In koine Greek, can tenses change the meaning of words like the middle voice?

Question

I recently found out that the middle voice in koine can cause a word to change its meaning completely for example a passive word in koine may mean "to rule" but the middle version of the same word may mean "to begin". Is this the same for other grammatical parts? Such as tenses, cases, ect? What other aspects of koine can completely change the meaning of a greek word in the Bible?

Here are two verses ‎both containing the word αρχω one is in the middle and another in the active:

1 Peter 4:17 (WEB)

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?

ὅτι ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τὸ κρίμα ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ θεοῦ· εἰ δὲ πρῶτον ἀφʼ ἡμῶν, τί τὸ τέλος τῶν ἀπειθούντων τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ εὐαγγελίῳ;

Mark 10:42 (WEB)

Jesus summoned them, and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς· Οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ δοκοῦντες ἄρχειν τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι αὐτῶν κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν.

Why is it the middle means one thing and the active means another? I read about the middle changing the meaning of the word in the article "Making Sense of the Middle Voice in Greek".

*Greek from: Holmes, M. W. (2011–2013). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature.

Answer 1

This is not as strange as it appears. We have several similar English examples as well. For example, the English word-element "princ" creates several words that all have the fundamental meaning of "first" such as:

• principle = first idea
• prince = first person in a Principality
• principal = first teacher that "rules" a school

In Greek the same obtained for the verb ἄρχω which fundamentally means "be first". Its cognate nouns have the same meaning, for example:

• ἄρχων (archon) = ruler or first person among the people (like our English "principal" = first teacher in a school)
• ἀρχηγός (archegos) = one who initiates something or has pre-eminence such as a prince.
• ἀρχή (arche) = start/beginning of something (eg John 1:1), or, one with whom a process begins (Col 1:18), or, the first cause (Rom 3:14), or, the corner, the place where surfaces begin (Acts 10:11, 11:15), or, elementary first principles (Heb 5:12), etc

In the case of ἄρχω (archo), some lexicons (like Thayer and Strongs) will list ἄρχομαι (archomai) as a separate but related verb but is correctly the middle voice of ἄρχω (archo). However, as with all this class of cognate words (whether nouns or verbs) it can mean either "to start" or "to rule over" in the sense of being the first or initiator. We note that ἄρχομαι (archomai) only ever appears in the middle voice and always means

• to initiate an action, process or state of being, begin (BDAG), eg, Matt 11:7, 20, 24:49, etc.

With only a slightly different but very closely related idea, ἄρχω (archo) means to rule in the sense of being the initiator of governing actions, eg, Mark 10:42, Rom 15:12.