The αἰτέω / αἰτέομαι Distinction in the New Testament: A proposal 105 reflects the perspective of the character or of the Agent or of both.7 Frequently the character makes the statement about the Agent’s action in order to inform the Agent of unfulfilled constraints; and, especially in charged rhetorical contexts, the character alternates his/her own per- spective with that of the Agent in order to drive home the implications of failing to recognize and fulfill the constraints. The context generally provides clear guidance concerning the perspective of recognition. These considerations permit the following statement of the active/mid- dle distinction with αἰτέω: Middle forms signal the recognition that the Agent’s action of asking is characterized by unfulfilled constraints that exceed those assumed by the particular conceptualization of the verb, and active forms signal no recogni- tion of unfulfilled constraints. The following investigations of the verbal occurrences illustrate this statement and further specify its application first with occurrences of usages ACE-Act/ACE-Mid and then with occurrences of usages AEC- Act/AEC-Mid. 3. αἰτέω with Usages ACE-Act/ACE-Mid Αἰτέω presents eight occurrences with usage ACE-Act and six occur- rences with usage ACE-Mid. Five of these fourteen occurrences appear in isolation from other occurrences of the verb with Usages ACE-Act/ ACE-Mid. In two of these, only the recognition of the Agent applies. In Acts 3:2 the context introduces no constraints on the Agent’s action, and the verb form is active. 7 The discussion of perspectives requires a distinction between characters and the nar- rator, the textually immanent construct attributed with speaking the content of the work: cf. S. Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Ithaca, NY 1978) 147-51. The narrator does not offer a perspective for recognizing constraints unless it is associated with a character. The narrators of Matthew, Mark, Luke, all of John except 20:30-31 and 21:24-25, and all of Acts except the “We” sections (16:10-17; 20:5-8, 13-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16) are not associated with specific characters and so offer no perspective. The narrators in John 20:30-31 and 21:24-25, the “We” sections of Acts, and the remaining NT books also function as characters and are able to provide a perspective for recognizing constraints. The latter character-narrators are apparent in the use of first person verbal endings and pronouns and receive identification in the opening verses of letters.