[B-Greek] Mark 16...
Eric Weiss
papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 25 22:54:11 EST 2004
I think Daniel Wallace (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics)
would likely call this an instance of an Attendant Circumstance
participle, to be translated as a finite verb connected to the main
verb by "and." His criteria/indicators are that it does not first make
good sense when treated as an adverbial participle (including
temporal, I assume, i.e., "while" for present; "after" for aorist),
and then he says that 90% of Attendant Circumstance
participles have the following five features:
* tense of the participle is usually aorist
* tense of the main verb is usually aorist (the historical present
occurs from time to time)
* mood of the main verb is usually imperative or indicative (the
subjunctive sometimes occurs)
* participle precedes the main verb in word order and time of
event (though usually in close proximity)
* occurs frequently in narrative literature, infrequently elsewhere
Wallace says the POREUQENTES OUN MAQHTEUSATE
PANTA TO EQNH of Matthew 28:19 is an Attendant
Circumstance participle: "Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations...." The NET Bible, which Wallace helped
edit, translates Mark 16:15 as "Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature." Other translations
that treat it similarly include KJV, NASB, NIV, Amplified,
Rheims, NAB, NRSV. That is, they do not emphasise the
antecedent nature of the aorist participle but coordinate its
action with the main verb ("Go and preach"). To the English
reader, it appears that two finite verbs are being translated.
As for why an aorist (rather than a present) imperative is
used, it could be because an Attendant Circumstance
participle usually requires an aorist imperative in conjunction
with an aorist participle.Without Bible software I can't
easily do a search for attendant circumstance participles
where the main verb is a present imperative, if such exist.
Eric S. Weiss
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