Matthew Longhorn wrote: ↑October 24th, 2020, 1:16 pm
So, a follow up question. What category of middle does the middle of αφαιρεω fall into here? Indirect reflexive seems the best I can think of, in the sense of God did it in some way to benefit himself. This could be so that further instigation to sin would be prevented?
Direct reflexive doesn't seem to work, not do the other categories proposed by Rutger llan / Rachel Aubrey so far as I can see
Well, God certainly doesn't do the action to himself (direct reflexive), and that leads to what we are calling indirect reflexive, or that there is subject affectedness/involvement in the use of the verb. However, any number of verbs in the middle tend to take on a specialized meaning, such as αἱρέω, take, but αἱρέομαι, choose, where the subject involvement is self-evident, so to speak. In some cases, the subject involvement has practically receded from view. For ἀφαιρέω the entry in LSJ:
c. dupl. acc. rei et pers., bereave or deprive of, μήτε σὺ τόνδʼ .. ἀποαίρεο κούρην Il.1.275, cf. Hdt.1.71, 7.104; freq. in Att. and Trag., Lys. l.c., Th.8.74, D.20.46, etc.;
Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., & McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English lexicon (p. 286). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
This suggest to me just such a specialized meaning, "deprive" without any necessary sense of self interest on the part of the subject, except for what can be discerned from context.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.