Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

104 Dimensions in Baptism

undue prominence, even if they admit that this is a rare use in the Greek of

the New Testament, or offer a number of sub-categories of use of the

middle voice that show varying degrees of integration of the category of

'personal involvement' with instances of actual usage. For example, Per-

schbacher defines the middle voice except for deponents as describing 'the

subject as participating in the results of the action in some way', but then

lists with examples the four categories of (a) deponent verbs, (b) middle

verbs with active sense, (c) reflexive middle (with no indication of fre-

quency of use), (d) middle verbs with a different meaning than the active

form, (e) intensive middle 'with emphasis on the subject', and (f) recip-

rocal middle.^63 Only example (e) seems to fit his definition.^64 This leads to

inevitable speculation regarding the basis of the personal-involvement

definition, since it appears to be a shared assumption among a number of

grammarians, rather than clearly argued on the basis of various linguistic

and grammatical criteria. As the example above shows, there is the further

difficulty of the usefulness of the definition if it cannot be seen in some

way exemplified in the categories used by grammarians. It must be granted

that a significant number of the grammarians cited above do, in fact, incor-

porate the sense of personal involvement in their various sub-categories.

There is, nevertheless, some ambiguity in the definitions whether the

involvement rests with the subject as agent or transfers to the effect of the

action as well. This perhaps points to a lack of precision at this point in the

definition, one that also makes it difficult to distinguish between active and

middle uses, especially since these are often seen to be troublesome to

distinguish in English translation. Thus, although there are some signifi-

cant reasons for questioning the easy acceptance of the view of the middle

voice as grammaticalizing the semantic feature of personal involvement,

there may well still be reasons that this conceptual framework has prag-

matic value. Thus scholars who have advocated such a framework may

have missed important theoretical considerations, but may not have been

completely misled in their assessment of the semantics of the form and its

constructions. This may well account for the discussion and the various

sub-categories of usage of the middle voice, including that of the causative

use.

The third position to consider is that the middle voice is causative. As

noted above, this category of causative use is often seen as a specific usage

63. Perschbacher, New Testament Greek Syntax, pp. 266-69.


64. See similarly Brooks and Winbery, Syntax, pp. 101 -103; Black, It's Still Greek
    to Me, p. 95.