Notes On Koine Greek: Part 61

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1. The Passive Voice: So far, we’ve looked at the Active and Middle Voices. We’ve seen that
the Active Voice shows the Subject doing the action and that the Middle Voice shows the
Subject doing an action in his / her own interest. In the Passive Voice, the Subject is being
acted upon! That is, something is being done to the Subject! Here are some examples in the
Present Tense of the 3 Voices:

Middle I am loosing myself - I am loosing for myself

Active I am loosing - I am loosing
Passive I am being loosed - I am being loosed

2. The Passive Indicative: As I noted in the previous installment of these “Notes”, once you
have the Middle Voice Paradigms recognized, getting the Passive Voice Paradigms will be no
problem. Why? Because they are virtually the same! Yes, you read that right: The Middle
and Passive Paradigm Suffixes are very similar! With the exceptions of the Aorist and Future
Tenses, the two Voices match. Here’s the completed table, pay close attention to how the
Middle & Passive Suffixes reflect one another and sandwich in the Active Voice.

Indicative Mood M.A.P.:

© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb

M Aorist Present Future

I Imperfect Pluperfect Perfect
D mhn meqa mhn meqa mhn meqa mai meqa mai meqa mai meqa
D so sqe
so sqe so sqe sai sqe sai sqe sai / h| sqe
L nto
to nto to to nto tai ntai tai ntai
E tai ntai

1st / 2nd Aorist Present Future

A Imperfect Pluperfect Perfect
C n men
n men n men a men w men w men
T
I j te j sate j te j te eij te eij te
V - n - n/ san - san - si (n) ei ousin ei ousin
E nd
2 Aor. Suffixes are
same as Imp. Act. Ind.

P Aorist Present Future

Imperfect Pluperfect Perfect
A
S mhn meqa n men mhn meqa mai meqa mai meqa mai meqa
S so sqe j te so sqe sai sqe sai sqe sai / h| sqe
I to nto - san to nto tai ntai tai ntai tai ntai
V
2nd Aor. Suffixes are 2nd Fut. Suffixes are
E same but don’t use q same but don’t use q

3. Notice: That the 1st & 2nd Aorist Passives are the odd men out. Note also that the 1st Aorist & Future
Passives tend to use q, which distinguishes them from the 2nd Aorist & Future Passives. Finally, note that the 1st
Sg. of the 1st Aorist Passive is the 6th Principle Part. So, we have learned all of our Principle Parts and the entire
Indicative Mood. (*Note that the 1st & 2nd Aorist Active Suffixes have been modified from earlier versions of the table here.)
4. Other Moods: In Koine, there are 5 other Moods we will eventually cover: Subjunctive, Optative,
Imperative, Infinitive, Participle (though, some debate whether or not the Infinitive and Participle are Moods, we
will consider them as such here).