| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The sentence begins with the aorist verb etaraxan {ἐτάραξαν | etáraksan} ‘they disturbed,’ which carries the main narrative action and portrays a completed event in the past. The postpositive conjunction de {δὲ | dè} functions as a connective, marking a slight transition from the previous verse while keeping the flow of the narrative. The direct objects are presented sequentially with the definite articles ton ochlon {τὸν ὄχλον | tòn óchlon} ‘the crowd’ and tous politarchas {τοὺς πολιτάρχας | toùs politárkhas} ‘the city officials,’ joined by kai {καὶ | kaí} to indicate that both groups are equally affected. The participle akouontas {ἀκούοντας | akoúontas} ‘hearing’ is accusative masculine plural, syntactically agreeing with both objects and thus describing them collectively as those who are hearing. This participial phrase, followed by its object tauta {ταῦτα | taûta} ‘these things,’ forms a temporal-causal construction indicating that the disturbance is triggered by their act of hearing the reported message. In translation, this participial nuance is rendered as a temporal clause to clarify that the hearing of these things occasioned the agitation. |