| 7. Linguistic Exegesis The clause opens with the imperfect verb ēsan {ἦσαν | ê-san} ‘they were’, which summarizes the number of those previously discussed, presenting a descriptive background rather than a punctiliar event. The postpositive conjunction de {δὲ | de} connects this statement to the preceding narrative with a mild “and/now.” The noun phrase hoi pantes andres {οἱ πάντες ἄνδρες | hoi pán-tes án-dres} uses the article plus the intensive adjective pantes before the noun andres to stress that the whole group consisted of men. The adverbial particle hosei {ὡσεὶ | hō-seì} precedes and modifies the numeral dodeka {δώδεκα | dṓ-de-ka}, signaling that the number is approximate, “about twelve,” rather than an exact tally. In English, the information is restructured either as “And all the men were about twelve” (subject before verb) or “There were about twelve men in all” (existential construction), both of which maintain the emphasis on totality (pantes) and approximation (hosei) while sounding natural in contemporary usage. |