Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

PORTER Did Paul Baptize Himself? 101

or involvement of the subject in the outcome of the activity'.^38 He appar-

ently does this even though a number of traditional grammarians have

recognized that the middle voice does not have a reflexive sense in the vast

majority of instances, thus making it difficult to argue that reflexivity is the

basic function. J.H. Moulton, as far back as 1906, said that the middle voice

is 'quite inaccurately' described as reflexive.^39 He concedes only Mt. 27.5

with aTTTiy^ocTO as reflexive, although even this example he says might be

better translated with 'choke' rather than the reflexive 'hang oneself. Nev-

ertheless, T.S. Green argues for the reflexive sense in both Acts 22.16 and

1 Cor. 10.2:

In these places the expression of reflexive action is appropriate and

evidently designed, because the initiatory step rests altogether with the

subject of the process in question, who thus far becomes such through his

own agency. Even the figurative baptism of Israel was a matter of their own

procuration, by their adventuring on the passage opened to them.^40

There are a number of apparent reasons for the persistence of the

concept of the middle voice grammaticalizing reflexivity. One is that the

middle voice is traditionally called the reflexive.^41 Another is the apparent

ease with which the English reflexive pronoun can be used in translation.

Many middle voice verbs in Greek go smoothly into an English reflexive

construction, and hence the thought becomes the notion that this is what

the Greek middle must mean.^42 Another apparent reason is that there are a

number of instances where the Greek reflexive pronoun is found with the

middle voice form, leading some apparently to equate the two.^43 However,

the two are being equated as if one reinforces the other. Another way to

examine the same phenomenon—and the one endorsed here and by a

38. K.L. McKay, A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An Aspectual
    Approach (SBG, 5; New York: Peter Lang, 1994), p. 21.


39. J.H. Moulton, Prolegomena, to A Grammar of New Testament Greek (vol. 1 of
    4 vols.; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908 [1906]), p. 155.


40. Green, Treatise, pp. 184-85.


41. See M. Stuart, A Treatise on the Syntax of the New Testament Dialect (Edin-
    burgh: T. & T. Clark, 1835), p. 128.


42. See A.T. Robertson, A Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament (London:
    Hodder & Stoughton; New York: Doran, 4th edn, 1908), p. 134, who, even though he
    argues for another position regarding the Greek middle (see below), states: 'In English
    the reflexive pronoun is the only way that the middle idea can be expressed'; cf.
    Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 157.


43. Winer, Treatise, pp. 322-23.