Emphasis Lost -- Acting on "Ourselves" - Part 2

In the first article of this series, the topic was the use of pronouns as subjects to emphasize the person acting. In this article, we will look at the opposite idea: how the person acted upon is often lost in translation. Jesus frequently says that we are doing things to ourselves, like “destroying ourselves.” This is usually translated as “being destroyed,” making us passive victims. Jesus is saying the opposite: this is the result of our own actions. This distortion affects over twenty percent of Jesus’s verses. Since there are literally hundreds of these problem verses, we will look at only a few of the most common problem verbs and how the meaning of certain key verses changes when they are correctly translated as the subject acting on themselves.

The issue here is a Greek verb form known as the “middle voice.” Both Greek and English have active and passive voices. The active voice is when the subject acts on an object, “he destroyed it.” The passive voice is when the subject is acted upon, “he was destroyed.” However, Greek also has a middle voice, where the subject acts on, for, or by himself. This is usually incorrectly translated as a passive action, dramatically changing what Jesus said.

“Destroying Themselves”

A good example of this middle voice problem is with the Greek verb translated as “to destroy” or “to lose.” This verb is apollymi (ἀπόληται). It appears in the active voice in twenty-five verses of Jesus’s words, but when it does, the Bible usually translates it as “lose.” However, in over a dozen verses, it appears in the middle voice. In these verses, English Bibles commonly translate it as “destroy” or “perish.” “Perish” is used because it is a passive concept, “ being destroyed.” A simple example is Luke 13:3:

NIV: I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Listeners Heard: Certainly not, I tell you! Instead, when you don't want to change your minds, all the same, you will destroy yourselves. 

When many of these “destroy themselves” verses include a negative, it is the negative of opinion seen in this verse. The sense of this negative is a choice: not wanting or thinking something (see this article). It is used with the middle voice of “destroy” to explain the bad choice involved.

The middle voice is also frequently used with the verb form of possibility. For example in John 10:28:

NIV: I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Listeners Heard: And I give to them on-going life. And they should never destroy themselves as far as this lifetime. And anyone might not snatch them from this hand of mine.

In this verse, most of the verbs are in the form of possibility, an action that “might” or “should” happen. This possibility is often mistranslated as the future tense, something that “will” happen as in, “You shall never perish.” However, Jesus is not promising this. He is hoping that we don’t destroy ourselves.

Other similar verbs of destruction are also commonly translated in the middle voice, for example, “die,” and “pass away.” Correctly translated these verbs make it clear that God is not punishing us. We are punishing ourselves.

“See For Yourselves”

Some of Jesus’s verbs are always in the middle voice. A good example is optanomai (ὄψονται) a verb that means “to see with your eyes.” This is one of many different verbs with different meanings, all confusingly translated simply as “see” (read this article). However, Jesus uses this verb to specifically say, “see for yourselves with your own eyes.” The sight described is usually something wonderful. A good example is John 16:16, which uses not one, but two different verbs both translated as “see.”

NIV: In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.
Listeners Heard: A little and no longer do you view me, and again a little and you will see me with your own eyes for yourselves.

This contrast between the two verbs makes the verse come alive. The first verb is in the present tense. The second is in the future tense, a promise, not just a possibility. The last part is the punchline, implying seeing something hard to believe if it is not seen for ourselves.

The So-Called Depondent Verbs: “For Themselves”

We cannot discuss the middle voice without addressing the so-called depondent verbs (yes, the word is “depondent” not “dependent”). These are verbs that are in a middle voice form, and Biblical translators always translate these verbs as active. One of the verbs that is always mentioned in this category is erchomai (ἔρχονται), which means “to start” and “to come” (see this article). The middle voice form makes sense because the concept of “start” or “come” implies that the person is doing it themselves. But this is not the whole story. Why? Because even though the basic form of the verb is the middle voice, it gets both active and middle voice endings added to it. For example, Mark 13:6:

NIV: Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.
Listeners Heard: Many will show up for themselves upon that name of mine saying that "I myself am he," and they might mislead many.

So what is going on? The middle voice isn’t only people acting on themselves, but those acting for or by themselves. So even these “deponent” verbs can have a middle voice. In the verse above, the sense is that they are showing up, claiming to be the Christ for themselves, that is, for their own benefit.

“By Themselves”

There are two final issues we should address here. The first is that some verb forms can be either the middle or passive voice. The translator must decide which voice works, given the verb’s meaning and context. The second issue is that the middle voice has a third meaning “by itself,” something that happens without assistance. Both concepts are illustrated in Matthew 9:17.

NIV: And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.
Listeners Heard: Neither do they pour fresh wine into used wineskins. If so, however, they burst by themselves, those skins, and the wine pours itself out, and the skins destroy themselves. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.

In this verse, the “burst” is something that happens by itself. The “pouring out” and “destroy” are things the wine and wineskins do to themselves. The last verb “are preserved” is also a middle passive form, but the passive makes more sense given the context. It is the person pouring the wine who preserves both.

Conclusions

There are literally hundreds of other verses and dozens of verbs in the middle voice that we could discuss. Some verbs change their meaning depending on whether they appear in the active or middle voice, but our English translations only occasionally recognize this as with “destroy/lost” above.

By failing to recognize that we do these things to ourselves, Christianity appears much more judgmental than Jesus was. Jesus recognizes our free will, and that our choices lead us to harm ourselves. This problem may have arisen historically because Christian faith in the West arose from a Latin, not a Greek, Bible. Latin, like English, doesn’t have the same kind of middle voice that Greek does.