| 15. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with a genitive absolute construction, synarpasthentos de tou ploiou {συναρπασθέντος δὲ τοῦ πλοίου | sy-nar-pas-thén-tos de tou ploí-ou}, establishing the background circumstance “when the ship was caught.” This is followed by a coordinated participle kai me dynamenou antophthalmein tōi anemōi {καὶ μὴ δυναμένου ἀντοφθαλμεῖν τῷ ἀνέμῳ | kaí mḕ dy-na-mé-nou an-to-phthal-meîn tṓ-i a-né-mō-i}, which adds the ship’s inability to face the wind, with the infinitive antophthalmein as the complement of dynamenou and the dative tōi anemōi marking the opposing force. The main clause begins with the nominative participle epidontes {ἐπιδόντες | e-pi-dón-tes}, indicating a deliberate action—yielding control—by the sailors, leading into the imperfect passive epherometha {ἐφερόμεθα | e-phe-ró-me-tha}, which portrays ongoing passive drifting, emphasizing their complete lack of agency under the wind’s power. In translation, the genitive absolute and participial series are rendered as finite clauses to preserve the causal and temporal progression from being seized, to inability, to intentional yielding, and finally to passive drifting. |