| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The sentence opens with the temporal clause hos de egnosan {ὡς δὲ ἔγνωσαν | hōs dè égnōsan} ‘when they learned’, which situates the main action in relation to a prior event. The subject is specified as hoi apo tes Thessalonikes Ioudaioi {οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης Ἰουδαῖοι | hoi apò tēs Thessaloníkēs Ioudaîoi} ‘the Jews from Thessalonica’, where the prepositional phrase apo tes Thessalonikes modifies the head noun Ioudaioi to indicate their place of origin and link them to the earlier opposition in that city. The ḥoti-clause hoti kai en te Beroia katengele hypo tou Paulou ho logos tou theou {ὅτι καὶ ἐν τῇ Βεροίᾳ κατηγγέλη ὑπὸ τοῦ Παύλου ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ | hóti kaì en tē̂ Beroíā katēngélē hypò tou Paúlou ho lógos tou theou} functions as the object of egnosan, reporting what they learned: that in Berea also, the word of God, as grammatical subject, “was proclaimed,” with Paul expressed in a prepositional phrase of agency rather than as subject. The main narrative verb elthon {ἦλθον | ḗlthon} ‘they came’ resumes the storyline, and kakei {κἀκεῖ | kakeî} ‘also there’ marks Berea as a new but related theater of conflict. The present participles saleuontes kai tarassontes {σαλεύοντες καὶ ταράσσοντες | saleúontes kaì tarássontes} are circumstantial, describing the manner in which they came—continually “shaking” and “disturbing”—and modify the same subject as elthon. The accusative phrase tous ochlous {τοὺς ὄχλους | toùs óchlous} identifies the crowds as the direct object of this agitation. In translation, the temporal clause is preserved with “when,” the ḥoti-clause becomes an embedded “that”-clause after “learned/found out,” and the participial chain is rendered as coordinated finite verb phrases (“agitating and troubling,” “shaking up and unsettling”) to express ongoing disruptive activity in natural English syntax while maintaining the Greek sequence of learning, coming, and stirring up opposition. |