From: Dale M. Wheeler (dalemw@teleport.com)
Date: Thu Nov 01 2001 - 12:14:13 EST
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Carl Conrad wrote:
>At 11:42 PM +0100 10/28/01, Iver Larsen wrote:
> >Let me comment on the new points raised by Carl:
> >> ENDUW (19x aor. 'middle', 6x aor. 'passive'
> >
> >For ENDUW the A-form (A stands for the first letter of the alphabet and
> >refers to the traditional active) has a special causative meaning "dress
> >someone in something". The underlying semantic verb would be trivalent with
> >the roles agent, experiencer and patient. The M-form is "to put on
> >something" or "to dress oneself in something". So this would have an
> >underlying semantic divalent verb with a combined agent-experiencer role
> >expressed as subject and a patient as object.
> >I could not find the passive forms with my search program. Could you give me
> >the references?
> >I cannot imagine a passive transformation from the M-form. A M-form like "I
> >put the dress on" would theoretically become passive as *"The dress was put
> >on (by me)".
> >The A-form "I put the dress on him" would become passive as "The dress was
> >put on him (by me)." I can imagine this, but it would be rare.
>
>In my message of Mon, 29 Oct 2001 14:32:16 -0500 w/ subject header: "Re:
>Towards a semantic definition of Greek Middle" I have already commented on
>these verbs. What I want to do now is simply to respond to Iver's query
>about the verb in relationship to my initial listing of it as having forms
>in both the aorist 'middle' and the aorist 'passive.'
>
>The fact is that there are NO aorist passive (-QH-) forms in the GNT for
>this verb; I got my figures from Accordance but have found that all 6 of
>the forms tagged as aorist passives are in fact aorist middles and not one
>of them can be considered passive in form or meaning. Upon rechecking I
>find the following forms given in these instances:
>
>Lk 24:49 ENDUSHSQE; 1 Cor 15:53 ENDUSASQAI (2x), 1 Cor 15:54 ENDUSHTAI
>(2x); Col 3:12 ENDUSASQE. Obviously all of these are middle and I think
>there's no doubt that these are the right readings in each instance. What a
>re-check of the Accordance data shows is that in each of these instances
>there is a variant that is identified as passive; I can't imagine such
>forms very well, but I guess they'd be something like ENDUQHTE (subj. 2
>pl.), ENDUQHNAI (2x), ENDUQHi (2x), and ENDUQHTE (imptv 2nd pl.). That's
>all that I can imagine is meant by the tagging, although I think it's
>utterly conceivable that such forms as these were ever grammatically viable.
>
>The upshot: ENDUOMAI is the standard form (27x in GNT) of this verb with
>the sense "dress oneself," but the active also appears, 3x only (Mt 27:31
>and Mk 15:20 ENEDUSAN AUTON TA hIMATIA; Lk 15:22 ENDUSATE AUTON) in the
>sense "put clothes upon a person".
Some of this has been covered in Iver's response, but some hasn't, so
permit me to elaborate:
1) As to the GRAMCORD tagging...all six of these occurrences have
alternates tags, which indicates possible alternate function, not form:
1a) Lk 24:49: pass, alternate: mid
1b) 1Cor 15:53-54: pass, alt. mid
1c) Col 3:12: mid, alt. pass
2) I agree with Iver that some of these should be understood as passive:
2a) Lk 24:49 seems to me to be clearly passive and not middle, the agent is
not suppressed at all, its just a figure of speech (euphemism) for God,
viz., "from on high". I could be wrong, but I don't think the passage
means: "clothe yourselves with the power which will be supplied to you from
on high.", esp., given what Jesus says as intro "I am sending...", the
parallel statements in John 14:16; Acts 1:4ff., and the subsequent
occurrences of PIMPLHMI PNEUMATOS AGIOU in Acts.
2b) 1Cor 15:53-54: it certainly is normal in English translations to
understand the verb as middle "the perishable will/must put on the
imperishable..." But let me suggest that its just as likely, esp., given
the two clear passives in verse 52 ("be raised...be changed...") and the
statement if v 57 (God, who gives us the victory), that the
sinful/perishable body CANNOT do anything to itself-middle-but rather must
be changed by some outside, unexpressed agent, thus passive. In fact, BDAG
says that these 4x and Lk 24:49 are not middle, but passive.
2c) Col 3:12: this is in my opinion clearly middle, "clothe yourselves..."
and that's why the first tag in GC is middle (versus the other 5x) and the
alternate is passive...which is, in my view, only possible if its a
permissive passive ("Allow yourselves to be clothed..."), which I
personally think unlikely.
So, in defense of the GC tags...I think they are correct every single
time...of course, as Editor, I am a bit prejudiced...(-:
One final note to Iver...since you couldn't find the passives with *your*
program, maybe you ought to think about getting GRAMCORD...(-:
***********************************************************************
Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Research Prof., Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan St. Portland, OR 97220
V: 503-2516416 F: 503-251-6478 E: dalemw@teleport.com
***********************************************************************
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