| 38. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the participial clause odynōmenoi malista {ὀδυνώμενοι μάλιστα | odynṓmenoi málista} ‘grieving most of all’, which sets the emotional frame and functions circumstantially with an implied subject carried over from the previous context. The prepositional phrase epi tō logō {ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ | epí tō lógō} specifies the cause of the grief. This noun phrase is further defined by the relative clause hō eirēkei {ᾧ εἰρήκει | hō eirḗkei}, which ties the sorrow specifically to the word that he had already spoken, with the pluperfect highlighting the lasting effect of that prior statement. The content of that word is introduced by hoti {ὅτι | hóti} as indirect discourse: ouketi mellousin to prosōpon autou theōrein {οὐκέτι μέλλουσιν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ θεωρεῖν | oukéti mél-lousin tó prósōpon autoû theōreîn}, literally “they are no longer about to see His face,” where mellousin plus infinitive theōrein expresses a future expectation, and ouketi negates it as a permanent loss. The object to prosōpon autou places emphasis on the personal, relational aspect of parting. The main narrative verb proepempon {προέπεμπον | proépempon} with de {δὲ | de} resumes the storyline, describing their ongoing action of accompanying him, while the prepositional phrase eis to ploion {εἰς τὸ πλοῖον | eis tó ploîon} marks the spatial goal. English formal rendering preserves the Greek sequence by foregrounding the cause of grief before the action of escorting, whereas the dynamic translation smooths the flow with explicit temporal progression (“Then they went with him”) while retaining the same causal and result relationships. |