8/14/2019 Notes On Koine Greek, Pt. 63

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Notes On Koine Greek: Part 63www.MichaelHalcomb.com

1. More Indicative?: Though the last set of Notes looked at the 6Moods of the KoineVerbal System, before exiting theIndicative Mood, I would like to say just a few more things about it.

In particular, I want to mention here,Deponent Verbs,Agency,Adverbs & the me,n /de,conjunction.

2. Deponent Verbs: Now that we understand theIndicative Moodand how it is laid out(refer to my Indicative Mood M.A.P.), we are in a place to better understand how

Deponent Verbs work. As you will recall, theM.A.P. shows us that theActive issandwiched between theMiddle and the Passive, as the box here shows. The way to think

about aDeponentis to think of the layout of theM.A.P. With aDeponentthere areMiddleand Passive forms but noActive form. So, its like a sandwich without the meat!

However, and what is confusing, is that while there is noActive form, theMiddle forms(thought to have been preferred over theActive ones, thus laying theActive aside) often have anActivemeaning. So, it is like having two pieces of bread and smelling the meat but not seeing it! Let me

repeat: While there are noActive forms with theDeponentverbs, it is often the case that a number ofMiddle Deponents are indeed,Active in meaning. (I should qualify this by saying that though some

Deponents areActive in meaning, some still seem to retain aMidlle or Passive meaning or some other

type of meaning, e.g. Stative, etc. Just as well, some words that areMiddle change meaning when

Active.) Here are a few examples ofDeponentverbs:

True Middle Emphases

Reciprocal yeu,domai

Reflexive tufo,omai

Self-Involvement hge,omai

2. Agency: In Greek, anAgent, which shows up in the Passive, is understood as that whichis producing the action. As Dave Black notes, this often is expressed in 3 ways: 1)Direct Agent(who

performs the action), 2)Intermediate Agent(through whom the mainAgentacts), 3)Impersonal Agent(Expressed by theDative Case, not referring to any specific person).

3. Adverbs: As with English, in Greek,Adverbs qualify Verbs,Adjectives or otherAdverbs.While someAdverbs form on their own or without help from other roots or paradigms, they can alsoform fromAdjectives by taking thefinal sigma (j) of a Genitive Plural and making it a nu (n).

4. me,nme,nme,nme,n/de,de,de,de, Conjunction: The me,n /de,conjunction in Koine works on two levelsbasically, with the Singular and with the Plural. This two-part conjunction when 1) Working with the

singular, is A) Either rendered on the one hand...on the other hand or B) me,n is left alone while de, isrendered but. On the other level, when 2) Working with the plural, is rendered some...others.Dave Black notes that Hebrews (1.7; 3.5; 9.6; 10.11; 11.15) uses the me,n /de,conjunction in anunusually frequent manner.

Middle

Active

Passive

Middle in form logi,zomai

Passive in form bou,lomai

Passive/Middle in form poreu,omai

Active in form e;rcomai