| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the imperfect verb esan {ἦσαν | ē-san} 'they were' as the main finite verb, with the postpositive conjunction de {δὲ | de} linking this sentence to the preceding narrative as a mild contrast or continuation. The phrase pleious tesserakonta {πλείους τεσσεράκοντα | pleí-ous tes-se-rá-kon-ta} functions as a quantified subject complement, with pleious as a comparative adjective meaning 'more' and tesserakonta as the cardinal 'forty', together yielding the idiom 'more than forty'. The article hoi {οἱ | hoi} plus the aorist middle participle poiesamenoi {ποιησάμενοι | poi-ē-sá-me-noi} forms a substantive participial expression, 'the ones who had made', which stands in apposition to the numerical description and identifies the group by their action. The object of that action is expressed by the accusative phrase tauten ten synomosian {ταύτην τὴν συνωμοσίαν | taú-tēn tēn syn-ō-mo-sí-an}, 'this conspiracy', where the demonstrative tauten gives deictic force and specificity. Aspectually, the aorist participle presents the making of the conspiracy as a completed act prior to the narrative reference point, while the imperfect esan portrays the existence of this group as an ongoing state in that context. In English, the participial construction is most naturally rendered as a relative clause ('who had formed / who had made') to preserve both the attributive function and the prior aspect of their plotting. |