Aorist Passive and Perfect Participles

Aorist passive participles

The aorist passive participle uses the sixth-principal-part stem without its augment. From ἐλύθην come λυθείς, λυθεῖσα, λυθέν: 'having been released'. The passive identifies someone receiving the action; the aorist views that action as a whole.

The genitives are λυθέντος, λυθείσης, λυθέντος. Masculine and neuter decline on a -θεντ- stem, while the feminine follows first-declension endings. Look especially for -θεισ- in feminine forms, rather than expecting θη everywhere.

A second aorist passive has no θ: γραφείς, γραφεῖσα, γραφέν, 'having been written'. The sixth principal part ἐγράφην explains the stem. An agent may still be expressed with ὑπό plus genitive, just as with a finite passive verb.

• ὁ λυθεὶς δοῦλος ἀπῆλθεν. — The servant who had been released went away.
• οἱ διδαχθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου — those who were taught by the apostle

Perfect active participles

The perfect participle often describes a state arising from an earlier event. Compare λύσας, 'having released', with λελυκώς, 'having released and being in the resulting situation'. In natural English both may need a relative clause; do not mechanically add a long phrase about results to every translation.

The regular active forms are λελυκώς, λελυκυῖα, λελυκός. The genitives λελυκότος, λελυκυίας, λελυκότος reveal the third-declension masculine/neuter stem and first-declension feminine. Notice that the masculine genitive is -κότος, not -κόντος.

Reduplication stays in all perfect forms, including participles. Some perfects have no κ, and some have established present meanings: εἰδώς means 'knowing' from οἶδα. Consult the fourth principal part rather than inventing a regular form for every verb.

• ὁ πεπιστευκὼς μαθητής — the disciple who has believed
• εἰδὼς τὸν νόμον — knowing the law (from οἶδα)

Perfect middle/passive and a reading checklist

Perfect middle/passive participles use -μένος, -μένη, -μένον on the fifth-principal-part stem: λελυμένος, 'having been released / in a released state'. They decline like familiar first/second-declension adjectives. Context chooses middle or passive meaning.

γεγραμμένος means 'written', and ὁ γεγραμμένος λόγος is 'the written message'. Consonant changes belong to the actual perfect stem. Learn γεγραμμένος alongside γέγραπται rather than trying to build it from γράφω letter by letter.

For any participle, identify its stem and voice, then its gender, case, and number, then the noun it describes. Only after that decide whether it describes a noun, stands for a person or thing, or supplies circumstances. A participle can also be used with εἰμί in a periphrastic verb expression; read those words together.

• τὸ γεγραμμένον ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ — what is written in the book
• οἱ σεσωσμένοι δοῦλοι — the servants who have been saved

A participle and εἰμί working together

Sometimes a form of εἰμί and a participle express one verb idea together. This is called a periphrastic expression: a verb expressed in more than one word. In ὁ μαθητὴς ἦν γράφων, 'the disciple was writing', ἦν supplies past time and third-person singular, while present active γράφων names the ongoing activity. γράφων is masculine nominative singular because it agrees with μαθητής.

With a perfect participle, read the resulting state and the form of εἰμί together. ὁ δοῦλός ἐστιν λελυμένος means 'the servant has been released / is in a released state'. ἐστιν is present; λελυμένος is perfect passive here and agrees with δοῦλος. With ἦν instead, ὁ δοῦλος ἦν λελυμένος means 'the servant had been released'. The finite form carries the time and person; the participle carries the action, voice, and agreement.

An adjective after εἰμί may simply describe the subject: ὁ δοῦλός ἐστιν ἀγαθός, 'the servant is good'. Even a participle such as γεγραμμένος can describe an existing condition, 'written', rather than emphasize the writing event. Ask what the whole phrase is doing in context; the presence of εἰμί alone does not make every description a separate verb tense.

• οἱ μαθηταὶ ἦσαν γράφοντες. — The disciples were writing (imperfect active expression; plural agreement).
• ὁ δοῦλος ἦν λελυμένος. — The servant had been released (a past resulting state, passive here).

'Although' and a second accompanying action

A participle can describe something that might have led us to expect a different outcome. καίπερ means 'although': καίπερ διδαχθείς, ὁ μαθητὴς οὐκ ἐπίστευσεν, 'Although he had been taught, the disciple did not believe'. διδαχθείς is aorist passive and agrees with μαθητής. Without καίπερ, context may still support an 'although' reading; the participle by itself does not announce it.

At other times, a participle adds an action closely joined to the main action. ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν often means simply 'he answered and said'. ἀποκριθείς has a passive-looking aorist form, but ἀποκρίνομαι means 'answer'. Answering and speaking describe the same response here, so translating 'after he had answered, he said' can wrongly suggest two separate events.

Some references call this attendant circumstance: an accompanying action expressed alongside the main verb. Begin with the stem, agreement, and context, then decide whether English needs 'after', 'because', 'if', 'although', or a simple 'and'. Aorist aspect presents the action as a whole; it does not require a separate earlier event in every sentence.

• καίπερ διδαχθείς, ὁ μαθητὴς οὐκ ἐπίστευσεν. — Although he had been taught, the disciple did not believe.
• ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν τῷ μαθητῇ. — He answered and said to the disciple.

Vocabulary (12)

ἱερόν, τό

temple

ὑποκριτής, ὁ

pretender, hypocrite

αἰώνιος, -ον

eternal, everlasting

ἀντί

(+gen) instead of, in place of

ἀφίημι

I release, let go; I forgive

ἐκλέγομαι

I choose, select

πλησιάζω

I come near, approach

καθαρίζω

I cleanse, purify

ἁγιάζω

I make holy, sanctify

τελειόω

I complete, perfect, bring to maturity

Ἰσραήλ, ὁ

Israel; indeclinable

Ἰουδαῖος, -α, -ον

Jewish; substantival: a Jew