Participle – Aorist Passive

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The morphology of the Aorist passive participle
• Participles as attributive or predicate adjectives

VocabularyVocabulary

MorphologyMorphology: Participle – Aorist Passive

• The masc and neut forms have 3rd declension endings attached to θεντ, while fem forms have mixed α/η 1st declension endings attached to θεισ
• With σ endings (masc nom sg and masc/neut dat pl), the ντ drops out and the ε lengthens to ει, e.g. πορευ-θέντ-ς → πορευ-θέ-ς → πορευθείς
• In the neut nom/acc sg, the final τ falls away due to no ending being attached, e.g. πορευ-θέντ → πορευθέν
• In the fem gen pl, the accent is drawn to the ultima.

Table 286 (continued)

SemanticsSemantics: Participle – Attributive and Predicate Adjectives

While we have already seen several uses of participles with verbal functions, the participle is also regularly used like an adjective, as noted in 18.2.3.2. Like other adjectives, the participle can modify a noun or serve as a predicate:

Since adjectives are attributive in the syntactic pattern article + noun + article + adj, ἐρχομένῳ must be an attributive adjective modifying αἰῶνι in Mark 10:30. The participle εὐλογημένος is found before the subject with a definite article, so it cannot be modifying ὁ ἐρχόμενος. Rather, it is functioning like a predicate adjective in this example, which is asserting that a certain property holds of the subject.

Some participles, such as εὐλογημένος, are very commonly found in this kind of syntactic construction; others are never found. A word like εὐλογημένος refers to a state, and because adjectives are normally states, stative participles like εὐλογημένος are often used like adjectives. Participles in non-active voice are the most common stative participles and so are most often used as adjectives.