Attendant Circumstance Participles
Kevin Smith
kgs at iafrica.com
Sat Aug 7 08:06:11 EDT 1999
Shawna Steiner mentioned Wallace's (Greek grammar beyond the basics, 1996) criteria for classifying a participle as an attendant circumstance participle. Wallace suggests that (a) the pt should be aorist, (b) the main verb should be aorist, (c) the mood of the verb should be indicative or imperative, (d) the pt should precede the main vb, and (e) it should occur in narrative literature. (see p. 642)
Although my experience of working with the language is limited, these criteria seem overly restrictive to me. From what I understand, Class. Gk was much more hypotactic than Koine Gk and made more extensive use of participles. I would therefore guess that it frequently used participles to express ideas co-ordinate with that of the main verb, regardless of the tense or the verb or the participle, the mood of the verb, or the genre of the writing. If this is the case, surely it would not have disappeared from Koine to the extent that Wallace's criteria would imply. Surely Koine speakers (many 2nd language speakers at that) would not have been sufficiently grammar sensitive as to restrict their use of att. circ. participles to the situations Wallace suggests.
Furthermore, none of the other NT grammars I've consulted impose similar restrictions. It seems to me that att. circ. participles are a standard feature of Gk style and are more widespread than Wallace believes. (e.g. AFENTES in Heb. 6:1 violates 3/5 criteria--FERWMEQA is present, subjunctive and the genre isn't narrative--yet it can only be an att. circ. participle)
What is the general feeling on this matter? Is Wallace's view "standard"? Maybe I'm seeing att. circ. participles where I shouldn't be? I'd appreciate your views.
Thanks,
Kevin Smith
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
kgs at iafrica.com
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