| 28. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the adverb homoiōs {ὁμοίως | ho-moí-ōs} ‘likewise’, explicitly tying this statement to the previous comparison with the days of Noah and signaling another parallel pattern. The conjunction kathōs {καθὼς | ka-thṓs} ‘just as’ introduces a comparative clause, and the aorist verb egeneto {ἐγένετο | e-gé-ne-to} ‘it happened’ functions as a summary historical marker, presenting the whole situation in the days of Lot as a single past event. The prepositional phrase en tais hēmerais Lōt {ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Λώτ | en taîs hē-mé-rais Lṓt} ‘in the days of Lot’ uses the preposition en with the dative plural to specify a temporal sphere rather than a physical location, framing the time-period that is under comparison. The series of imperfect verbs—ēsthion {ἤσθιον | ē-sthí-on} ‘they were eating’, epinon {ἔπινον | é-pi-non} ‘they were drinking’, ēgōrazon {ἠγόραζον | ē-gó-ra-zon} ‘they were buying’, epōloun {ἐπώλουν | epṓ-loun} ‘they were selling’, ephuteuon {ἐφύτευον | ephú-teu-on} ‘they were planting’, oikodomoun {ᾠκοδόμουν | ō-ko-dó-moun} ‘they were building’—are arranged paratactically without conjunctions, producing a piling-up effect that emphasizes continuous, routine activities. The imperfect aspect in each verb portrays these actions as ongoing customary behavior, not isolated events, which heightens the contrast with the sudden, decisive judgment that the broader passage describes. In translation, this durative nuance is carried by progressive English forms (“were eating,” “were drinking,” etc.), and the pairing of verbs into everyday-life domains (consumption, commerce, agriculture, construction) reflects the Greek list structure while remaining idiomatic. |