| 35. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the aorist middle verb egeneto {Ἐγένετο | e-gé-ne-to} 'it happened', a common narrative device in Luke to introduce a new episode. The construction en tō engizein auton eis Ierichō {ἐν τῷ ἐγγίζειν αὐτὸν εἰς Ἰεριχὼ | en tō eng-gí-zein au-tón eis Ie-ri-chō} is an articular infinitive phrase with en functioning temporally, literally 'in the drawing near of him to Jericho', which is best rendered as 'as He was drawing near to Jericho.' The accusative auton serves as the logical subject of the infinitive, referring to Jesus from the broader context. The clause tuphlos tis ekatheto {τυφλός τις ἐκάθητο | tuphlós tis e-ká-thē-to} introduces a new character, 'a certain blind man was sitting,' with the imperfect ekatheto depicting an ongoing, background state. The prepositional phrase para ten hodon {παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν | pa-rà tḕn ho-dòn} 'by the road' locates him at the margin of the traveled way, and the nominative participle epaiton {ἐπαιτῶν | e-pai-tôn} 'begging' functions circumstantially, describing his customary activity concurrent with his sitting. In translation, the temporal force of the en + articular infinitive is brought out with 'as He was drawing near' or 'as Jesus was getting close,' while the participle epaiton is expressed as 'begging' or 'asking for help' to preserve its durative aspect within natural English narrative style. |