Greek Grammar

[drebro]

I have a question about Greek participles that I could not answer with my rusty knowledge and limited grammar/syntax book collection. What, if any, is the significance of the voice of Greek participles? There is a middle/passive form of a participle in Colossians 1:6, and I am unsure how it should be translated. Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Andrew Morrison
Columbia, SC, USA

 

[filosofer]

Depends on the word. Sometimes words have middle/passive form but are translated active - these are called deponents. If the word is specifically a middle form then the sense is the whatever it/he/she is doing it/he/she is doing for itself/himself/herself, or of itself, or for its own benefit. If the word is passive, then it is something done to it/him/her.

If you mean in Col. 1:6, KARPOFOUMENON, it considered a middle (BAGD, 405), so it would have the sense "bearing fruit (of itself)".

 

[Didaskomenos]

Perhaps you're referring to auxanomenon, used here in the middle (mediopassive) voice, meaning "growing (of/for itself)". One possibility is that it means the gospel is bearing fruit and growing for itself, but the meaning filosofer (of itself) gave seems more logical, given the plant imagery.

 

[filosofer]

Of course, we each referred to a different verb since there are two of that form in the verse. LOL But we agree in understanding the sense of how to translate.

 

[drebro]

Lover of wisdom and Taught one,
Thanks for the help with the participle. I was interested in karpofoumenon, but I appreciate the exhaustive help. It has been a while since I took Greek (and since I used it as much as I should), and I could not remember if the voices had varying significances between the different moods and infinitives and participles. I remembered the basic significance of the middle in general, and I went with BAGD in translating it "bearing fruit of itself."
Along the same line, I translated the first participle in verse 6 (parontoV) "that is present with you." I did this because it is a present tense participle, but I think BAGD has "that has come to you," as does the NASB, the English version I am most familiar with. What do the two of you (and any others) think?

 

[filosofer]

Along the same line, I translated the first participle in verse 6 (parontoV) "that is present with you." I did this because it is a present tense participle, but I think BAGD has "that has come to you," as does the NASB, the English version I am most familiar with. What do the two of you (and any others) think?

Participles normally retain the tense (past, present, future) based on the main verb of the sentence/phrase. That is why it would be past tense as you noted. Participle describes "type of action" relative to the main verb.

 

[Didaskomenos]

BAGD seems to note a few instances in which pareimi 'am present, arrive' has a perfect sense ('have arrived'). However, the notion of being present itself is conditional on an earlier advent, so I don't know how they differentiate the two. The earlier meaning seems to have been "to be present", and from there it took on the meaning of "arrive," especially in the past tenses. Regardless, Col 1:6 is not noted by BAGD to have a perfect meaning, so you seem to be right on track.