Was Jesus ‘Betrayed’ or Did He ‘Give Himself Over’?
Can paradidotai in Matt 26:24 and 45 be middle voice? Editor-in-Chief Tavis Bohlinger explains how this is an implausible translation.
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- The more acquainted we become with original language syntaxes, the more we find questions like this being pertinent. Much debate goes into language-based issues in the Bible. A fully literate laity would go a long way to producing an army of loving apologists who can at least answer more fully issues based on the biblical text. LOGOS resident scholar for years, Dr. Michael Heiser, has helped me discover the importance of such issues and opened the Scriptures to me in wondrous ways
- As they say in Texas - Bo'fem. Judas betrayed him for silver but Jesus would have had to be betrayed in order to foment the Jews to go as far as they did. I think the simple and straight answer from the Bible is always the best answer. Rather than big esoteric word usage that is meaningless to most except the person doing the speaking/writing.
- Here are some of my thoughts: In this article and the situation the pastor and parishioner find themselves the question doesn’t seem that hard to answer. The parishioner asks, “Can you tell me if a middle-voice translation of this word is possible?” I think it is clear to everyone that the answer to this question is unequivocally, yes. Once we answer this question the next logical question is, “Should we translate paradidotai as middle or passive in Matthew 26:24?” I don’t believe one should overlook the μέν/ δέ construction, “on the one hand/on the other hand”. Noting what was said before in the article, “He himself no doubt not only knows full well what has been written, but as the second person of the Godhead, he was actively involved in the revelation of the Word of God. So one could argue that similarly he would take an active (or causative) role in its fulfillment”, the context of paradidotai and the conclusion which brings up agency, I believe both middle and passive voice translations may not only be true but intended".