Notes On Koine Greek: Part 52

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1. Present Middle Indicative: Now that we’ve been able to see where the
Present Middle Indicative fits into the bigger picture, let us say a few more
specific words about its use & functions as well as the Middle Voice in general.
Let’s start with the Middle Voice itself.
2. The Middle Voice: Most grammars—just about everyone I’ve seen anyway—
usually teach the Middle Voice alongside the Passive Voice because their endings,
pretty much with the exception of the Aorist, are the same. However, I am not
going to do that. Instead, I am going to take the same approach I took for the
Present Active, which was to concentrate on it and finish it first and then move
on. So, in the next handful of “Notes” we will follow this order: Present Middle,
Future Middle, Imperfect Middle, Aorist Middle, Perfect Middle and Pluperfect
Middle.
3. The Person-Number Suffix Morphemes: Of course, we’ve already seen
the Person-Number Suffix Morphemes for the Present Middle but it would do us
well to recall them here using the word lu,w:
Present Middle Indicative
Notice here that the Singular Plural
expected “lu,esai” is
1 lu,omai I am loosing for luo,meqa We are loosing for
actually “lu,h”| . This is
because the when the myself ourselves
“s” dropped, the “e” 2 lu,h| You are loosing lu,esqe You (all) are loosing
and the “a” combined / for yourself for yourselves
contracted to make “h” 3 lu,etai He is loosing for lu,ontai They are loosing for
with a subscript. himself themselves

4. What Does “Middle Voice” Mean? : In Koine, “Voice” denotes the

relationship between the verb and its action. Since we’ve already looked at the
Active Voice, perhaps a contrast between it and the Middle Voice will prove
helpful. Before looking at the examples, though, we should realize the simple
truth that the “Active Voice” dealt mainly with the Subject doing something
(expressed by a verb) or to put it differently, what the Subject was doing. In the
Middle Voice, however, the focus is not simply on what the Subject is doing but
rather, what the Subject is doing for him or herself. In other words, what the
Middle Voice is showing is the Subject not only carrying out a verb (e.g. doing
something) but carrying out the verb so as to be responsible—even if only
partially—for the results. Here are English and Greek some examples:
Active I am washing the car.
Middle I am washing the car for myself. Or: I myself am washing the car.
Active lu,ei th.n ku,hn - He is washing the dog
Middle lu,etai th.n ku,hn - He is washing the dog for himself. Or: He himself is washing the dog

5. Involvement: Remember, one of the most significant things about the Middle
Voice is that it is attempting to show the Subject’s involvement or participation in
the resulting action of the verb. A more in-depth look at uses of the Middle Voice
will be given in the next installation of these “Notes”.