| 19. Linguistic Exegesis The adverb tote {Τότε | Tó-te} anchors this question to the prior narrative, marking sequential action. The aorist participle proselthontes {προσελθόντες | pro-sel-thón-tes} serves as an attendant circumstance participle to the main verb eipon {εἶπον | eî-pon}, together presenting the narrative event of the disciples’ movement and speech. The dative phrase tō Iēsou {τῷ Ἰησοῦ | tô Iē-soû} indicates the recipient of their approach, while the prepositional phrase kat’ idian {κατ’ ἰδίαν | kat’ i-dí-an} specifies the private setting of the inquiry. The interrogative expression dia ti {Διὰ τί | Di-á tí} combines a causal preposition with a neuter interrogative pronoun to ask about cause: “why.” Within the question, the negated aorist passive verb ouk ēdynēthēmen {οὐκ ἠδυνήθημεν | ouk ē-dy-nḗ-thē-men} forms a predicate of incapacity, taking the complementary infinitive ekbalein {ἐκβαλεῖν | ek-ba-leîn} “to cast out,” which governs the object auto {αὐτό | au-tó}. English rendering translates the participial nuance as simple past action, and preserves the causal force of dia ti in the question word choice. |