I get your point - the way that some movies leave the key to understanding till the end - to steer things along a certain line that would be the less easier to follow if more was supplied.Stirling Bartholomew wrote:The text is a dubious textual variant, most probably a scribal error, this would divert the discussion from the syntax question. The variant reading shows a nominative masculine singular article which could be joined with a nominative masculine singular participle. The article is clause initial the participle clause final. The several other constituents in the clause including the finite verb are all sandwiched between the article and what could be construed as an articular participle if the syntax permits such a construction. The point at issue with the classics scholar is that this syntax isn't permissible Greek. According to him you will not find this syntax in ancient greek texts. [excluding dubious variants which can explained by scribal error, one dropped letter].
What genre of ancient Greek are you looking at? Verse or prose? My reason for asking is that I have always thought of Classical Greek (even Attic literature) as a number of co-existing dialects with varying rules or tendencies.