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Greek Lessons
- From Jerusalem with Scrutiny: Fronting and Focus in Mark 7:1
- Speaking in Tongues in the Bible
- Grace Beyond Demand: Participles and Imperatives in a Kingdom Ethic
- Reverent Burial and Narrative Simplicity: A Koine and Classical Greek Comparison of Mark 6:29
- The Morning They Found It Razed: Perfect Participles and Sacred Surprises
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Category
Tag Archives: ἀρξάμενος
“Ἀρξάμενος… ἐξετίθετο”: Participial Introduction and Imperfect Exposition in Acts 11:4
Introduction: Peter Begins to Speak
Acts 11:4 sets the stage for Peter’s explanatory defense before the Jerusalem believers:
Ἀρξάμενος δὲ ὁ Πέτρος ἐξετίθετο αὐτοῖς καθεξῆς, λέγων·
“But Peter, having begun, explained to them in order, saying…”
This combination of aorist participle + imperfect main verb is a standard literary pattern in narrative Greek. It expresses sequential action with subtle nuances: the participle marks the entry point, the imperfect expresses progressive or durative exposition, and καθεξῆς (“in order”) gives us the rhetorical style of what follows.
Ἀρξάμενος δὲ ὁ Πέτρος ἐξετίθετο αὐτοῖς καθεξῆς, λέγων·“And Peter, having begun, began to explain to them in order, saying…”
Here, we’ll examine the aorist middle participle ἀρξάμενος and how it works with the imperfect middle verb ἐξετίθετο, along with the adverb καθεξῆς.… Learn Koine Greek