| 38. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the articular participle phrase hoi esthiontes {οἱ ἐσθίοντες | hoi esthíontes} ‘those who were eating’, which functions as the grammatical subject. The imperfect verb esan {ἦσαν | êsan} ‘were’ forms a descriptive clause, presenting the scene as a past ongoing state rather than a punctiliar event. The numeral adjective tetrakischilioi {τετρακισχίλιοι | tetrakischílioi} ‘four thousand’ modifies andres {ἄνδρες | ándres} ‘men’, yielding the core assertion about the size of the group. The preposition choris {χωρὶς | chōrís} ‘apart from’ introduces an excluding genitive construction, governing gynaikōn {γυναικῶν | gynaikôn} ‘of women’ and paidiōn {παιδίων | paidíōn} ‘of children’, with kai {καὶ | kaí} coordinating the two genitives as a single set outside the counted total. The syntax thus moves from identifying the participants by their action (those who were eating), to stating their number (four thousand men), and finally to clarifying that women and children are excluded from the count. In English, the formal rendering preserves the sequential logic with “apart from,” while the dynamic rendering uses “not counting” to make the excluding force of choris explicit and easily understood. |