[B-Greek] I Tim. 4:6

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 18 06:36:27 EST 2004


At 5:12 PM -0300 3/17/04, John Colby wrote:
>I Timothy 4:6 reads:
>
>TAUTA hUPOTIQEMENOS TOIS ADELFOIS KALOS ESHi DIAKONOS CRISTOU IHSOU,
>ENTREFOMENOS TOIS LOGOIS THS PISTEWS KAI THS DIDASKALIAS hHI PAHKOLOUQHKAS
>
>Simply rendered: Suggesting these things to the brothers, you will be a
>good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in [or- nourished on] the
>words of faith and of the good teaching [or- sound doctrine] which you
>have been following (faithfully).
>
>My concern is the participle ENTREFOMENOS (pres, mp), which is usually
>taken in a passive sense, "being trained". This participle would have not
>caught my attention except for the small note in the BDAG, "mid. since
>Hes." [perhaps before VI BC]. Can this be taken in a more or less active
>sense (paralleling the mp in the first part of the verse- hUPOTIQEMENOS
>and then ENTREFOMENOS) with an implied direct object? "Training (them [the
>brothers]) in the words of faith..." This word only occurs once in the
>GNT, so I have no other places to see how the word is used. Since the many
>discussions on voice, I warily approach mp's.
>
>Wondering...

Reason enough to wonder. I'd make a couple comments:

(1) The note in Danker is misleading if one draws from it the suggestion
that the verb is regularly middle since Hesiod; that seems to be derived
from LSJ which said just that, but the most recent edition of LSJ has a
supplement (by Glare) deleting that "med. since Hes." note and pointing
rather to the specific citation of a middle aor. inf. ENQREYASQAI in the
sense of growing plants in beds. I think Glare intended to restate the
entry so as to avoid any suggestion that the verb is regularly middle ever
since Greek epic poetry.

(2) Nevertheless, in the cited text, 1 tim 4:6, there's a good enough case
for understanding ENTREFOMENOS as middle--and it should be borne in mind
that the focus of the mp forms is what happens to the subject, not who the
agent bringing about the action may be unless that's specifically
indicated; If the ptc. here were ENTREFQEIS (aor.) I might be more inclined
to emphasize a passive sense: "Inasmuch as you've BEEN NURTURED by the
words of the faith and the doctrine that you've followed, you'll be a good
minister of Christ Jesus by posing these models for the brothers." But
since the participle is present and therefore suggests that the nurturing
of Timothy is something he is still undergoing--of his own will and
deliberately--I think a middle sense is appropriate: "Inasmuch as you take
your nurture in the words of the faith and the doctrine that you have
followed, you'll be ..."

(3) Finally I'd like to reiterate something I've said before: the fact that
the Greek of our period uses only one morphoparadigm to express both middle
and passive meanings should make one wary of a determination to draw a
sharp distinction between a middle and a passive sense unless there's a
clear indication of external agency or instrumentality. The sense of
ENTREFOMENOS is probably expressed best in idiomatic current English as
"getting your (here spiritual) nourishment"--which may involve being taught
by someone else or may just as well involve reading and study that one does
for self-improvement.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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