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