| 25. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the aorist participle akousantes {ἀκούσαντες | akousantes} ‘having heard’, which functions temporally to situate the disciples’ reaction after Jesus’ preceding teaching about salvation and wealth. The conjunction de {δὲ | de} links this response to that prior statement, marking a related development. The nominative subject hoi mathetai {οἱ μαθηταὶ | mathetai} sets the agents of the astonishment, which is expressed by the imperfect middle/passive exeplessonto {ἐξεπλήσσοντο | exeplessonto} ‘they were astonished’, with the adverb sphodra {σφόδρα | sphodra} intensifying it. The participle legontes {λέγοντες | legontes} ‘saying’ introduces direct discourse. The interrogative pronoun tis {Τίς | tis} ‘who’ begins the question, with the particle ara {ἄρα | ara} ‘then’ indicating inference. Dynatai {δύναται | dynatai} ‘is able’ conveys capacity, and the aorist passive infinitive sothenai {σωθῆναι | sothenai} ‘to be saved’ portrays the salvation event as a single outcome. In translation, the temporal participle is rendered as “when they heard this” for clarity, the imperfect is shown with intensified past “were greatly/completely astonished,” and the direct question remains to represent the disciples’ perplexity about the possibility of salvation. |