Active, Middle, and Passive Voices

The Voice is a grammatical category that is responsible for the relationship between the grammatical subject and the agent & the target of the action.

The agent of the action is the entity that performs the action (usually a person, an animal, or something personified). The target of the action is the entity that undergoes or endures the action being performed. 

The Active Voice is the most usual voice. We use active voice when the subject of the sentence is the same as the agent of the action (i.e. subject = agent). In this case, the target, if mentioned, is usually the direct object of the verb. (Example: I opened the door)

The Passive Voice is used when the subject of the sentence is the target of the action (i.e. subject = target). In this case, the agent might be omitted or stated with the use of the prepositional phrase (with the use of the preposition by in English). The advantage of the passive voice is that it sets more importance on the target and the action itself, and makes the agent into something circumstantial. (Example: The door was opened by me)

The Middle Voice can be used when the subject of the sentence is both the agent and the target of an action. It means that in this case, the agent and the target are roughly the same (i.e. subject = agent = target). I.e. the agent performs an action on himself, part of himself, or something that belongs to him (extended self). There is no real middle voice in English. But it often can be roughly translated with the help of reflexive pronouns. (Example: The door opened itself, or I wash myself)

There are several ways the Passive and Middle voices are used in Greek. Here, we will of course look at them from the point of view of translating Greek into English:

• Deponent verbs (Middle-only or Passive-only verbs): There are verbs in Greek that either don't have an Active form (for example, ἔρχομαι -- to go) or their Middle form has a very different meaning from their Active form (for example, αἱρέω means to take in Active Voice and to choose in Middle Voice). In the case where there is no Active form, the Middle form is the dictionary form. Such verbs have to be translated as Active in English. It can also happen, that a verb has an Active Present form, but only appears in the Middle form in Future or Aorist. Such deponent verbs account for the majority of uses of Middle and Passive voice in the New Testament.

• "True Passive": Non-deponent verbs in Passive Voice will usually express an idea, that can be translated with a Passive Voice in English. In this case, one can often see the verb accompanied by the prepositional phrase with ὑπό (takes Genitive), which specifies the personal agent and can be translated as by in English. For example, βαπτίζομαι ὑπό Ιωάννου means I am being baptized by John.

• "True Middle": Non-deponent verbs in Middle Voice can be translated to English with the use of various reflexive constructions. For example, βαπτίζομαι could mean I baptize myself. In Present, Imperfect & Perfect tenses one can only distinguish between Middle and Passive use by the context since the forms are the same.

The forms of various Tense-Mood-Voice combinations can be found in the Tense sections.