| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the participle legontes {λέγοντες | lég-on-tes} ‘saying’ introducing the speaker’s action, followed by the conjunction hoti {ὅτι | hó-ti} ‘that’ signaling indirect speech. The prepositional phrase para ton nomon {Παρὰ τὸν νόμον | pa-rá tón nó-mon} ‘against the law’ is fronted for emphasis on opposition to legal norms. The present active indicative verb anapeithei {ἀναπείθει | a-na-peí-thei} ‘he is persuading’ conveys ongoing persuasion, with houtos {οὗτος | hoû-tos} ‘this man’ as the nominative subject. The object of persuasion is marked by the accusative plural tous anthropous {τοὺς ἀνθρώπους | toûs anth-rṓ-pous} ‘people’, and the infinitive sebesthai {σέβεσθαι | sé-bes-thai} ‘to worship’ with its accusative object ton theon {τὸν θεόν | tón the-ón} ‘the God’ specifying the act directed toward God. English rendering relocates para ton nomon into “in a way that is contrary to the law” to preserve Greek emphasis while conforming to English idiom. |