Participles (1)

How "everyone who believes" becomes two words

Here is the second half of John 3:16 in the BSB:

that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

"Who believes" is, in Greek, ὁ πιστεύων (ho pisteuōn). The article ὁ points at a person, "the one", and πιστεύων comes from the verb "to believe", πιστεύω. The whole phrase works as a single subject: "the believing one", "whoever believes". That πιστεύων is a participle.

A participle is, in short, a verb that behaves as an adjective. Like a verb it has tense and voice (here present, active) and can bring other words with it (εἰς αὐτόν, "in Him"). Like an adjective it has case, number and gender and agrees with what it describes (here nominative, singular, masculine). So the 원어 panel prints a participle's label as, for example, "present, active, participle, nominative, singular, masculine": a verb's labels and a noun's labels in one line.

Recognising a participle

Participles are easy to spot by their shapes. Here are the most common types. Do not try to memorise the grid; glance back at it when a word looks like one of these.

The masculine and neuter of the present active and the aorist active show -ντ- in the genitive (-οντος, -σαντος). That is the third declension you have just met, with the stem showing in the genitive. The feminine follows the first declension. The middle or passive participles in -μενος decline like ordinary adjectives. The perfect passive also ends in -μένος and usually begins with a repeated syllable, as in γεγεννημένος.

One caution. The tense of a participle does not mainly tell you when something happens. It tells you how the action is viewed: a present participle usually pictures an action in progress or repeated, an aorist participle pictures it as a single whole. Whether it is past or present is mostly decided by context and by the main verb.

With the article: "the one who …"

The most common use pairs the article with a participle to mean "the one who …". You have seen ὁ πιστεύων. Now look at John 1:29, where John the Baptist points to Jesus.

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29

αἴρων (airōn) is the present active participle of αἴρω, "to take up, take away", which occurs about 100 times. With its article ὁ it means "the one who takes away". Notice that it also keeps a verb's object, ἁμαρτίαν, "sin".

John 5:24 gives a string of them.

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life

John 5:24

"Whoever hears and believes" is one article, ὁ, over two participles, ἀκούων and πιστεύων, joined by καί. Then comes πέμψαντί (pempsanti), the aorist active participle of πέμπω, "to send", which occurs about 79 times. With the article τῷ it means "the one who sent Me". It is dative because the verb "believe" takes the dative here, and you can see the -ντ- of the aorist participle in -σαντι.

The plural works the same way. In John 1:12, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν is "to those who believe", a plural dative with the third-declension ending -σι(ν). And in John 3:6, γεγεννημένον (gegennēmenon) is the perfect passive participle of γεννάω, "to beget, give birth to", which occurs about 97 times. With the article it means "that which is born".

Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

John 3:6

Describing a noun

A participle can also stand beside a noun, without an article, and describe it like an adjective. The first half of John 1:29 shows it: "John saw Jesus coming toward him". Here ἐρχόμενον (erchomenon) is accusative, singular, masculine, exactly like Ἰησοῦν, "Jesus". They match, so the participle describes Jesus: "Jesus coming". To find which noun a participle describes, look for the word with the same case, number and gender.

A participle can also describe a noun with an article of its own. In Matthew 4:16, ὁ λαὸς ὁ καθήμενος (kathēmenos) repeats the article after the noun, just like ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός in the lesson on adjectives: "the people sitting". καθήμενος is a present participle of κάθημαι, "to sit", which occurs about 91 times. The panel labels it a middle or passive deponent: middle or passive in form, active in meaning.

the people living in darkness have seen a great light;

Matthew 4:16

Summary

A participle is both verb and adjective. It has tense and voice like a verb and case, number and gender like an adjective. With the article it is "the one who …" (ὁ πιστεύων, "the one who believes"; ὁ αἴρων, "the one who takes away"); beside a noun it describes that noun. Watch for -ων/-ουσα/-ον, -ντ-, -μενος and -σας. The tense shows the view of the action more than the time. In the next lesson we read participles without an article that give the background to a main verb.

Words in this lesson

• πέμπωpempōto send79 times in the NT
• κάθημαιkathēmaito sit91 times in the NT
• γεννάωgennaōto beget97 times in the NT
• αἴρωairōto take up100 times in the NT

Practice