| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with polloi {πολλοί | polloí} ‘many’ as the nominative subject, followed immediately by the enclitic connector te {τε | te}, which links this statement closely to the preceding narrative while adding a slightly emphatic, additive force (“and in fact many…”). The genitive phrase ton pepisteukoton {τῶν πεπιστευκότων | tôn pepisteukótōn} functions as a partitive genitive, specifying that these “many” are drawn from the larger group of those who had believed. The perfect participle pepisteukoton encodes a past act of believing with continuing results, indicating an established state of faith. The finite verb erkhonto {ἤρχοντο | ḗrkhonto} is imperfect middle indicative, portraying the coming as ongoing or repeated action over a period of time, rather than a single event. The participles exomologoumenoi {ἐξομολογούμενοι | exomologoúmenoi} ‘confessing’ and anagellontes {ἀναγγέλλοντες | anangéllontes} ‘declaring’ stand in nominative masculine plural, agreeing with polloi and functioning as circumstantial participles of manner: they describe how the people were coming. The coordination kai {καί | kaí} between the two participles marks two closely related but distinct actions, confession and detailed disclosure. The object phrase tas praxeis auton {τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν | tàs práxeis autôn} places focus on “their deeds,” with the possessive pronoun auton highlighting personal responsibility. In translation, the imperfect verbal aspect is represented by “were coming,” while the twin participles are rendered as parallel verbal forms in English to preserve the rhythmic sequence of admitting and declaring. |