(3.) As the Dative also is sometimes used in designating time, cause, occasion, etc., so the case absolute of participles is sometimes the Dative.

E. g. naraẞávri air, when he had descended, Matt. viii. 1; ¿λDóvri air, when he had come, Matt. xxi. 23. But this is rare in the New Testament. In the Greek classics it is also rare; but still it is clearly an idiom belonging to the Greek; Matth. § 562, 2.

(4.) The Acc. and Nom. are also employed occasionally in the Greek classics, as the case absolute. In the New Testament, no examples of this kind occur, which may not be explained on the grounds of apposition, or anacoluthon; see § 73, § 58.

Ε. g. τοὺς βοῦς θάπτουσι, τὰ κέρατα ὑπερέχοντα, they bury the oxen, the horns sticking out, where xigara, etc. indicates a circumstance belonging to Bous, and is put as it were in apposition with it. • That he might have twelve years instead of six, αἱ νύχτες ήμέραι TOEμEva, the nights being computed as days,' where is a kind of apposition; Buttm. § 145, Note 4. Such a kind of Nom. absolute is not unfrequent in the classics, where the Part. is of an impersonal nature; Rost, § 131, 5. Matth. § 564. The Part. in the neuter gender, often stands, in cases of this nature, in a kind of apposition to a whole clause or sentence; as où dè δεδιὼς ἂν, τὸ λεγόμενον, τὴν σαυτοῦ σκιάν, but you, fearing your own shadow, as it is said, would answer, etc.

§ 54. PARTICIPIal use of the tenses.

(1.) The Present Part. designates not merely something now present, but may also designate what is now commencing and is to be continued, or what is immediately to commence.

E. g. åπodvýonwv, moriturus or dying in the sense of being already in extremis. Matt. xxvi. 28, rò aiμa

To ixxuvóuevov, the blood...which is about to be shed. So didóuevov, in Luke xxii. 19; xλwμevov, in 1 Cor. xi. 24. So all these cases may be solved, by considering the Part. as expressing what is mentally regarded as Present. Rom. xv. 25, dianovãv. 1 Peter i. 7.

(2.) The Pres. Part. is often employed in the sense of the Imperfect.

E. g. igeuvõvres, who searched, 1 Pet. i. 11; ' I saw seven angels, exovras tλnyàs, who had plagues, Rev. xv. 1, 6. Acts xxi. 16; xxv. 3. Matt. xiv. 21. In particular, the Part. Pres. is often connected with a verb Praeterite, in order to designate something done, etc., at the time when another thing was done which the principal verb announces; e. g. ' on the following day, ὤφθη αὐτοῖς μαχομένοις, he shewed himself to them when they were contending, Acts vii. 26; xviii. 5. Heb. xi. 22. Luke v. 18, al. saepe. Very often is the Part. v employed in the sense of the Imperf.; e. g. John i. 49; v. 13; xi. 31; xxi. 11. Acts vii. 2; xi. 1 ; xviii. 24. 1 Cor. viii. 9, al.

(3.) The Perf. participle is used to denote

things done, the result of which was somewhat permanent, or the consequences of which continued. The Aorist, on the other hand, is usually employed where a thing is done once for all, and is not designedly represented as continuing in its consequences.

E. g. Perfect; Heb. ii. 9. xxii. 3. 1 Pet. i. 23; ii. 4. Rom. viii. 11; xvi. 22.

John xix. 35. Acts
Aorist;

Rev. ix. 1.
Acts ix. 21, al. saepe.

§ 55. HEBRAISM IN THE USE of participles. (1.) This consists of employing the Part. with a verb in a definite mode, in the room of the Heb. Inf. with a definite mode.

Ε. g. ἰδὼν εἶδον, εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω, πληθύνων πληθυνῶ, βλέποντες βλέπετε, etc. ; forms of speech which are very frequent in the Septuagint. It is however the frequency only of this idiom which may be called Hebraism in the Sept.; for such phrases are found, not only in the Greek poets, but in the prose-writers ; Winer, § 46, 7. See numerous examples also, in Matth. § 553.

IMPERSONAL VERBS.

§ 56. MANNER IN WHICH THESE ARE EMPLOYED. (1.) The Greeks usually employ the 3d. pers. plural or sing. of these verbs; and sometimes

the 2nd pers. singular. In the New Testament, the 3d pers. plural is the more usual form.

E. g. John xv. 6; xx. 2. Mark x. 13. Matt. vii. 16. Luke xii. 20, 48, et al. saepe. The 3d pers.

sing., poi, is used in 2 Cor. x. 10. So the passive γέγραπται, λέγεται, etc., are naturally employed in the same impersonal way.

NOTE 1. In Hebrew the same custom prevails. The 3d pers. sing. and plural, also the 2d pers. sing., are used in an impersonal way, or with indefinite Nominatives; Heb. Gramm. § 500.

CONCORD OF VERBS, ETC., WITH THEIR
SUBJECTS.

§ 57. CONCORD IN RESPECT TO NUMBER AND GENder.

(1.) The general rule is, that verbs and participles agree with their nouns, the former in respect to number, and the latter in regard to number and gender. But to this rule are not a few exceptions; viz.,

(a) Nouns of multitude, i. e. generic nouns, may take a plural verb, etc.

Ε. g. ὁ ὄχλος.... ἐπικατάρατοί εἰσι, John vii. 49; τὴν οἰκίαν Στεφανᾶ, ὅτι....ἔταξαν ἑαυτοὺς, 1 Cor. xvi. 15. Matt. xxi. 8. Luke ix. 12. John vi. 2, sing. and plural both; al. saepe. And so in the classics.

NOTE 1. Distributives in the singular sometimes

take a plural verb; e. g. oxogπionre ëxaoros, John xvi. 32 ; ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος, Acts ii. 6; ὥρισαν ἕκαστος, Acts xi. 29; ἔχοντες ἕκαστος κιθάρας, Rev. v. 8. So the Heb. (each) very often takes a plur. verb. Comp. § 9, 1.

(b) Neuter plurals generally (not always) take a verb singular; and when these plurals designate animated beings, the plural of the verb is the more common usage.

Ε. g. τὰ ζῶα τρέχει· τὰ καλὰ ἔργα....ἐστι, 1 Tim. v. 25, al saepe. Examples of animated beings are ra ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσι, Matt. xii. 21; τὰ πνεύματα....εἰσῆλθον, Mark v. 13; τὰ δαιμόνια πιστεύουσι καὶ φρίσσουσι, James ii. 19. Rev. xi. 18; xvi. 14, al saepe. Yet the singular of the verb is also used in such cases; e. g. in Luke iv. 41; viii. 30, 38; xiii. 19. Mark iii. 11; iv. 4; vii. 28, al. but generally with variations of the Codices. Sing. and plur. in the same sentence, Luke iv. 41. John x. 27. 1 Cor. xx. 11, Comp. 1 Sam. ix. 12. II. B. 135.

NOTE 1. Even the neuter plur. of inanimate things sometimes takes a plural verb; e. g. ä sisi, Rev. i. 19; ἐφάνησαν. τὰ ῥήματα, Luke xxiv. 11. 2 Pet. iii. 10. All the usages above noted, are common in the Greek classics.

(c) The gender of the participle may be conformed to the sense of the passage.