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Day: May 16, 2017

Would “This enrolling first took place managed by Quirinius of Syria” be more accurate than “when Quirinius was governor”?

By: | Post date: 2017-05-16 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

No. The participle ἡγεμονεύοντος and its subject Κυρηνίου are in the genitive. That makes this a Genitive absolute, which corresponds to the Latin ablative absolute. Its job is to indicate the time or circumstance under which the main clause happened: it is a separate clause. English equivalents are Absolute constructions, such as The referee having […]