Acts 19:34ExegesisTAB

Acts 19 : 34 Recognition | Unity | Idolatry
34. Linguistic Exegesis
The verse opens with the circumstantial participial clause epignontes de hoti Ioudaios estin {ἐπιγνόντες δὲ ὅτι Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν | epignóntes dé hóti Ioudaîos estín}, where the aorist participle epignontes indicates prior recognition that triggers the ensuing action. The conjunction de marks a transition in the narrative. The content clause introduced by hoti functions as the object of the participle, specifying what they recognized. The main clause phōnē egeneto mia ek pantōn {φωνὴ ἐγένετο μία ἐκ πάντων | phōnḗ egéneto mía ek pántōn} uses egeneto with a nominative subject and predicate nominative to describe the emergence of a single, unified “voice” out of the whole group, emphasizing crowd unanimity. The temporal-adverbial expression hōs epi hōras duo {ὡς ἐπὶ ὥρας δύο | hōs epí hṓras dýo} employs hōs to convey approximation, modifying the duration of their shouting. The genitive participle krazontōn {κραζόντων | krazóntōn} depends on pantōn, describing the collective behavior of “all” as they cry out. The direct speech Μεγάλη ἡ Ἄρτεμις Ἐφεσίων {Megálē hē Ártemis Ephesíōn} follows standard Greek word order for a predicate adjective with a nominative subject, assigning “great” as an emphatic quality to Artemis, identified specifically as belonging to the Ephesians. In translation, the participial construction is rendered with temporal-causal nuance (“when they recognized”), the unified-voice clause is smoothed into idiomatic English while preserving the idea of collective unanimity, and the approximated duration is expressed with “about two hours” to reflect the force of hōs.

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