Tag Archives: ἀρξάμενος

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