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HiDef Mondays: All about Participles

March 16, 2015 by Steve Runge 12 Comments

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Today’s post is the inaugural edition of HiDef Mondays, in which Faithlife’s Scholar-in-Residence Steve Runge and his team explore peculiarities and practicalities in Greek and Hebrew grammar. Check back every Monday to find a new insight for studying and teaching biblical languages.

Participles: Part 1

Participles have been called the workhorse of the Greek language. They occur far more frequently in Greek discourse compared to English, and in ways that don’t work naturally in English. Here’s how Wallace describes the situation:

Wallace Grammar - Participles

Wallace’s final comment about versatility will be the point of departure for the series of posts that follow. We’ll take a look at participles from a functional linguistic perspective in order to see how a core quality of participles can unify our understanding of their diverse uses.

Greek participles are a morphological hybrid, featuring components of both verbs (tense and voice and mood) and nouns (case, number and gender). Wallace treats them as “verbal adjectives” (ibid.) construed in a broad sense, and for good reason as we will see.

One of the most helpful ways I’ve found to better understand something is by considering what it is not. In other words, let’s take a look at what other forms might be used instead of a participle. Then we will be in a much better position to understand the unique contribution this hybrid nature of participles offers that other forms do not.

Participles are often found in noun phrases, either substituting for a simple adjective or for the noun itself. In other words, participles may be used in place of an adjective or a noun. So what does a participle offer that adjectives and nouns do not? Dynamism! The “nouniness” of participles (case, number and gender) allow them to convey the very same morphological information as any noun or adjective. But participles have the added bonus of including an action. Where nouns and adjectives are largely static, participles can paint a dynamic portrait. To put it crassly, the choice of a participle over an noun or adjective represents to choice of an action-oriented image versus a simple label, illustrated below.
Nametag

                                      vs.

Action Label

Use of a verbal adjective allows writers to paint an image that might be nearly impossible using simple nouns or adjectives. Just consider the dynamic image created by Paul in Philippians 1:6 by changing the reference from the simple noun “God” to a dynamic participle. Compare the image that each evokes.

Philippians 1:6 (SBLGNT) πεποιθὼς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ὅτι ὁ ἐναρξάμενος ἐν ὑμῖν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιτελέσει ἄχρι ἡμέρας Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ·

“God” calls to mind any number of images, whereas the participle “He who began a good work in you” significantly constrains the possibilities.
HiDef Philippians - Good Work
It makes you think about God in a particular way based on the activity pictured in the participle. No simple noun could do that.

Another powerful portrait from participles is found in Acts 15 justifying Paul’s decision to split with Barnabas:

Acts 15:36–39 (SBLGNT) Μετὰ δέ τινας ἡμέρας εἶπεν πρὸς Βαρναβᾶν Παῦλος· Ἐπιστρέψαντες δὴ ἐπισκεψώμεθα τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς κατὰ πόλιν πᾶσαν ἐν αἷς κατηγγείλαμεν τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, πῶς ἔχουσιν. 37 Βαρναβᾶς δὲ ἐβούλετο συμπαραλαβεῖν καὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην τὸν καλούμενον Μᾶρκον· 38 Παῦλος δὲ ἠξίου, τὸν ἀποστάντα ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἀπὸ Παμφυλίας καὶ μὴ συνελθόντα αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἔργον, μὴ συμπαραλαμβάνειν τοῦτον. 39 ἐγένετο δὲ παροξυσμὸς ὥστε ἀποχωρισθῆναι αὐτοὺς ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων, τόν τε Βαρναβᾶν παραλαβόντα τὸν Μᾶρκον ἐκπλεῦσαι εἰς Κύπρον,

Acts 15:36–39 (LEB) And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, “Come then,let us return and visit the brothers in every town in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take John who was called Mark along also, 38 but Paul held the opinion they should not take this one along, who departed from them in Pamphylia and did not accompany them in the work. 39 And a sharp disagreement took place, so that they separated from one another. And Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus,

Notice the shift from calling him John (Mark) in verse 37 to the portrait painted by the participles in v. 38. What a difference! Contrast this to what would have happened if Luke had continued calling him by his proper name.

Master Participles and More . . .

These examples illustrate the power of participles used as nouns or adjectives to paint a dynamic portrait. If you are interested in learning more about how participles and other devices are used to affect how we conceive of things, the chapters on Overspecification and Changed Reference in Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament provide a great overview. If you are interested in searching the Greek New Testament for more examples, be sure to check out the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament. The image just above is taken from the High Definition Commentary: Philippians, a unique project designed to help you better understand and communicate ideas like this.

Next week we will tackle more about the use of participles.

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Comments

  1. Roderick Graciano says

    March 17, 2015 at 9:06 am

    The Hi Def article is lacking some Def: My web browsers show broken links for the graphics in the article.

    Reply
    • Steve Runge says

      March 17, 2015 at 9:08 am

      Hi Roderick,

      Thanks for the heads up, it looks like its an expired certificate. We’re working on getting it fixed.

      SER

      Reply
  2. Greg says

    March 18, 2015 at 8:05 am

    Wow! I had not considered that before! Thanks for the post and I am looking forward to your next post!

    Reply
  3. James says

    March 24, 2015 at 7:19 am

    Now let’s pull in some cognitive linguistics, such as Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By and tie that in with the use of the participle…interesting possibilities open up.

    In the Acts example, Luke is highlighting a particular side of Mark that will cause us to look more sympathetically at Paul’s side. Metaphors are fun!

    James

    Reply
    • Steve Runge says

      March 24, 2015 at 7:24 am

      Great comments, James, “spin” is not a new invention!

      Reply
    • Cathy von Hassel-Davies says

      April 5, 2015 at 7:56 am

      Well since Luke and Paul were pals and hung out together I can see this 😉

      Cat

      Reply
      • Steve Runge says

        April 6, 2015 at 7:34 am

        Cathy, you’re right, but it’s interesting to see “the rest of the story” as you read Paul’s closing comments in 2 Tim 4:11 and Philemon 24. It’s only my speculation, but I expect that John Mark indeed had maturing to do, but Barnabas was the one willing to invest in him—not Paul. But at the end of Paul’s life, Barnabas’s investment paid dividends to Paul. My takeaway is that we should be cautious about who we give up on in ministry. Lord knows I have received numerous do-overs from leaders who saw something in me that I really didn’t. Just speculation, though.

        Reply
  4. James Cuénod says

    April 2, 2015 at 9:07 am

    “ἐγώ εἰμι … ὁ ζῶν” (Revelation 1:17-18). Thanks Steven!

    Reply
  5. Mike Wert says

    April 3, 2015 at 3:24 am

    I am a layman. Trying to use everything Logos has. Just a question on tagging in Phil 1:6 “one who began” is tagged with “Jesus person” is that correct in your mind?
    Thanks.

    Reply
    • Steve Runge says

      April 3, 2015 at 6:09 am

      This is one of those fuzzy areas where it might be more accurate to say less, like God rather than Jesus. I was the one who did the tagging on this, so I’ll have a conversation with 2009 Steve and see what he was thinking. Thanks for raising the issue, Mike.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. HiDef Mondays: All About Participles 3 says:
    March 30, 2015 at 4:02 am

    […] the first post of this series we noted that Greek participles are a hybrid form, part verb and part noun, based on the […]

    Reply
  2. All about Participles 4 says:
    April 6, 2015 at 7:27 am

    […] participles are all functioning as verbs rather than nouns or adjectives (if you haven’t read these first two posts, you […]

    Reply

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