Adverbial Participles

Here is video on Adverbial Participles that is about 41 minutes long. When the video starts, a table of contents will appear. Drag it to the left side of the video and drop it there.




Here is the table of contents to make it easy to find what you are looking for:

1:24 – Flow Chart
2:20 – Temporal Participles Defined
--------3:41 – Aorist Participles
--------4:24 – Present Participles
--------4:39 – Future Participles
--------4:52 – Perfect Participles
--------5:10 – Flow Chart Revisited
--------6:22 – Temporal Examples 1-6
13:24 – Manner Participles Defined
--------13:54 – Manner Examples 1-3
16:52 – Means Participles Defined
--------17:21 – Means Examples 1-6
21:40 – Causal Participles Defined
--------22:05 – Causal Examples 1-4
24:35 – Conditional Participles Defined
--------24:52 – Conditional Examples 1-2
26:11 – Concessive Participles Defined
--------26:29 – Concessive Examples 1-3
28:55 – Purpose Participles Defined
--------29:09 – Purpose Examples 1-3
31:23 – Result Participles Defined
--------31:40 – Result Examples 1-3
34:04 – Attendant Circumstance Participles Defined
--------34:43 – Attendant Circumstance Examples 1-3
37:00 – Complementary Participles Defined
--------37:29 – Complementary Examples 1-2
38:52 – Imperatival Participles Defined
--------39:11 – Imperatival Examples 1-2
40:13 – Conclusion

The Adjectival Participle

What is it?

Participles can act like adjectives. They can modify a substantive or even say something about it. The use of modifying a substantive is common.

How can I recognize it?

You will recognize an adjectival participle that is modifying a substantive in two ways:
1) it will usually have a definite article
2) it will agree with the substantive it is modifying in gender, number, and case.

How do I translate it?

The adjectival participle that is modifying a substantive should be translated like a relative clause.  So o` maqhth.j o` pisteu,wn should be translated "the disciple who believes."

Watch the following video for more information on translating an adjectival participle.

The Substantival Participle

As I go through and provide definitions, note that I get most of my information from Daniel Wallace's Greek grammar, with insights from Black's and Mounce's Greek introductory books.

What is it? 

A substantival participle is an independent use of the adjectival participle. It is used instead of and functions in the place of a substantive. Therefore it can work any way a noun can work: as the subject, object, etc. The substantival adjective is frequent in the New Testament.

How can I recognize it?

1) If the participle is articular (that is, has a definite article), then it is either adjectival or substantival. 

2) If it is articular and does not agree with a substantive in person, number, and case, then it is substantival.

How do I translate it?

Typically you can write out your rough translation as "the one who" or "the thing which" followed by the participle translated as a finite verb. So o` pisteu,wn would be translated as "the one who believes".

Watch the following video for more clarification.

Partying with Participles

Student tend to have a difficult time with participles. But when they learn how to process through them, they can be so much fun. I've attached a participle flow chart they I have used when teaching students to translate participles. The one main problem students have is that they see the participle flow chart and they panic. It looks too confusing and complicated and they just "give up" mentally.

In the participle videos to follow, I will walk you through using this flow chart for different types of participles. Here is the chart.

The Complex Greek Sentence

One of the benefits of having short videos like these (10-15 minutes) is that you can watch the video, pause it, repeat sections when necessary, and re-watch it.

This video contains a sentence that is a little more complicated. Both of these videos contain basic Greek structures. There are no participles, subjunctives, infinitives, -mi verbs, or imperatives. The key is to practice translating basic sentences with this methodology so more complicated sentences will be manageable.

The Simple Greek Sentence

I want to walk you through translating a simple Greek sentence. Realize that this is a VERY easy sentence and the processing might seem unnecessary. However, when you follow this processing consistently with easy sentences, you will find the harder sentences become manageable.

The process prescribed is as following.
PARSE all words possible: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and connect the definite article to the word it goes with. You don't necessarily have to provide all parsing elements, so make up some abbreviations that you'll remember. You'll see mine in the video.
1) Locate the subject
2) Look for something modifying or attached to the subject
3) Locate the verb
4) Locate objects of the verb (both direct and indirect)

Watch the video for details. And please, let me know what you think!

An Example: Learning Guitar

I've taught guitar to several people. My guitar teaching methodology is annoying and frustrating to some. Basically, I have my students practice playing chords without strumming (except to check and see if the chord sounds okay) and I have them practice a strumming patter (down-down-up-up-down-up) without playing chords. When they try to do both at the same time, they get frustrated because they can't keep the rhythm. They are trying to do too many new things at once.

That is similar to learning Greek. In translating a sentence correctly and confidently, you need to master:
1) parsing of all words possible
2) the meaning of the cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative)
3) the meaning of the tense, voice, and mood of Greek verbs
4) basic English grammar
5) the meaning of the Greek words

Trying to implement all of these at one time causes most students to panic. They end up skipping points 1-4 and going straight to point 5. They are so nervous/anxious/scared that they will forget the meaning of the Greek word, that they jump right into translating without understanding the layout of the sentence.

The process I will show you in the upcoming videos will seem, at first, like it will slow you down and take you longer to translate. In fact, I've 'secretly' timed students when they follow the process I'll show you and it only takes them a half minute to two minutes longer per sentence.

The videos will be up shortly.