Hellenistic Greek © 2008, 2015, 2022
Lesson 29: Aorist Active Participle

What is a participle?

A participle is formed from a verb but is used in many ways like an adjective or noun. Here are some examples of verb forms used as adjectives in English:

• running shoes
• swim suit

Here are some examples of English verb forms used as nouns:

• Running is fun.
• I love cooking.

Greek participles may be used in both of these ways, but they may also be used to describe the setting in which something happens. The Greek equivalent of the following English sentences might use a participle.

• While Jessica ate breakfast, she talked with her brother.
• After cooking breakfast, Dad called us all to the table.

The first part of each of these sentences (“While Jessica ate lunch”, “After cooking breakfast”) could be expressed with a participle in Ancient Greek.

Usage of Ancient Greek Participles

Like other verb forms, Greek participles can be accompanied by an object (often a noun inflected for a case other than nominative).

Like adjectives, Greek participles may modify a noun, and in some instances even function like a noun.

Like adverbs, Greek participles may modify the main verb or the entire clause in which it appears.

Implications of the Aorist Participle (both first and second aorist)

An author's or speaker's choice of the aorist form for a particple as opposed to the present form (to be studied later), is not a decision about time, but one about aspect. The choice of aorist over present portrays the action indicated by the participle as complete, not in progress.

In practice, this often correlates with contexts where one action (the one portrayed by the participle) occurs before another (the one portrayed by the main verb), but that sequence is implied, not encoded in the meaning of the aorist form.

ὁ . . . Πιλᾶτος ἀκούσας τῶν λόγων τούτων ἤγαγεν ἔξω τὸν Ἰησοῦν (John 19:13)
Pilate, having heard these words, brought Jesus out.
Hearing these words, Pilate brought Jesus out.
After he heard these words, Pilate brought Jesus out.

However we decide to translate this sentence into English, the Greek text does not present the hearing (ἀκούσας) as in progress while Pilate brings Jesus out.

The participle ἀκούσας is a first aorist form. Consider this example with a second aorist participle:

Ταῦτα εἰπὼν Ἰησοῦς ἐξῆλθεν σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ (John 18:1)
After saying these things, Jesus went out with his disciples
Having said these things, Jesus left with his disciples

Notice that the implications of the aorist are the same. It makes no difference if the form is first aorist or second aorist. The author's use of the aorist presents Jesus' "saying these things" as not being in progress when he leaves with his disciples.

Adverbial Usage

A participle may be used as a modifier of the main verb or of a clause as a whole. In such cases its implied subject is the same as that of the main verb, and the participle matches that subject in case, gender, and number. Both of the examples above (John 19:13 and 18:1) show this type of usage.

Let us look a little more closely at John 19:13 to see this.

ὁ . . . Πιλᾶτος ἀκούσας τῶν λόγων τούτων ἤγαγεν ἔξω τὸν Ἰησοῦν (John 19:13)

It is clear that ὁ Πιλᾶτος, the only nominative case noun, is the subject of the main verb (ἤγαγεν, he brought, he led). Pilate brought Jesus out.

Who is the implied subject of the participle, ἀκούσας? Who heard "these words" (τῶν λόγων τούτων)? Again, ὁ Πιλᾶτος is the one who heard the words. The subject of the main verb (ἤγαγεν) and the subject of the participle (ἀκούσας) are the same. This is why the participle has its nominative case form.

The participial phrase (ἀκούσας τῶν λόγων τούτων) modifies the main verb (ἤγαγεν) by giving the circumstance prompting the action it names: ἤγαγεν ἔξω τὸν Ἰησοῦν (led Jesus out). What prompted Pilate to lead Jesus out? He had heard the words.

Of course there are many other ways a participle can modify a main verb besides stating what prompted the action. You will see others in the exercises below.

Adjectival Usage

The Greek participle may modify a noun. When used in this way, it agrees in case, gender, and number with the noun it modifies. The logical subject of the participle is that noun.

ὁ ὄχλος πολὺς ὁ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν ... ἔλαβον τὰ βαΐα τῶν φοινίκων (John 12:12)
The great crowd that had come to the festival ... took branches from palm trees

Here the participial phrase ὁ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν (having come to the festival) describes the noun phrase ὁ ὄχλος πολὺς (the great crowd), and just as we would expect with an adjective when it follows the noun it describes, the article for that noun (ὁ ὄχλος) is repeated with what describes it (ὁ ἐλθὼν).

The participle (ἐλθὼν) matches the noun (ὄχλος) in case, gender, and number. Both are nominative, masculine, singular. You will be able to see this clearly after studying the participial forms discussed later in this lesson.

In this context, the participle does not modify the main verb, but its subject. It does not tell us anything about how or why the crowd "took branches." Instead it tells us something about the crowd itself. They are the crowd who had come to the festival.

Substantival Usage

Just as adjectives are sometimes used as nouns, participles can do the same.

οἱ φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν (Acts 13:16)
Those who fear God
The God fearers
You who fear God

Notice that it is often necessary to use a relative pronoun (who, what, that) to make the meaning clear in English.

Let us look at an example in a complete clause.

ὁ ἀπολέσας τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν. (Matthew 10:39)
The person who loses their life for my sake will find it
The one who loses their life for my sake will find it

Notice that it is necessary to insert a word like "person" or "one" to make this work in English. The Greek phrase ὁ ἀπολέσας does not mean "the losing" (the act of losing something). It means, "the [one] who loses [something]."

Formation of Ancient Greek Participles

The Greek participle shares some characteristics with verbs (tense/aspect and voice), and others with adjectives (case and context-sensitive gender).

You saw in lesson 9 that aorist indicative forms add an augment, the letter ε, to the beginning of the verb stem. The aorist participle does not add an augment. Observe the following present indicative, aorist indicative, and aorist participle forms of λαλέω.

The aorist indicative adds the augment (ε), but the aorist participle does not.

First Aorist Participles can be identified by the presence of -σα- at the end of the stem. This syllable (σα) is added to the present stem to form the first aorist stem, just as you saw earlier with most first aorist indicative forms (lesson 9). The participial endings are then added to that aorist stem.

If the stem ends in one of the nine consonants affected by the addition of σ, the addition of the σα causes predictable spelling changes.

Endings for the Aorist Active Participle

First aorist active participles use the following endings after the σα tense/aspect marker. You have learned all of these endings already. The masculine and neuter forms use third declension endings (See Lesson 15), and the feminine forms use σ plus the first declension endings (See lesson 11).

The table below lists the endings for all aorist active particples.

With participles, the vocative case uses the same endings as the nominative case.

Notice the frequent appearance of ντ in the masculine and neuter forms. This is explained below.

First Aorist Forms of Thematic (ω) Conjugation Verbs

Remember that there is no difference in meaning between the first aorist and the second aorist. They are simply two different ways of forming the aorist.

Observe the forms of the verb πιστεύω.

ντ in Participle Endings

If you can learn the forms of the first aorist active participle without understanding why some of the masculine and neuter forms have -ντ- and others do not, you can skip this section. For many learners, though, understanding why some forms have these two letters while others do not can simplify learning not only these forms but others we will encounter later.

The consonant combination τσ is not attested in Hellenistic Greek. When an ending that began with σ was added after a τ, the τ was omitted.
-τ + σ- = -σ-.

See the consonant table for changes with σ above.

Similarly, the consonant combination νσ is not attested in the Hellenistic Period. In earlier forms of Greek it could appear near the beginning of words that were formed by adding the preposition ἐν to a verb whose stem began with σ, but no such forms are found in the Greek New Testament.
-ν + σ- = -σ-.

Look at the tables above again now. You will notice that all but two of the forms that are missing the ντ have an ending that starts with σ, so both the τ and the ν were deleted. The other two are the nominative and accusative neuter singular forms. They end with ν rather than ντ. No ancient Greek word ends with τ. So the missing τ here is easy to explain!

Note that all of the feminine forms add σ before the first declesion ending. This σ is the reason none of the feminine forms have ντ.

The Participle of εἰμί