From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 04 2001 - 06:21:05 EST
At 2:57 AM +0000 1/4/01, Mark Wilson wrote:
>Phil. 3:8
>
>ALLA MENOUNGE KAI hHGOUMAI PANTA ZHMIAN EINAI DIA TO hUPERECON THS GNWSEWS
>CRISTOU IHSOU TOU KURIOU MOU DI hON TA PANTA EZHMIWQHN KAI hHGOUMAI SKUBALA
>hINA CRISTON KERDHSW
>
>Would it be acceptable to consider hHGOUMAI, being in the Present Tense, as
>indicating that Paul still considers all things (not just his pre-conversion
>assets) as loss? This would include various "attainments" in his Christian
>experience.
Yes, I think it reflects his ongoing attitude, but to a certain extent this
has to be recognized as a rhetorical ploy: I don't think he is calculating
exactly what it is that he values as worthless and what it is that he
values as worthy; it's a comparative judgment: everything else over against
the worth of the one thing. He's stating an ATTITUDE, I'd think.
>Also, can we understand EZHMIWQHN as middle, not passive? A commentary I am
>reading suggests this but only cites that others have recently come to see
>this as a middle (maybe they have been reading Carl's posts on the –QH
>endings). [Carl, I seem to recall you affirming that practically any –QH
>verbs, although passive in form, are candidates for middles.]
Yes, I'd think this is a pretty clear instance of a -QHN middle, however
much we might want to say that ZHMIOW is a fully transitive verb and has
all three voices distinct. I'd prefer to say that EZHMIWQHN here MUST be
understood of an action in which Paul personally played a primary role of
initiation: "I have allowed myself to suffer loss of everything ..."--and
it's a good instance of what I have argued is the
nigh-unto-indistinguishable association of "middle" and "passive"
functions; unless there is some clear indication of an instrument or agent
initiating the action referred to, the verb functions as a sort of
reflexive.
>The idea then would be that Paul did not receive loss in some passive sense,
>but chose to experience loss of his own doing. Any ideas as to why the
>switch to an Aorist, sandwiched between two Presents?
I'd say he's referring with the aorist to a conscious, deliberate adoption
of an attitude which, in the presents, he affirms that he still now holds.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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