From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 05 2001 - 22:05:08 EST
At 8:24 PM -0500 3/5/01, Peter F. Milloy wrote:
>Does anybody know why MAQHTEUW in Matthew 28:19 is always translated "make
>disciples" when verbs with EU usually mean "to be" something or "to do the
>work of" something? Shouldn't it be "be a disciple"?
There are four instances of this verb in the GNT, three of them in Matthew:
Mt 13:52 PAS GRAMMATEUS MAQHTEUQEIS THi BASILEIAi TWN OURANWN hOMOIOS ESTIN
ANQRWPWi OIKODESPOTHi, hOSTIS ...
Mt 27:57 ... ANQRWPOS PLOUSIOS APO ARIMAQEIAS, TOUNOMA IWSHF, hOS KAI AUTOS
EMAQHTEUQH TWi IHSOU ...
Mt 28:29 POREUQENTES OUN MAQHTEUSATE PANTA TA EQNH, ...
Acts 14:21 EUAGGELISAMENOI TE THN POLIN EKEINHN KAI MAQHTEUSANTES hIKANOUS
hUPESTREYAN EIS THN LUSTRAN ...
Although BDAG cites some Hellenistic instances of MAQHTEUW as "be a
disciple," the QH form in Mt 13:52 appears to have a passive sense,
"trained as a disciple," in 27:57 EMAQHTEUQH appears to be intransitive, as
if an aorist from a middle MAQHTEUOMAI, which is the more likely form for
"be a disciple." In the passage in question, however, Mt 28:29 as well as
in Acts 14:21 the verb is in the aorist (active imperative MAQHTEUSATE in
Mt 28:29, active participle MAQHTEUSANTES in Acts 14:21) and in both cases
there's a direct object (TA EQNH in Mt 28:29, hIKANOUS in Acts 14:21); both
must therefore be active and causative: "make to be a disciple."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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