| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The Greek sentence begins with the article phrase ho pleistos ochlos {ὁ πλεῖστος ὄχλος | ho plêistos óchlos} ‘the very great crowd,’ where the superlative pleistos intensifies ochlos. The aorist verb estrōsan {ἔστρωσαν | éstrōsan} ‘they spread’ marks a completed action, with the reflexive pronoun heautōn and accusative himatia as its object. The spatial phrase en tē hodō {ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ | en tē hodṓ} ‘on the road’ locates the event. The contrastive alloi de {ἄλλοι δὲ | álloi dè} ‘others, however’ introduces a second group, and the imperfect verbs ekopton {ἔκοπτον | ékoptōn} ‘they were cutting’ and estrōnnyon {ἐστρώννυον | estrṓnnyon} ‘they were spreading’ convey ongoing activity. The source phrase apo tōn dendrōn {ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων | apó tōn déndrōn} ‘from the trees’ and the repeated en tē hodō reinforce the thorough covering of the roadway. In English, the aorist becomes simple past to show completed acts, while the imperfect is rendered to reflect continuous action. |