| 25. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the imperfect en {ἦν | ên} ‘was,’ establishing background setting. The appositional noun phrase ho huios autou ho presbýteros {ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ὁ πρεσβύτερος | ho huiós autoû ho presbýteros} uses repeated articles to specify “the son of him, the elder.” The prepositional phrase en agro {ἐν ἀγρῷ | en agrôi} locates him in the field. The coordinating conjunction kai {καὶ | kaí} links to a temporal clause introduced by hôs {ὡς | hôs} ‘as,’ with the participle erchómenos {ἐρχόμενος | erchómenos} ‘coming’ connecting closely to the aorist verb enggisen {ἤγγισεν | ênggisen} ‘drew near,’ to highlight the completed approach. The dative te oikíā {τῇ οἰκίᾳ | tê oikíā} indicates the goal of his movement. The subsequent aorist êkousen {ἤκουσεν | êkousen} ‘he heard’ takes the genitive pair symphōnías kai khōrôn {συμφωνίας καὶ χορῶν | symphōnías kaí khōrôn}, which functions as a hendiadys to portray a unified festive scene of sound and movement. In translation, the temporal construction with hôs is rendered as “as he came” in the formal version and as “As he came closer” in the dynamic version, while enggisen is expressed as “drew near” formally and “came closer” dynamically to convey the sense of approach. |