βλαπτεσθω

Greek Learning Greek
1

I faced to βλαπτεσθω in this sentence:
μη βλαπτεσθω τα ιερά.
I couldn’t find βλαπτεσθω in the conjugation of βλάπτω in any table!

2

βλαπτέσθω is 3rd person singular present middle/passive imperative of βλάπτω. In this sentence it’s passive in meaning. τὰ ἱερά is neuter plural, so the verb is singular, not plural.

3

Attic Greek 3rd person prohibitions use μή with a present imperative like this. But I don’t think they ever use the passive 3rd person (let it not occur)? It’s an LXX thing, as far as I know, but in the LXX they would have used the aorist instead of present.

4

Present imperative with μή is used to prohibit something someone is about to do or to put a stop to something someone is doing. Otherwise aspectually unmarked prohibitions are usually expressed by μή + aorist subjunctive.

Truly passive present imperatives are probably rare, I would think, but the -έσθω form would crop up in middles and deponents.

The implication of μὴ βλαπτέσθω τὰ ἱερά is that someone has started damaging or is about to damage the temples.

5

Hylander, look just a bit more carefully at what I wrote. Passive (necessarily 3rd person) prohibitions. The points about the Attic subjunctive and LXX future prohibitions have nothing to do with this.

Let me repeat: While Attic does use μή with a present imperative like this, it doesn’t do it with the passive (as far as I can tell). And while the LXX does have these passive 3rd person prohibitions, they use the aorist imperative (as the present would hardly make sense).

Ie., LXX usage: Μὴ ὀργισθήτω ὁ θυμός σου ἐν ἐμοί (and many other examples)

Unrelated to this, your point about general versus specific prohibitions is only sometimes true, and only as derived from the aspect/tense difference here. μὴ γράφε gets answered by οὐ γράφω, I’m not writing. μὴ γράψῃς by οὐ γράψω (I will not write). Smyth 1841. Any specifically/generality comes out of the aspect difference, and several of the examples there go the opposite way of your statement.

EDIT: Written before you re-wrote the post. I agree with the current version. (Well, except for the commonness. These are very common in the LXX and things like the Life of Aesop. Maybe it has something to do with the loss of the optative. μὴ γένοιτο doesn’t quite mean the same thing as the aorist LXX prohibitions, but is the sort of thing you’d see in Attic.)

EDIT 2: Or more likely, an Attic author would just express it as an active prohibition.

6

Thank you so much for this comprehensive answer.

7

Thank you so much.

8

Thank you so much.