Stanley E. Porter, BA, MA, MA, PhD
I am a professor of New Testament and interested in the New Testament and related subjects in all of their dimensions. My wide-ranging interests are grounded in my study of English/literature, New Testament, Greek, and linguistics. I continue to return to linguistic study of the Greek New Testament (and related language and literature), but am also greatly interested in Paul, Acts, John, the Gospels, historical Jesus, papyrology and textual criticism, hermeneutics, and matters of canon and pseudepigraphy (all of which I have written upon at some length), as well as many other areas. I have been teaching New Testament, linguistics, and related subjects, as well as being active in scholarly publishing, since 1987, and also have a serious interest in higher education and its practices. Before taking up my current position in Canada, I was a professor in the UK, and before that taught in the US and Canada. At latest count, I have authored nearly 30 books and monographs, as well as edited around 90 volumes and published nearly 400 journal articles, chapters, and other scholarly contributions.
David I. Yoon, BA, MDiv, ThM, PhD
I am a professor and pastor and have long appreciated having feet in both church ministry and academic worlds. I have been involved in vocational pastoral ministry since 2000, scholarly publishing since 2011, and academic teaching since 2013. I have a PhD in New Testament and have a very broad interest in New Testament studies, including Jesus, Paul, linguistics, the Gospels, hermeneutics, papyrology and textual criticism, literary criticism, Second Temple Judaism, and NT history and background, among others topics. I have published a number of books and articles in these areas and have presented on these topics at various conferences. In addition to my academic interests, I am also interested in exploring biblical leadership models in both academic and ministry contexts.
DOMAIN THIRTY-THREE 
I am really excited about this blog! I hope that content revolving around Greek grammar, particularly verbal aspect, and linguistics are frequent since accessible resources are few and far between.
LikeLike
Dan,
Thanks for your excitement. We hope it will stir some more interesting conversations!
— Dave
LikeLike
My question for you may sound simplistic, but I would like to know if you would consider the middle voice to be a marker of intransitivity in Koine Greek, similar to the pronominal verb in French.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
David J. McCollough, Ph.D.
LikeLike
David,
Thanks for your question. It’s a good one. No, I do not consider the Greek middle as marking intransitivity, as middle causal constructions can be used transitively and intransitively. The middle voice indicates what I have elsewhere called internal causality or ergativity (I realize this term is used in a variety of ways in other linguistic contexts, but find that there is an appropriate semantic overlap and think the term is useful). This is often captured in Greek grammars by speaking of how some kind of emphasis or focus upon the subject, or of subject affectedness, or of direct participation or specific involvement of the subject. I don’t think that the Greek middle is like the French pronominal, which is reflexive if I am not mistaken, even if one might sometimes use a reflexive pronoun in an English translation. Hope that helps.
— Stan
LikeLike
Thank you, Stan, that is very helpful! My question was prompted by a web article by a Wyckliffe linguist, Marvin Cotten, The Muddled Middle, παυσονται in 1 Cor 13:8. His proposal sounded reasonable enough, but I wanted to hear some different opinions on the subject. Again, thank you!
David
LikeLike
David,
Glad to be of help. Thanks for the interaction.
— Stan
LikeLike