Notes On Koine Greek: Part 53

www.MichaelHalcomb.com

1. Uses of the Present Middle Indicative: As noted in the previous section of

these “Notes”, here, I want to draw some attention to the uses of the Present
Middle Indicative. Here, we shall look at 5 different uses of the Present Middle in
this installation of “Notes”.
2. The Reflexive Middle: Recalling that one of the major functions of the
Middle Voice is to reveal how the Subject is participating or related to the result of
the action of the verb, we are easily in a place to understand the Reflexive Middle.
The Reflexive Middle does exactly what it sounds like it would do: It sort of
reflects or turns back the emphasis of the result onto the Subject. One way to
imagine it is to think of the result first and then, that result pointing back to the
participant, the Subject. In translation, it’s almost like having this formula: “He
____ himself.” Here are some English and Greek examples:

Present Active He loves / He is loving - avgapei

Present Middle Reflexive He loves himself / He is loving Himself - avgaphtai
Present Active He believes / He is believing - pisteu,ei
Present Middle Reflexive He himself believes / He believes himself - pisteu,etai

3. The Reciprocal Middle: Now that we have understood the Reflexive Middle,
let us look at the Reciprocal Middle. The main difference here is that the
emphasis moves away from one Subject or more aptly, one individual and
pluralizes. Thus, we are thinking about “Subjects” here and particularly how
those “Subjects” are interacting with one another. Dave Black gives the New
Testament example of Jn. 9.22: “The Jews were agreeing with one another.” The
only problem with the Reciprocal Middle is that it is incredibly rare in the NT.
More common and synonymous in meaning is the Greek term avllh,louj (one
another). This shows up all over the place, as in 1 Jn. 4.7: “…let us love one
another” (…avgapw/men avllh,louj).
4. The Intensive Middle: Comparing the Intensive Middle to the Reflexive
Middle, the one difference we see is: Whereas the Reflexive emphasizes the
Subject’s participation in the resulting action of the verb, the Intensive focuses on
the Subject’s starting or producing of the action. By way of example, let me offer
this contrast: A) Reflexive: He is loving himself; B) Intensive: He himself is
loving. The difference in these sentences is that in sentence A, the Subject is
participating in the result, whereas in sentence B the Subject is contributing to the
production of the result. We see this in Acts 5.2 with “ evnosfi,sato avpom th/j
timh/j ” meaning “…he kept back for himself some of the price...”
5. Causative Middle: With the Causative Middle, we get what we expect: The
Subject has caused something to be done to or for the Subject’s self. Rom. 13
uses this when it says “Everyone must submit themselves…” ( u`potasse,sqw ).
This also occurs in Lk. 11.38 where Jesus “did not first have Himself washed”
(evbapti,sqh).
6. Permissive Middle: Finally, the Permissive Middle deals with, as you might
have guessed, the Subject letting something be done for or to it. A popular
example is Acts 22.16: “Rise, have yourself baptized and allow your sins to be
washed away…” (“…ba,ptisai…avpolu,sai…).