From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 25 1996 - 09:34:23 EST
I take the liberty of forwarding Maurice O'Sullivan's response to my note
on aorist passive subjunctives and imperatives from a couple days ago. He
is much too kind to call attention to my errors on the list itself, and he
raises an interesting issue about SPLAGXNIZOMAI that others might want to
comment on.
>Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 08:14:49 -0600
>To:"Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros@iol.ie>
>From:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu (Carl W. Conrad)
>Subject:Re: Aorists etc
>
>Maurice, thanks for your note--i.e.--your "epistle"! (For you I punctuate
>the British way!). I received it yesterday afternoon and apologize for the
>delay in responding. I wanted to check and see if I could find
>SPLAGXNISQHTI, and of course, i couldn't. I must have dreamed it
>somewhere. It was from memory, which is by no means the surest guide.
>
>On 1/24/96, Maurice A. O'Sullivan wrote:
>
>> Carl:
>>
>> You wrote in B-GREEK:
>>
>> >> that weird verb used of feeling compassion, SPLAGXNIZOMAI; its aorist is
>> ESPLAGXQHN, which is obviously not passive. As I recall, we even have an
>> imperative of this verb addressed to Jesus by someone wanting healing,
>> SPLAGXNISQHTI--and of course this isn't passive in meaning either. As I
>> recall, we even have an imperative of this verb addressed to Jesus by
>> someone wanting healing, SPLAGXNISQHTI--and of course this isn't passive in
>> meaning either. <<
>>
>> On:
>> > that weird verb used of feeling compassion, SPLAGXNIZOMAI;
>>
>> What's so weird about experiencing feelings in the bowels, guts, etc?
>> I know I do. I may ( or may not ) think about them afterwards in my head,
>> but that's not where I experience my feelings!!
>
>I sometimes wonder to what extent this is a physiological (psychosomatic)
>thing and to what extent it is a cultural matter. My eyes water, I think,
>when I feel pity, but I'm not really conscious of something below the
>throat. On the other hand, we say, in American English, "I have a gut
>feeling that ..." -- and this is not a matter of affective reaction at all
>but of inward intellectual suspicion. And then I think of the Homeric word
>for "wits," which is generally the plural form FRENES, referring to the
>diaphragm, and that gives rise to the various forms of -FRWN and -FROSUNH
>(as in SWFROSUNH)--which I believe we "moderns" tend to think of in terms
>of "mind over matter."
>
>I suppose that what seems "weird" to anyone depends very much upon what
>he/she deems natural within his/her own experience.
>
>> BTW, the SPLAGXNA of Lk 1:78 is rendered as "tender mercy" in both the KJV
>> and the RSV but world-wide is known to Roman Catholics as " loving kindness
>> " -- that is because when the Divine Office was produced in English after
>> Vatican II, it used the Grail translation. True to their English backgrounds
>> they used a phrase first used in an English bible ( so I am told by a friend
>> who is a rabbi with an Oxford doctorate in Classical Greek ! ) by Tyndale.
>> Maybe there were trying to making belated amends for that death at the
>>stake.
>> Anyway, world-wide, the Benedictus in Morning Prayer every day commemorates
>> Tyndale, whether those participating know it or not.
>>
>> > SPLAGXNIZOMAI; its aorist is ESPLAGXQHN, which is obviously not passive
>>
>> Maybe I've got myself confused between pass. dep and mid. dep but the big
>> LS&J gives, under SPLAGXNEUW:
>> II. Med. ( with aor. pass -ISTHN ) feel pity, compassion ....
>
>I'd call that Passive Deponent, and I understand this category to refer to
>verbs that are in the middle voice in the present tenses but have a
>passive form in the aorist. BAGD terms SPLAGNIZOMAI a passive deponent.
>
>> >As I recall, we even have an imperative of this verb addressed to Jesus by
>> someone wanting healing, SPLAGXNISQHTI--
>>
>> If you are thinking of:
>> Mark 9:22 And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to
>> destroy
>> him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us."
>>
>> 'have pity' is SPLAGXNISQEIS, with the imperative being reserved for BOHW.
>> My Zerwick and Grosvenor "Grammatical Analysis" , notes that the form of
>> SPLAGXNIZOMAI as: " the aorist ptc. commonly den. action prior to that of
>> the main vb. " with a reference to par. 261 of Zerwick's grammar.
>
>You are, of course, absolutely right. This is the passage I was thinking
>about, and I was thinking of the English imperative and Greeking it!
>
>Best regards, c
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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