Middle Voice with Object and without Object

[Alan Patterson]

I've been trying to read through the Middle/Passive voice material and just wanted to clarify a few issues:

Luke 22:2b
ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ τὸν λαόν.

Mark 16:8c
ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ.

The Luke passage is a transitive use while Mark's passage is an intransitive use. What is going on underneath the surface of the MP verbs that permits a verb to be either transitive or intransitive?

I hope this isn't too basic of a question to ask on this forum where 'competence in Greek' is presumed.

[Stephen Carlson]

Unlike some theories of English syntax, the Greek middle is not the result of a transformation of an active-voice deep structure.

[cwconrad]

I've been trying to read through the Middle/Passive voice material and just wanted to clarify a few issues:

Luke 22:2b
ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ τὸν λαόν.

Mark 16:8c
ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ.

The Luke passage is a transitive use while Mark's passage is an intransitive use. What is going on underneath the surface of the MP verbs that permits a verb to be either transitive or intransitive?

I hope this isn't too basic of a question to ask on this forum where 'competence in Greek' is presumed.

Stephen's reply is certainly right, but I'm not sure it answers your question. I'm not sure that the question is quite answerable in terms of "transitive" and "intransitive." I rather think that Mk 16:8 ἐφοβοῦντο is not so much intransitive as it has an implicit object, an object that isn't made explicit. I can readily imagine, for example, a dialogue such as follows:

τί σε ταράσσει, τέκνον; (What's troubling you, my boy?)
φοβοῦμαι, πάτερ! (I'm scared, Father!)
ναί, φίλε παῖ, ἄλλὰ τί φοβεῖ; (Yes, child, but what is it that you're afraid of?

That is to say, verbs that take an object, whether that object is implicit or explict, really are transitive; when the object is not explicit, we tend to say that such a verb is being used absolutely.