Saturday, December 2, 2023

David L. Mathewson on the Exegetical significance of the passive voice

  

The passive voice indicates indirect causality and external agency, where the subject functions as the medium or affect participant. . . . One of the important ways that the passive voice functions is to maintain “topic continuity.” That is, the passive voice is used to keep the focus on the grammatical subject and to background the agent in a prepositional phrase, if expressed, as the external cause (the lack of expressed agent would seem to further background the agent). In Mark 1:9, ἦλθεν Ἰησοῦς ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἐβαπτίσθη εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην ὑπὸ Ἰωάννου (Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John), the passive voice ἐβαπτίσθη keeps the focus on Jesus, who was the grammatical subject of the previous verse, rather than on the one baptizing him (John). In this way continuity of topic is maintained in the discourse. (David L. Mathewson, Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach [Essentials of Biblical Greek Grammar; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 62, 63)