Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

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WAnderson
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

Post by WAnderson »

My brain is stuck on this. The specific ref is Jn 15:16, You did not choose Me but I chose you. BDAG lists the verb as eklegomai, but the NASB concordance (keyed to Strong's #1586) lists eklegw. What is the relationship between the two? And if I am commenting on Jn 15:16, in a Bible study for instance, which of the two forms would I say is used here?
MAubrey
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Re: Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

Post by MAubrey »

Let's get the Greek text out...

John 15:!6
οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς

As for the difference in the listed lexeme in the lexicons (and in this case, concordance), the relationship between the forms is active vs. middle. I haven't looked through the history of the verb to say for sure, but it appears that it has undergone a shift from being an active verb to being a middle-only verb at some point in the Koine period. The active form is getting pretty rare in the Koine period (36 search hits), at least in the texts I searched in Logos (NT, LXX, Josephus, Philo, Apostolic Fathers, & OT Pseudepigrapha), while the middle form is quite common (233 search hits).

One would have to look through some classical texts to know for sure. Minimally, LSJ lists the active form ἐκλέγω...
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
WAnderson
Posts: 52
Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Re: Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

Post by WAnderson »

Thank you, that helps. So, when I'm referencing the word in a Bible study (as a for instance) I'd give the verb as eklegomai (as in BDAG), right?

I wonder why the concordance (Zondervan NASB exhaus. concord) only lists the older eklegw.
MAubrey
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Re: Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

Post by MAubrey »

WAnderson wrote:Thank you, that helps. So, when I'm referencing the word in a Bible study (as a for instance) I'd give the verb as eklegomai (as in BDAG), right?
Well, technically, yes. But I'd be inclined to say that unless everyone else in your bible study knows Greek, there really isn't any need to reference the Greek word at all...
WAnderson wrote:I wonder why the concordance (Zondervan NASB exhaus. concord) only lists the older eklegw.
If the compilers of the concordance were using a different lexicon that BDAG and its antecedents, such as LSJ, they would have simply gone with the active form.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
WAnderson
Posts: 52
Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Re: Relationship between eklegw and eklegomai

Post by WAnderson »

Thank you for your help in clarifying that. You're right, I probably wouldn't refer to the Gr word in most circumstances, I just want to be precise if the need arises. Thx again
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