From: Carl Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 21 2001 - 12:53:54 EST
> Carl:
>
> You wrote:
>
> -------
> >As I said, a more wholly literal version would be: "Jesus
> >says to him: 'The one who has been cleansed doesn't have need to wash
> >himself except for the feet, but is clean altogether, and you are clean,
> >but not all of you.'" But "wash himself" is NOT natural English, hence the
> >transformation in most English versions (if not all of them) into the
> >passive. That does NOT mean that the translators have misunderstood the
> >Greek.
> --------
>
> There seems to be a significant difference in my mind between "wash himself"
> and "be washed" (without an agent stated). That is, "be washed" can be
> understood as completely Passive; while "wash himself" requires the subject
> to "do" or "allow" some action upon him.
Sure, it CAN be understood as completely Passive, but English doesn't
really have "middle marking" and therefore the Passive seems more natural
in English, but it takes only a little thought to see that these guys are,
of their own volition, to SUBMITTING to foot-washing done by Jesus. But
English usage just simply doesn't pay any attention to that sort of
nuance: its concern is strictly with what's happening to the feet, not
with either whose feet it is or with who's performing the action.
>
> Would it not be NECESSARY to add the implied agent if we choose to smooth
> the English out a little by translating it "be washed." ?? I seem to recall
> the "allow yourself to be washed" as a "divine passive." Is there such a
> thing as the "divine middle"??
GOD FORBID there should be anything such as a "divine middle"! ("Pfuah
Gott in Himmel" as they used to say in Bavaria). IMHO the "divine passive"
is a demonic cop-out for not thinking through the grammar adequately. The
explanation given for such a passive is that God did it but that the pious
speakers wants to avoid naming God. I suppose really that the passive even
in English is usually an excuse to avoid naming an agent, whether it's God
or any unnamed "Joe."
Divine MIDDLE? Sounds like an extravagant sort of demonic temptation to
take oneself too seriously!
---
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