John 19:29 — ExegesisTAB

The verse begins with skeuos {σκεῦος | skeû-os} ‘vessel’ as the nominative subject, followed by the imperfect verb ekeito {ἔκειτο | é-kei-to} ‘was lying, was set’, forming a descriptive background clause that establishes the scene. The genitive oxous {ὄξους | óx-us} combined with the predicate adjective meston {μεστόν | mes-tón} creates the idea of a container ‘full of sour wine’, with the genitive functioning as a genitive of content. The narrative focus then shifts to the instrument: spongon oun meston tou oxous {σπόγγον οὖν μεστὸν τοῦ ὄξους | spón-gon oun mes-tón tou óx-us}, where spongon is the direct object of the later main verb, described in advance by the participial phrase. The conjunction oun {οὖν | oun} marks an inferential step from the presence of the vessel to the action of using it. The dative hyssopō {ὑσσώπῳ | hys-sṓ-pōi} functions as a dative of means or instrument, indicating that the sponge is mounted on a hyssop stalk. The aorist participle perithentes {περιθέντες | pe-ri-thén-tes} ‘having put around’ is circumstantial and temporally prior to the main verb prosēnenkan {προσήνεγκαν | pro-sḗ-neg-kan} ‘they brought’, so the Greek structure presents a sequence: first they place the sponge on the hyssop, then they bring it. The phrase autou tō stomati {αὐτοῦ τῷ στόματι | au-toû tôi stó-ma-ti} combines the genitive autou ‘of Him’ with the dative stomati ‘to the mouth’, specifying the target of the action as His mouth, with the genitive marking possession and the dative indicating the goal. In English, the participial construction is reshaped into coordinated finite verbs (“placed … and brought” / “put … and lifted”), and the dative of means with hyssop is rendered by a prepositional phrase (“on a hyssop stalk/branch”), preserving the sequence and instruments while conforming to natural subject–verb–object order.