[B-Greek] Acts 16,3 FOLLOW UP

Martin Culy MCuly at briercrest.ca
Tue Mar 30 09:57:00 EST 2004


The point of the note in Culy/Parsons was not to credit Wallace with
inventing the category ("does not warrant another syntactic category" may
have been more appropriate language). On the appropriateness of the category
"causative active" in this particular instance, I would simply add that all
languages characteristically leave certain information implicit. The fact
that the "executive" or actual agent is left implicit here has nothing
syntactically to do with the voice of the verb, though such information
cannot be left implicit with middle or passive verbs.  Moreover, Greek has
ways of forming causative constructions, such as through the use of the verb
DIDWMI plus and infinitive.  In the note on Acts 16:3, Mike Parsons and I
were attempting to urge Greek scholars to guard against creating categories
to account for non-syntactic phenomenon. That the "causative active" has a
longer history than we implied does not validate it as a syntactic category.


Martin Culy
Associate Professor of New Testament
Briercrest Biblical Seminary


-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 4:54 AM
To: Eddie Mishoe
Cc: Carl W. Conrad; B Greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Acts 16,3 FOLLOW UP


At 6:43 PM -0800 3/29/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>Dr. Conrad:
>
>Parsons/Culy do not seem to approve of Wallace's
>syntactical category "causative active," (here?)
>although they are in agreement that Paul did not
>actually perform the circumcision.
>
>Given that it is not uncommon for active verbs to bear
>a causative sense, is there anything grammatically
>speaking in this text that leads you to see a
>causative sense? (My assumption is that a causative
>sense is seen here by most commentators due to the
>assumed awkwardness of Paul, rather than a physician
>or Timothy himself, circumcising Timothy.)

While Wallace has postulated some grammatical constructions as
subcategories for analytical purposes, subcategories that I think are
superfluous, the causative sense of the active verb is one that I don't
find problematic (I pointed out Smyth §1711 in my earlier note)--this is
NOT a "new syntactic category" invented by Wallace. the Parsons/Culy
argument appears to me to be an instance of "having one's cake and eating
it too"--they somehow feel Paul didn't himself perform the action, yet they
object to Wallace's adoption of an older existing syntactic category and
they avail themselves of something they call an "implicit executive agent."
Smyth §1711 "Causative Active" says: "The acaative may be used of an action
performed t the bidding of the subject: KUROS TA BASILEIA KATEKAUSEN 'Cyrus
burnt down the palace' (i.e. had it burnt down) Xen. An. 1.4.10. So with
APOKTEINEIN 'put to death,' QAPTEIN 'bury,' OIKODOMEW 'build,' PAIDEUEIN
'instruct,' ANAKHRUTTEIN 'publicly proclaim.'"

I might also cite Guy Cooper, Attic Greek Prose Syntax, University of
Michigan Press: 1998, §52.1.4 (p. 564): "The active forms often present a
personal subject as acting directly when it must in fact be operating
mediately through subordinates, servants, messengers, soldiers, subjects,
contractors, commissioned artists, etc. These are readily conceived of as
extensions of the subject. This usage is a matter of conception commonto
Greek and other languages, but it takes a little more extension in
Classical Greek than is expected in, say, English. Middle forms are found
in very similar uses ... and there is some nearly comparable idiom even
with passive forms ..."

Admittedly it is Classical Attic under discussion in Cooper, but that
should be sufficient to indicate that Wallace hasn't "invented" this
category. Then there's A.T. Robertson, p. 801f: "(e) The Active as
Causative" cites Acts 16:3 and also John 19:1 ELABON hO PILATOS TON IHSOUN
KAI EMASTIGWSEN--unless one wants to suppose that Pilate himself did the
flogging?

>--- "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>wrote:
>> At 4:40 PM -0800 3/29/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>> >TOUTON HQELHSEN hO PAULOS SUN AUTWi EXELQEIN, KAI
>> >LABWN PERIETEMEN AUTON DIA TOUS IOUDAIOUS.....
>> >
>> >The NET Bible questions whether or not Paul
>> actually
>> >performed the circumcision on Timothy, whereas
>> >Parsons/Culy seem sure Paul did not do it. What am
>> I
>> >overlooking here that would lead one to see someone
>> >other than Paul performing the circumcision on
>> >Timothy, especially in light of PERIETEMEN AUTON?
>>
>> It's not at all uncommon for an active verb form to
>> bear the sense of
>> CAUSING an action to be performed without
>> necessarily performing it
>> oneself. Similarly a middle voice may carry the
>> sense of having an action
>> performed on one's own behalf without necessarily
>> performing the action
>> oneself.
>>
>> You might look at Wallace GGBB "B.  Causative Active
>> (a.k.a. Ergative
>> Active)" pp. 411f. Cf. Smyth ß1711 "Causative
>> Active."
>> --
>>
>> 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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-- 

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/
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
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