[B-Greek] PIGNW - APOPIGNW

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 5 08:59:14 EST 2010


καὶ ἕτερον ἔπεσεν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἀκανθῶν, καὶ συμφυεῖσαι αἱ ἄκανθαι ἀπέπνιξαν αὐτό.
KAI hETERON EPESEN EN MESWi TWN AKANQWN, KAI SUMFUEISAI hAI AKANQAI APEPNICAN AUTO
LK 8.8
 
ἐξελθόντα δὲ τὰ δαιμόνια ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰσῆλθον εἰς τοὺς χοίρους, καὶ ὥρμησεν ἡ ἀγέλη κατὰ τοῦ κρημνοῦ εἰς τὴν λίμνην καὶ ἀπεπνίγη.
ECELQONTA DE TA DAIMONIA APO TOU ANQRWPOU EISHLQON EIS TOUS XOIROUS, AKI hWRMHSEN hH AGELH KATA TOU KRHMNOU EIS LIMNHN KAI APEPNIGH
Lk 8.33
 
First, active and passive are not called tenses but but voices.  It's not a huge error since one immediately understands your meaning, but it is good to use the correct terminology.  
 
As in many cases a resort to BDAG is appropriate. 
 ἀποπνίγω1 aor. ἀπέπνιξα; 2 aor. pass. ἀπεπνίγην(s. πνίγω; Hdt., Aristoph. et al.; POxy 2111, 29 and 36; LXX) to check normal breathing or growth through pressure or other restricting measureⓐⓑ
 
He fairly clearly indicates here that the passive INTRANSITIVE has the sense of "to drown."  Note, however, the citation of Papias where the aor pass of ἀποπνίγω does not signify "to drown" but rather to be choked (to death).
 
Οὐκ ἀπέθανε τῇ ἀγχόνῃ Ἰούδας, ἀλλʼ ἐπεβίω καθαιρεθεὶς πρὸ τοῦ ἀποπνιγῆναι. 
OUK APEQANE THi AGXONHi IOUDAS, ALL' EPEBIW KAQAIREQEIS PRO TOU APOPNIGHNAI
 
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (582). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

I would suggest that while the word "drowned" is appropriate in many instances such as the incident with the swine, the true sense of the passive use is simply the normal passive "be choked"  and that the English word "drowned" is simply the common usage when one is choked by water.  Such may also be true in other languages such as Portuguese, but that is speculation since my understanding of Portuguese is limited to what I can guess from what I know of Spanish.drown(Diod S 3, 57, 5; Syntipas p. 19, 4) pass. w. intr. sense choketrans. (BCH 16, 1892, p. 384 no. 81; Na 2:13; Tob 3:8 BA; TestSol 2:2; TestAbr A 19 p. 102, 2 [Stone p. 52]; Jos., Bell. 1, 551) of rank weeds (Theophr.) ἄκανθαι ἀ. αὐτάMt 13:7 v.l.; Lk 8:7. Pass. intr. sense, of Judas (Ἰούδας) ἐπεβίω καθαιρεθεὶς πρὸ τοῦ ἀποπνιγῆναιJudas (did not die by hanging but) lived on, for he was taken down before he choked to death Papias
 (3:1, but not in the renderings of mss. egh).ἡ ἀγέλη ἀπεπνίγηthe drove drowned Lk 8:33 (cp. Demosth. 32, 6; Epict. 2, 5, 12; Diog. L. 9, 12; TestAbr A 19 p. 102, 2).—M-M. TW.
 george
gfsomsel 


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learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


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----- Original Message ----
From: Fridolin Janzen <fjanzen at gmx.net>
To: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Fri, March 5, 2010 5:28:04 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] PIGNW - APOPIGNW

The two verbs PIGNW/APOPIGNW found in:


Luk_8:7, Luk_8:33, Mar_5:13, Mat_18:28

have two basic meanings:
to choke
and
to drown

when they represent the meaning of "to choke", they are in the active tense
when they represent the meaning of "to drown", they are in the passive tense

My question:

does the tense determine the meaning, or is this merely coincidental?
if the tense determines the meaning, how would you be able to differentiate
between the passive and the active in the target language if there is only
one tense in Greek for each meaning?

Pastor Fridolin Janzen, Brazil
www.origemedestino.org.br



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