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)
