PORTER Did Paul Baptize Himself? 107
sense of the middle voice has, in the light of his theology, motivated his
interpretation of Acts 22.16.
In the light of these definitions of the causative middle voice—in terms
of allowing or getting something done, and even the question of agency—
as well as larger issues of definition of the middle voice, it is not surprising
that some grammarians have either posited other analyses, or found it dif-
ficult to classify this example. For example, Moulton himself notes that
pdiTTiaai and aiToXouaai in Acts 22.16 are middles, but asks, 'if the
tense were present or perfect, could we decide?'^75 He thinks that this
points to the fact that the middle and passive voices were 'not differenti-
ated with anything like the same sharpness as is inevitable in analytic
formations such as we use in English'.^76 Dana and Mantey discuss Acts
22.16 under their treatment of the passive verb:
The passive arose out of the middle, and the line of demarcation between
them was never absolutely fixed. There was a slight margin in which they
overlapped and presented a common ground. Thus in Ac. 22.16, (JaTrnoai
is middle and means, get yourself baptized. But as to practical significance,
how much difference is there between that rendering and be baptized, the
way it is usually rendered? We must beware not to seek a hard and fast
English equivalent to be employed persistently in the translation of either of
these voices...^77Moule apparently throws up his hands in despair: 'Is there any significance
in the comparison between Acts ix.18 dvaoTCxs e(}aTTTiG0r) and xxii.16
avaoxas fJaTrnaai KOU aTToAouaai xas apapTias oou? Did a Chris-tian in fact generally "baptize himself, "get himself baptized", or "submit
to baptism"?'^78
This analysis points to a number of factors that need to be investigated
further.^79 One is the relationship between the definition of the voice system
as relating 'the action to the subject'^80 and the use of the term causality.- Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 163.
- Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 162.
- Dana and Mantey, Manual Grammar, p. 162.
- Moule, Idiom Book, p. 26.
79. Many of these issues, and further support for the conclusions posited, are to be
found in Porter, Voice in the Greek of the New Testament. - Robertson, Grammar, p. 798. Similar definitions are found in Dana and Mantey,
Manual Grammar, p. 155; Chamberlain, Exegetical Grammar, p. 80; Zerwick, Biblical
Greek, p. 172; Brooks and Winbery, Syntax, p. 99; Porter, Idioms, p. 62; and Wallace,
Greek Grammar, p. 408.