[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


		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less.


More information about the B-Greek mailing list