| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the coordinating conjunction kai {καὶ | kaí}, linking this episode to the preceding narrative. The aorist participle idon {ἰδών | idṓn} ‘having seen’ functions temporally, indicating that the subsequent main verb eipen {εἶπεν | eípen} ‘He said’ occurs after the act of seeing. The dative pronoun autois {αὐτοῖς | autoîs} marks the lepers as recipients of the speech. The nominative plural aorist participle poreuthentes {Πορευθέντες | poreuthéntes} ‘having gone’ precedes the imperative epideixate {ἐπιδείξατε | epideíxate} ‘show’, forming a participial construction that has an imperatival nuance: “Go and show.” The imperative governs the reflexive object heautous {ἑαυτοὺς | heautoùs} ‘yourselves’ and the dative phrase tois hiereusin {τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν | toîs hiereûsin} ‘to the priests’, which reflects the legal requirement for priestly inspection. The clause introduced by kai egeneto {καὶ ἐγένετο | kaí egéneto} uses the impersonal verb egeneto {ἐγένετο | egéneto} ‘it happened’ as a narrative device to introduce a temporal construction: en tō hupagein autous {ἐν τῷ ὑπάγειν αὐτοὺς | en tô hupágein autoús} ‘as they were going’. Here, the preposition en with the articular infinitive hupagein {ὑπάγειν | hupágein} and the accusative subject autous {αὐτούς | autoús} expresses contemporaneous action. The aorist passive ekatharisthēsan {ἐκαθαρίσθησαν | ekatharísthēsan} ‘they were cleansed’ presents the cleansing as a completed divine act that occurs during their obedient movement, highlighting the connection between response to the command and the timing of the healing without making the obedience its cause. |