Deponent verbs: Why we should stop talking about them in Koine Greek

For hundreds of years, greek grammars have taught that some verbs are deponent, that is middle in form but active in meaning. Today, scholars generally agree that deponency should not be taught, and instead, that teachers should teach the middle voice more carefully, explaining its difference to the English active voice. In this video, I explain the background to this consensus and talk about which grammars teach deponency and which ones don't, as well as share my ideas for what to do if your Greek professor teaches deponency.
2:41 - What is deponency?
6:24 - The history of the discussion
8:35 - Two mistakes of deponency
12:32 - The establishment of consensus
13:37 - Remaining questions
15:18 - Deponency and Greek Grammars
17:36 - Conclusion
17:48 - What if my teacher teaches deponency?
If you want to research this yourself, a great starting point is chapter 4 of Advances in the Study of NT Greek by Constantine Campbell, which includes a section about Neva Miller's and other contributors as well as links to other articles. If you're researching this subject, start here:
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