John 19:23 — ExegesisTAB

The sentence opens with the marked subject phrase hoi oun stratiotai {οἱ οὖν στρατιῶται | hoí oûn stratiôtai} ‘therefore the soldiers’, where oun links this action tightly to the crucifixion just described and foregrounds the soldiers as the agents of the following verbs. The temporal conjunction hote {ὅτε | hóte} ‘when’ introduces a temporal clause with the aorist verb estaurosan {ἐσταύρωσαν | estaúrōsan} ‘they crucified’, situating what follows as the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion. The main narrative then proceeds with the coordinated aorist elabon {ἔλαβον | élabon} ‘they took’, whose object is ta himatia autou {τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ | tà himátia autoû} ‘His garments’, followed by another aorist epoiēsan {ἐποίησαν | epóiēsan} ‘they made’ that explains what they did with those garments. The phrase tessara mere {τέσσαρα μέρη | téssara mérē} ‘four parts’ is further specified by the distributive dative construction hekastō stratiotē meros {ἑκάστῳ στρατιώτῃ μέρος | hekástō stratiṓtē méros} ‘a part to each soldier’, clarifying that the division matched the number of executioners. The additional object kai ton chitona {καὶ τὸν χιτῶνα | kaí ton chitôna} ‘and also the tunic’ is then introduced, setting up the contrastive description that follows. A new clause begins with en de ho chitōn {ἦν δὲ ὁ χιτὼν | ḗn dè ho chitōn} ‘but the tunic was’, where de introduces a mild contrast between the divisible outer garments and this special inner garment. The predicate sequence araphos ek tōn anōthen huphantos di’ holou {ἄραφος ἐκ τῶν ἄνωθεν ὑφαντὸς διʼ ὅλου | áraphos ek tōn ánōthen hyphantós di' hólou} combines an adjective, a prepositional phrase of source, and a participial descriptor to portray the tunic as a single, continuous piece woven from the top throughout. In translation, the aorist verbs are rendered with English past perfect or simple past to capture completed actions, the distributive dative is brought out with “for each soldier,” and the dense description of the tunic is expressed with “seamless” and “woven from the top throughout” in formal and a more explanatory “made in one piece from top to bottom” in dynamic, preserving both the craftsmanship imagery and the implied indivisibility of the garment.