[B-Greek] Syntactical Function of a Participle?

Carl W.Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Sun Apr 17 10:22:13 EDT 2005


On Apr 17, 2005, at 10:04 AM, Erick Venden wrote:

> This is my first time posting to this mailing list.  I am struggling 
> with
> Greek Syntax and especially when it comes to participles.  Can someone
> please help me to understand the syntactical function of the 
> participle EXWN
> in Philippians 1:23.  It is rather obvious to me that this word is 
> being
> used circumstantially but I cannot figure out the specific nuance of 
> this or
> just about any participle.

It helps to have the whole text of the sentence or phrase in view:

SUNECOMAI DE EK TWN DUO, THN EPIQUMIAN ECWN EIS TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN 
CRISTWi EINAI, POLLWi [GAR] MALLON KREISSON ...

ECWN EPIQUMIAN is equivalent to EPIQUMWN "desiring"; it agrees with the 
implicity first-person subject of SUNECOMAI "I am conflicted ..."; the 
participle is indeed circumstantial, which means that it explains the 
circumstances of the writer's feeling conflicted; you can underestand 
it in terms of the grammarian's subcategories of "causal" 
("since/because I am desirous ...") or concessive ("although I am 
desirous ... ") or temporal ("when I am desirous ...") or conditional 
("if/if ever I am desirous ..."). Here it seems pretty clearly causal: 
"I am conflicted from two (motivations/desires), inasmuch as I am 
desirous of departing and being with Christ --that's far better, after 
all-- ..."

I hope that helps some. And welcome to the list!

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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