1 Corinthians 13:8 (A sound exegetical analysis): The most common fallacy in connection with the middle voice is the supposition that virtually everywhere it occurs it is either reflexive or suggests that the subject acts of itself. Competent grammarians are not so naive, of course; but this fallacy has nevertheless found its way into many books and is usually introduced in order to shore up some favored doctrine. In particular, several authors have strenuously argued that the middle verb παυσονται (pausontai) in 1 Corinthians 13:8 is exegetically highly significant. Prophecies will be destroyed ( καταργηθησονται [katargethesetai]); but tongues will cease (παυσονται [pausontai]) - that is, there is no need for tongues to be destroyed (passive) by someone or something, for themiddle (it is argued) suggests that tongues will cease by themselves, because of something intrinsic to their very nature. This interpretation of the middle is then sometimes linked with the view that tongues played a useful role in the church until the canon was complete (some take το τελειον, [to teleion the perfect thing] in v. 10 to refer to canon); but from that point on, they are intrinsically obsolete and cease. The conclusion to be drawn is that there is no valid gift of tongues today. Whatever the merits of this exegesis of 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 (and they are few), it is certainly wrong to rest so much on the middle verb παυσονται (pausontai). For a start, the middle voice has a wide range of implications. Sometimes it is deponent (e.g., erchontai); sometimes it is used to indicate that the action is reflexive; that is, that the subject acts on himself, herself, itself (e.g., Matt. 26:46; 27:5; although this use is uncommon in the New Testament). Sometimes the middle is used when a subject acts for self (e.g., Mark 10:38, [ti aiteisthe] - what you are asking [for yourselves], NIV). Sometimes the middle voice suggest the subject allows something to be done (e.g., Luke 2:5, [apograpsasthai syn Mariam], to be enrolled with Mary). Occasionally a verb is active in some tenses and middle deponent in others (especially the future); and at other times the middle voice of a verb with an active voice has a semantic range set disjunctively over against that of the active voice. One never knows in advance; each middle voice verb must be examined in its own right. When we examine the use of the verb pauo in the New Testament, we discover that it regularly appears in middle form. In the active voice, its lexical meaning is to stop, to cause to stop, to relieve; in the middle, either to stop oneself (reflexive usage), or to cease (i.e., it becomes equivalent to a deponent with intransitive force). IT NEVER UNAMBIGUOUSLY BEARS THE MEANING TO CEASE OF ITSELF (I.E., BECAUSE OF SOMETHING INTRINSIC IN THE NATURE OF THE SUBJECT); and several passages rule out such overtones as automatic semantic force of the middle voice form of this verb. For instance, in Luke 8:24, we read that Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waters, and they subsided (NIV; [epausanto]) - which clearly cannot mean that they ceased because of something intrinsic to their nature. Something similar can be said of the rioters who stopped (epausanto0 beating Paul (Acts 21:32): they did so because they saw the soldiers, not because of some internal constraint (see also 1 Peter 4:1). (Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd edition, D.A. Carson, pp 62-63)
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:34:38 +0000
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