[b-greek] Re: Matthew 11:23 KATABHSH

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 09 2001 - 09:50:24 EST


At 3:25 PM +0100 11/9/01, Wieland Willker wrote:
>Matthew 11:23 KATABHSH
>This word is normally understood as future middle.
>I came across this word and found in the Friberg lexicon:
>"passive - be brought down (MT 11.23)"
>
>What would be the passive?
>
>Can KATABHSH be translated as "you will be brought down", as the Byz
>reading KATABIBASQHSH

I assume that you mean KATABHSHi and KATABIBASQHSHi.

VERY INTERESTING QUESTION!!! It sure looks to me like what we have in the
critical text--KATABHSHi--is a future middle in a surviving MP sense that
is really passive, and that the scribes have CORRECTED it into a
corresponding future passive of the causative KATABIBAZW. So, yes, this
form should be understood as future passive 2nd sg., and it looks like
pretty good evidence that the form KATABHSHi was understood as having a
passive sense, but some grammarian found fault with it because he felt that
it ought to be expressed with an authentically passive verb. It's a bit
like what I hear more and more these days, "I" used as an
accusative/objective case form, especially in compounds, e.g., "She bought
Joe and I some new duds." I cringe when I hear that but I no longer dare to
suggest that it ought to be, "She bought Joe and ME some new duds"--lest I
sound like some pedantic old retired teacher of ancient Greek.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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