Mark 2:1 καὶ εἰσελθὼν ... ἠκούσθη: Personal Passive?
Posted: July 9th, 2011, 5:20 pm
Mark 2:1 reads:
[Note: Funk more confidently cites as examples of personal passives: 1 Cor 15:12 (Χριστὸς κηρύσσεται ὅτι), Matt 3:3 (ὁ ῥηθείς), 2 Cor 3:3 (φανεροῦσθαι ὅτι), 1 John 2:19.]
The nice part about identifying ἠκούσθη as a personal passive is that it removes the anacoluthon with the earlier participle εἰσελθών, but I'm concerned how a personal passive is supposed to work with ὅτι. Does ἀκούω ever take two arguments: a personal direct object and a complement? Or, are we dealing with yet another kind of prolepsis, in which the subject of the complementizer clause ὅτι ἐν οἰκῳ ἐστίν is somehow raised into main clause, so that it can become the (implied) subject of the main verb ἠκούσθη and construe with the participle εἰσελθών?
Stephen
My first reaction in reading this text was to take ἠκούσθη as an ordinary impersonal passive ("it was heard") despite the lack of agreement with εἰσελθὼν, but upon consulting BDF § 405(2), it could also be a "personal passive." But Funk expresses some doubt by saying "(personal?). BDR, on the other hand, lacks Funk's reluctance to identify it as such.Καὶ εἰσελθὼν πάλιν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ δι' ἡμερῶν ἠκούσθη ὅτι ἐν οἰκῳ ἐστίν.
[Note: Funk more confidently cites as examples of personal passives: 1 Cor 15:12 (Χριστὸς κηρύσσεται ὅτι), Matt 3:3 (ὁ ῥηθείς), 2 Cor 3:3 (φανεροῦσθαι ὅτι), 1 John 2:19.]
The nice part about identifying ἠκούσθη as a personal passive is that it removes the anacoluthon with the earlier participle εἰσελθών, but I'm concerned how a personal passive is supposed to work with ὅτι. Does ἀκούω ever take two arguments: a personal direct object and a complement? Or, are we dealing with yet another kind of prolepsis, in which the subject of the complementizer clause ὅτι ἐν οἰκῳ ἐστίν is somehow raised into main clause, so that it can become the (implied) subject of the main verb ἠκούσθη and construe with the participle εἰσελθών?
Stephen