Acts 23:21 — ExegesisTAB

The sentence opens with the fronted pronoun su oun mē peisthēs autois {σὺ οὖν μὴ πεισθῇς αὐτοῖς | sù oûn mḕ peisthêis autoîs}, where the combination of mē with the aorist subjunctive forms a strong prohibition, and the explicit subject su heightens the personal appeal to the official being addressed. The main reason is given by the clause enedreuousin gar auton ex autōn andres pleious tessarakonta {ἐνεδρεύουσιν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄνδρες πλείους τεσσεράκοντα | enedreúousin gàr autòn ex autôn ándres pleíous tesserákonta}, in which the present active indicative enedreuousin depicts an ongoing ambush. The phrase ex autōn ándres pleious tessarakonta structurally places “from among them” before “men more than forty,” emphasizing that the conspirators arise from within the same group. The qualitative relative clause hoitines anethematisan heautous {οἵτινες ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἑαυτοὺς | hoítines anethemátisan heautoùs} characterizes these men as a specific kind of people—those who have put themselves under a curse-oath—further defined by the coordinated infinitive phrase mēte phagein mēte piein {μήτε φαγεῖν μήτε πιεῖν | mḗte phageîn mḗte pieîn}, expressing what their self-imposed ban covers. The temporal clause heōs hou anelōsin auton {ἕως οὗ ἀνέλωσιν αὐτόν | héōs hoû anélōsin autón} uses heōs hou with the aorist subjunctive to indicate a future-contingent limit: the oath holds “until the time when” they succeed in killing him. The closing segment kai nun eisin hetoimoi prosdechomenoi tēn apo sou epangelian {καὶ νῦν εἰσιν ἕτοιμοι προσδεχόμενοι τὴν ἀπὸ σοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν | kaì nûn eisin hétoimoi prosdechómenoi tḕn apò soû epangelían} combines the finite verb eisin with the participle prosdechomenoi, presenting a state of readiness plus an ongoing expectation, with tēn apo sou epangelian as the object of that expectation—a specific “promise” or official response from the addressee. The English renderings preserve this structure by maintaining the prohibition at the front, keeping the explanatory “for” clause intact, and translating the participial construction as “are ready, awaiting,” which mirrors the Greek aspectual nuance while remaining idiomatic.