| 40. Linguistic Exegesis The verse presents a coordinated sequence of actions followed by an explanatory clause. The initial aorist verb elabon {ἔλαβον | é-la-bon} ‘they took’ introduces the unnamed agents and is followed by the object phrase to soma tou Iesou {τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ | tò sô-ma toû Iē-soû} ‘the body of Jesus’. The conjunction kai {καὶ | kaí} links this with the second aorist verb edesan {ἔδησαν | é-dē-san} ‘they bound’, whose object is the pronoun auto {αὐτὸ | au-tò} ‘it’, further specified by the dative othoniois {ὀθονίοις | o-tho-ní-ois} ‘in linen cloths’ and the prepositional phrase meta ton aromaton {μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων | me-tà tôn a-rō-má-tōn} ‘with the spices’. The comparative conjunction kathos {καθὼς | ka-thôs} introduces a dependent explanatory clause: ethos estin tois Ioudaiois entaphiazein {ἔθος ἐστὶν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐνταφιάζειν | é-thos e-stìn toîs I-ou-daí-ois en-ta-phi-á-zein} ‘it is the custom for the Jews to bury’. Here ethos functions as the subject, estin as the copular verb, tois Ioudaiois as a dative of reference (‘for the Jews’), and entaphiazein as an infinitive of customary action that specifies what the custom entails. In translation, the two coordinated aorist verbs are rendered with simple past tense verbs, and the kathos-clause is expressed as “just as it is the custom …” or “following the burial custom …” to preserve the sense that the burial actions conform to established Jewish practice while maintaining clear English clause structure. |