Thank you for your quick response. (Sorry! I can't post the Greek Test here)


"Tetaruenoi" is the perfect Middle-Passive Participle of the verb "Tasso"

I did another search and here is the argument from Arminians:

"The word "appointed" is "the perfect participle of the verb tasso, which was used primarily in a military sense: 'draw up in order, arrange in place [set, establish], assign, appoint, order' (A-S, p. 440) [Strong's Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words agrees, p. 1406]. The participle may be taken in the middle sense: 'as many as had set themselves unto eternal life.'"1 Notice that the Jewish people in Antioch had set themselves against eternal life by repudiating the gospel which Paul and Barnabas preached." See this link: http://classicalarminianism.blogspot.com/search/label/Exegeting%20Acts%2013%3A48

This argument is very similar to what my wife heard.

Dr. White's rebuttal is: "I have argued that you cannot simply throw out a middle translation and not defend it, which is what is done 95% of the time in synergistic/Arminian writings. Proper exegetical practice requires one to explain why one "prefers" a particular understanding. Given that the middle (sans deponents) is relatively rare in Luke in comparison with the passive, and given the periphrastic construction, there must be some compelling reason to adopt it. What is the reason?"

"It is significant because a periphrastic construction produces a specific tense-translation for the phrase, in this case, a pluperfect. As a result, however you take the meaning of "Tasso", it points us to something done prior to the Gentiles hearing that the gospel was coming to them."

White's arguments are strong. My understanding is that White throw the burden of prove to his opponents and ask them to explain why they choose middle not passive here. He also indicated the significance of periphrastic construction here.

In order to nail down this case, we still need to present the survey of the middle/passive usage in Luke etc. Hence I am trying to ask who have more resources on this issue.

Thanks Anyways.

I like your signiture, it's cool.

Last edited by Student; Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:00 PM.