Divine Passive: Jesus Sayings About God

R. Martin, Approaches to NT Exegesis, p. 237:

“[The divine passive became] customary, with an extended usage, on Jesus’ lips. He uses it over 100x [Mat 5.4; Luke 12.7].”

Jeremias, NT Theology, p 11:

“The divine passive occurs round about 100 times in the sayings of Jesus.”

N.T. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians & to Philemon, p. 71:

“The [divine passive denotes] in a typically Jewish fashion, the activity of God the Father, working in the Son.”

Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, p 437:

“The passive is also used when God is the obvious agent. Many grammars calls this a divine passive (or theological passive), assuming that its use was due to the Jewish aversion to using the divine name [So BDF, 71 (§130.1); Zerwick, Biblical Greek, 76 (§236); Young, Intermediate Greek, 135-36. Cf. also J. Jeremias, NT Theology 9 -14, especially finds it on the lips of Jesus].”

 “Jesus’ Avoidance of the Divine Name,” Soulen, Jesus and the Divine Name:

The “divine passive” is so typical of Jesus that a full survey basically amounts to a recapitulation of his public teaching.

• x times in Mar 2.5, 9, 20;

3.28;

4.11-12, 24-25;

8.12, 17

9.31, 45, 47, 49;

10.40;

12.10

13.11, 13

14.41

• x time in Luke 4.25, 43;

6.21, 37-38;

7.47

10.15, 20

11.2, 9-10, 50-51

12.2, 7, 10, 31, 48;

13.28, 32, 34-35

14.11, 14

16.25-26

17.10, 34-35;

18.14

19.42

22.16, 22

24.7

• 41x in Matthew 5.4, 6-7, 9, 29;

6.7, 33;

7.1-2, 7-8, 19;

8.12

9.29

10.19, 26, 30;

12.31-32, 37, 39

13.11-12;

15.13;

16.4, 19;

18.18

19.11;

20.23;

21.43;

23.12, 37-38;

24.13, 40-41;

25.29, 34, 41;

26.42

28.18

• 2x in John 3.18;

16.11

Is Jesus God?

"What Does God Do? Divine Actives and Divine Passives in the Gospel of Matthew"

Robert L. Mowery:

“The divine passive are statements that variously identify God as Theos (9:8; 19:6), Lord of the harvest (9:38), the Father (10:20; 11:25; 16:17; cf. 18:14, 19), the One who created (19:4).”

“The verbs in many of these [Sermon on the Mount] statements are divine passives. Many 21^st century readers may need assistance in recognizing that God is the implied agent of these verbs.”

Addendum: The Divine Name

Jeremias, Theology, 9-14, p. 9.

"…the use of the passive in place of the divine name."

The forbidding of oaths by Jesus [Mat 5.37] “had in view the guarding against a misuse of the divine name…a conscious avoidance of the name of God.” Dalman, The Words of Jesus, p 229.

Jesus Then and Now: Images of Jesus in History and Christology, Eds. Meyer, Hughes, p 33:

“Abuse of the divine name was punishable by death (Lev. 24.10-11, 14-16, 23; Sanhedrin 7.5). But Jesus does not invoke the divine name [in Mar 2.5]. He pronounces forgiveness, employing the theological passive.”

Karen Kilby, Too Many Trinities? Kendall Soulen’s Trinitarian Trinitarianism in Pro Ecclesia Vol 23-N1: A Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology, p 29:

“The practice of piety toward the divine name precisely by its avoidance continues in the NT, even if contemporary Christians might often miss this. Jesus, for instance, shows reverence for the divine name in his rejection of oaths, in his distinctive use of ‘Amen, Amen,’ and in his employment of the divine passive (‘Blessed are they,’ ‘Forgive, and you will be forgiven,’ etc.).”

The Method and Message of Jesus' Teachings, Robert H. Stein, pp 64:

“A second way in which the devout Jew sought to avoid the utterance of the sacred name of God was by the use of the divine passive [Mat 5.4; 7.1, 7; 10.30; Mar 4.25]….the number of examples we find and the clarity of many of them clearly indicates that the devout Jew frequently sought to avoid the danger of breaking the Third Commandment by means of this passive construction as well as by the substitution or circumlocution.”

Jesus, the Temple and the Coming Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13, Robert H. Stein, p 26:

“Since Jesus’ native tongue was Aramaic, the presence of Aramaic terms and of customs of Aramaic-speaking Jews in Palestine, such as the avoidance of God’s name by the use of the ‘divine passive’ [a passive tense allows the avoidance of the mention of God as the subject of the action, i.e., Mat 7.1, 7; 10.30; Mar 4.25; 10.40], as well as the substitution of another term for God [e.g., ‘kingdom of heaven’ and Mat 5.34-35; 6.9; Mar 11.30; 14.61-62; Luke 6.35; 12.8-9; 15.10, 21], suggests that in such cases we may well be dealing with a saying or custom that reflects the situation of Jesus.”

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Donald Goergen, p 210:

“A speech pattern characteristic of Jesus although not unique is his use of circumlocutions for God. From the prohibition against pronouncing the tetragrammaton, the proper name for God (YHWH, Yahweh) there also arose the custom of avoiding direct talk about God, speaking of God periphrastically or by circumlocution. Jesus did not necessarily avoid the word God, but he seems to have preferred to do so. Especially notable in the language of Jesus is his use of ‘the divine passive,’ avoiding direct reference to God by use of the passive [Mar 2.5].

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels, Kenneth E. Bailey, p 109:

“Jews of the first century were very careful not to use God’s name unless it was absolutely necessary. They sense that any casual use of God’s holy name might inadvertently break the Ten Commandments [Ex 20.7]. More than 200 cases of the divine passive are found in the words of Jesus in the Gospels. This is one of the distinctive characteristics of Jesus’ speech as a 1^st century Jew.”

The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide, James H. Charlesworth:

“…evidence of Semitics (Hebrew and Aramaic forms) usually indicates tradition received by the Evangelists. [Examples include] the use of the divine passive so as to avoid using the name God.”

Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament, Köstenberger, Merkle, Plummer:

“The assumption is that God is not mentioned in the context because of the Jewish aversion to using the divine name (lest they use it in vain). For instance, some of the blessings that Jesus offers in the Beatitudes are given in the passive voice with no agent mentioned [Mat 5.4, 7, 9].”

Knocking on Heaven's Door: A New Testament Theology of Petitionary Prayer, David Crump, pp 116-7:

“Eager to avoid even inadvertent slights to God’s holiness, ancient Judaism devised various circumlocutions that would allow a person to talk about God without actually using the divine name [Mat 7.2].”

From Gethsemane to Pentecost: A Passion Study, Elizabeth Danna:

“By using passive verbs [Mar 4.24-25] Jesus hints that it is God who will be doing the measuring, giving, and taking. This was a Jewish custom, which arose shortly before Jesus’ time, to avoid unintentional irreverent use of God’s name.”

History of the Kingdom of God, Part 2: Liturgy and the Building of the Kingdom, Sofia Cavalletti, p 25:

The prayer that Jesus taught us, therefore, begins by affirming that it is directed to the “Father” who is God. There are three petitions that follow, the first and third of which are redacted in the verbal form called “divine passive” or “royal passive”; this is often found in the sayings of Jesus. It is a paraphrase that is used to avoid speaking about God in direct terms, for the sake of the utmost reverence due to God; it has been called the “reverential passive.”