν ὑπὲρ σοῦ·

σὺ δὲ τῷ ἀδελφῷ οὐδὲ σιτίων μεταδίδως ὑπὲρ σαυτοῦ;


english translation: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220127.htm
C. Stirling Bartholomew
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