Perfect Participles

In the previous two chapters, we introduced participles, focusing our attention on present and aorist forms. In this chapter, we will consider perfect participles and will discuss two special uses of participles: genitive absolutes and periphrastic constructions. We will also discuss future participles, although they are uncommon.

Perfect participles are built on the perfect tense-form stem (which includes reduplication) and typically communicate a completed action which has ongoing consequences or results. Whereas present tense-form (imperfective aspect) participles occur more than 3,600 times and aorist tense-form (perfective aspect) participles occur more than 2,200 times, perfect tense-form (stative aspect) participles occur only 673 times in the Greek New Testament. Unlike the other tense-forms, most perfect participles function adjectively and not adverbially.

In the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John, there is great emphasis on observable transformation in the life of the Christian. Real Christians will keep God’s commands (1 John 3:24) and love other believers (1 John 2:10–11). Yet, it is important to note that John does not say that keeping God’s commands and loving other Christians makes one a Christian. Rather, these are the behaviors that characterize people who have experienced a spiritual rebirth in the past. John writes,

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (1 John 3:9 NIV)

“No one who is born of God” is a translation of this Greek phrase: πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ. The word in bold is a perfect passive participle, referring to a past completed action that has an ongoing resulting state or relevance. The person of whom John speaks was, in the past, spiritually birthed by the power of God. Now, that individual continues to exist as a Spirit-born child of God. That ongoing state of spiritual sonship makes an observable difference in one’s daily ethical decisions and relationships. If there is no reflection of the Savior in one’s life (however imperfect and halting), it calls into question whether one really has come to know God at all (1 John 2:4–6).

Just as we did for the present and aorist participles, we will begin with a few perfect participle paradigms and accompanying possible substantive translations. Only by considering literary context can one determine the usage and translation of a participle. After the two sample translation charts below, a comprehensive list of regular perfect participle forms can be found.

Perfect Active Participles

Perfect active participles have several component parts: reduplication + perfect tense-form stem + tense formative (κ) + active voice morpheme (οτ, υι) + case ending.

λελυκότες → λε + λυ + κ + οτ + ες

Note that perfect active participles differ from both present and aorist forms (masculine and neuter) which include a nu (ν) as part of the active voice morpheme: present = λύοντος; aorist = λύσαντος. The endings for the active voice follow third declension (masculine and neuter) and first declension (feminine: alpha pattern) endings.

Perfect Middle/passive Participles

Perfect middle/passive participles have similar component parts as active participles, minus the tense formative and connecting vowel: reduplication + perfect tense-form stem + middle/passive voice morpheme (μεν) + case ending.

λελυμένοι → λε + λυ + μεν + οι

Again, note that the connecting vowel is missing (cf. λυόμενοι and λυσάμενοι). The endings for the middle/passive voice follow first (feminine: eta pattern) and second (masculine and neuter) patterns.

Several verbs have somewhat irregular perfect forms. Such verbs lack the tense formative kappa (κ) in the active voice. Below are the most common verbs that fall into this category, including all the various inflected forms used in the New Testament. We recommend students focus on recognizing (not memorizing) these forms.

A genitive absolute is a subcategory of the adverbial participle used to provide background information. A genitive absolute can be a present, aorist, or perfect participle. It is called “absolute” because it is loosed (Latin: absolutus) from syntactical cords and has no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence. Both the participle and the subject of the participle are in the genitive case, and they agree in gender and number. Translate the genitive absolute as a normal adverbial participial phrase, most of which will be temporal (though any category of adverbial participle can apply).

Ταῦτα αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτόν

“As he was saying these things, many believed in him” (John 8:30).

In the example, both the participle (λαλοῦντος) and the subject of the participle (αὐτοῦ) are in the genitive case. Notice that you do not translate a genitive absolute with the typical “of.” Also note that the subject of the main verb (πολλοί, “many”) is different than the subject of the participle (αὐτοῦ). To differentiate the two subjects, the genitive case is used for the subject of the participle. These constructions are typically found at the beginning of a clause or sentence. By employing the genitive forms, the author visually and phonetically sets these words apart from the rest of the sentence to be translated as a self-contained dependent clause.

A periphrastic participle is a participle in construction with the verb εἰμί. Unlike English, Greek does not normally use helping verbs (ἐδίδασκεν [impf act ind 3rd sg] = “he was teaching”). Occasionally, however, a participle is used in conjunction with either the present, imperfect, or future form of εἰμί. For example, ἦν διδάσκων could also be translated “he was teaching.” Here we have the imperfect indicative of εἰμί (ἦν) followed by a present participle. Because this construction uses two words to convey essentially the same information that could be conveyed with one word, it is called a “periphrastic” (i.e., a “round about” [περί] or less concise way “to say” [φράσις] something). Also note that the verb εἰμί and the participle are not necessarily next to each other but are often separated in the sentence, though the verb εἰμί will precede the participle about 70 percent of the time.

Periphrastic constructions are especially common in the writings of Luke. Grammarians debate why ancient authors chose periphrastic constructions rather than simply indicative verbs (ἦν διδάσκων vs. ἐδίδασκεν). The most likely explanation is that (1) sometimes an author wanted to vary his style and found a periphrastic construction beautiful or helpful in accomplishing that goal, and (2) a periphrastic construction may place greater emphasis on the verbal aspect of the participle than an indicative construction alone. So, for example, in our illustration (ἦν διδάσκων vs. ἐδίδασκεν), the periphrastic construction arguably places more stress on the imperfective (progressive) aspect of teaching.

Here are the possible combinations of Greek periphrastics:

There are only thirteen future participles in the New Testament, so they don’t warrant a separate chapter. They are similar in form to present participles with the addition of a sigma (σ) to the stem for the active (λύσοντος) and middle (λυσομένου) voices and a -θης- for the passive voice (λυθησομένου). The future participle presents the action as a whole (perfective aspect), like the aorist, and can be divided into two camps: anarthrous and articular usage.

If a future participle occurs anarthrously (without a preceding article) it usually communicates a purpose in relation to the main verb. For example, in Matt 27:49 we read, “But the rest said, ‘Let’s see if Elijah comes (ἔρχεται) to save (σώσων, fut act ptc, masc nom sg) Him!’ ” Here the future participle expresses purpose in relation to the nearby indicative verb (ἔρχεται) and is future-referring in relation to this verb. Articular future participles (i.e., ones preceded by an article) are simply future-referring and do not express purpose. For example, see Luke 22:49: “When those around him saw what was going to happen (τὸ ἐσόμενον), they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ ” τὸ ἐσόμενον is a future middle participle, neuter accusative singular, from εἰμί, translated here as the substantive, “what was going to happen.”

A. Paradigms: Memorize the perfect active, middle, and passive participle paradigms of λύω (masc only) (see section 19.3). Then write out each paradigm ten times from memory.

B. Parsing: Parse the following words.

1. πεποιθώς

2. πεποιηκόσιν

3. βεβλημένην

4. γεγεννημένον

5. πεπιστευκότων

6. ἐγνωκότες

7. σώσων

8. γεγραμμένα

9. γεγονότας

10. ἠγαπημένῳ

C. Participle Usage: Indicate whether the following participles are used Attributively (A), Substantivally (S), Adverbially as a Genitive Absolute (GA), or Periphrastically (P).

D. Translation: Translate the following sentences.

1. ἔλεγεν οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρὸς τοὺς πεπιστευκότας αὐτῷ Ἰουδαίους (John 8:31).

2. ἀκούοντος δὲ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ (Luke 20:45).

3. καὶ ἦν κηρύσσων εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς τῆς Ἰουδαίας (Luke 4:44).

4. ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης (John 1:6).

5. τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν (John 3:6).

6. ἔτι λαλοῦντος τοῦ Πέτρου τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα (these) ἐπέπεσεν (ἐπιπίπτω, I fall upon) τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας τὸν λόγον (Acts 10:44).

7. καλέσω τὸν οὐ λαόν μου λαόν μου καὶ τὴν οὐκ ἠγαπημένην ἠγαπημένην (Rom 9:25).

8. καὶ διὰ παντὸς νυκτὸς (night) καὶ ἡμέρας ἐν τοῖς μνήμασιν (tombs) καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν ἦν κράζων (Mark 5:5).

9. καὶ ἐκπορευομένου αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ λέγει αὐτῷ εἷς τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, Διδάσκαλε (Mark 13:1).

10. ὁ σπείρων τὸν λόγον σπείρει … εὐθὺς ἔρχεται ὁ Σατανᾶς καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον τὸν ἐσπαρμένον εἰς αὐτούς (Mark 4:14–15).

11. καὶ ἐξελθόντος αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου εὐθὺς ὑπήντησεν (met) αὐτῷ ἐκ τῶν μνημείων (tombs) ἄνθρωπος ἐν πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ (unclean) (Mark 5:2).

12. οὗ (where) γάρ εἰσιν δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν (my) ὄνομα, ἐκεῖ εἰμι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν (Matt 18:20).

13.[… which the Lord will give me on that day …] οὐ μόνον δὲ ἐμοὶ ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἠγαπηκόσι τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν (appearing) αὐτοῦ (2 Tim 4:8).

14. ἔτι γὰρ Χριστὸς ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν (weak) ἔτι κατὰ καιρὸν ὑπὲρ ἀσεβῶν (ungodly) ἀπέθανεν (Rom 5:6).

15. ἦσαν καθήμενοι Φαρισαῖοι καὶ νομοδιδάσκαλοι (law-teachers) οἳ ἦσαν ἐληλυθότες ἐκ πάσης κώμης (village) τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ Ἰουδαίας καὶ Ἰερουσαλήμ (Luke 5:17).

E. Translation: Translate the following sentences into Greek.

1. The beloved child, having been bound, was raised by the Lord in their midst.

2. After Jesus healed those remaining, the entire crowd went to the mountain.

3. So then, a place which has been prepared for us is our hope now.

4. The priest comes and offers an animal (ζῳον) here.

5. He was teaching (periphrastic) the women while raising only (μόνον) his right hand.