Participle in Matt. 27:35

George Blaisdell maqhth at hotmail.com
Thu Feb 25 14:14:35 EST 1999


Don Larson writes

>I note that Matthew uses a participle in Mt.27:35 where Mark (and
>Luke and John) use a verb in the indicative mood.  Mt.27:35 reads:

>STAURWSANTES DE AUTON DIEMERISANTO TA hIMATIA AUTOU.  

Literally: "Crucifying Him they divide the garments of Him."  
This simply seems to say what they did during the crucifixion.

>The Marcan parallel
>(Mk.15:24) uses an historical present:  KAI STAUROUSIN AUTON KAI 
>DIAMERIZONTAI TA hIMATIA AUTOU. 

"And they are crucifying Him and dividing His garments."  
This seems to focus on the action of dividing, again during the 
crucifying of Him.  It could be a dramatic present usage, rather than an 
historical present.  But either way, the two present tenses seem to be 
going on at the same time.

Both Luke and John use the aorist ESTAURWSAN.  

Which simply reports the event of the crucifixion as a fact.

I take
>Matthew's construction as a participle of attendant circumstance, and 
would
>translate "And they crucified him and they divided his garments,"  
rather than
>treating the participle adverbially:  "And after having crucified him, 
they
>divided his garments."  In either approach, Matthew's participle seems 
to me
>to carry a weaker force than the finite verb Mark employs.

Well, if Matt. stresses the time during which the dividing occurs, and 
Mark stresses the dividing during that time, weak and strong are 
difficult for me to assess.  They seem pretty much similar...

George


George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA


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