Lesson 5 | Future Indicatives
[3] Future Passive Indicatives
Future passive indicatives are also non-past in time and perfective in aspect. Like future middle indicatives, future passive indicatives lack an augment, use a future stem, and their endings follow the present middle or passive verb pattern. However, the future passive indicative uses a different tense-former:
| λύω in the future indicative | |||||||||
| Active | Middle | Passive | |||||||
| Singular | First | λύσω | λύσομαι | λυθήσομαι | |||||
| Second | λύσεις | λύσῃ | λυθήσῃ | ||||||
| Third | λύσει | λύσεται | λυθήσεται | ||||||
| Plural | First | λύσομεν | λυσόμεθα | λυθησόμεθα | |||||
| Second | λύσετε | λύσεσθε | λυθήσεσθε | ||||||
| Third | λύσουσι(ν) | λύσονται | λυθήσονται | ||||||
Rather than the σ tense-former, future passive indicatives take a θησ tense-former. Note how this differs by one letter from the aorist passive tense-former: θη.
Practice
Use the quizlet below to practice parsing λύω as a future passive indicative before we look at some examples from the Greek NT.
Examples from the Greek NT
ὁ δὲ ἀγαπῶν με ἀγαπηθήσεται ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου, κἀγὼ ἀγαπήσω αὐτὸν… Now the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him... —John 14:21
In this verse, we see three different forms of the same verb: ἀγαπάω. ὁ ἀγαπῶν is a present, active, participle, nominative, masculine, singular. Notice how the article turns this participle into a noun: “the one who loves me.” Now, let’s compare the four key features for ἀγαπηθήσεται and ἀγαπήσω:
Passive
αγαπα+θης+εται
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
Active
αγαπα+σ+ω
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
Before we move on to the next example, note how each verb’s voice affects the action. As a passive voice verb, the subject of ἀγαπηθήσεται receives the action of the main verb: “the one who loves [Jesus] will be loved.” We only know who does the action of this passive voice verb because of the prepositional phrase: ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου: “by my Father.” As an active voice verb, the subject of ἀγαπήσω does the action of the main verb to the direct object: “[Jesus] will love him.”
ὑμεῖς δὲ βαπτισθήσεσθε ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. Now you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit. —Acts 11:16
Let’s parse βαπτισθήσεσθε by identifying its four key features:
βαπτιζ+θης+εσθε
[Augment]
[Stem]
[Tense-Former]
[Ending]
From these four key features, we can parse βαπτισθήσεσθε as a future, passive, indicative, second person, plural from βαπτίζω: “You will be baptized.” Notice how the non-past time and perfective aspect puts this action into the future. The speaker summarizes the whole action from beginning to end: not “you are being baptized” or “you are baptized” but “you will be baptized.” Also, note how the passive voice of the verb means that the subject (you/ὑμεῖς) receives the verb’s action.
Parsing Practice: Future Passive Indicatives
Use the quizlet below to practice parsing future passive indicatives by identifying each verb’s four key features. Before you do, note that some future passive verbs use -ης as their tense-former rather than the full -θης tense-former. Be on the look out for such verbs as you practice: