ἦμεν

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 ἦμεν

   Ê-men

   we were
2. sentence🔊 ἦσαν δὲ λαμπάδες ἱκαναὶ ἐν τῷ ὑπερῴῳ οὗ ἦμεν συνηγμένοι

   Ê-san de lam-PA-des hi-ka-NAI en tôi hy-pe-RÔ-iôi hou Ê-men sy-nêg-ME-noi

   were and lamps many in the upper room where we were gathered

Exegesis

The relative clause hou emen sunegmenoi {οὗ ἦμεν συνηγμένοι | hou ē-men su-NEG-me-noi} is introduced by hou, a genitive relative pronoun used adverbially with the sense “where,” tying the location directly to the gathered group. The periphrastic construction combines the imperfect emen with the perfect passive participle sunegmenoi, conveying a state resulting from a completed act of gathering that continued over a period of time. This structure allows the translation “we had been gathered together” or “we were gathered together,” both capturing an ongoing assembled state. In English, the more natural word order places “there were” first as an existential construction, followed by the subject and location, and then the relative clause, resulting in “There were many lamps in the upper room where we had been gathered together” for a formal rendering, and a slightly more idiomatic “There were plenty of lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting together” to convey the same scene in contemporary language.