Let sentences connect!
He got down on his knees and prayed three times a day, giving thanks to his God. – Daniel 6:10
It is said that the Bible contains the phrase “Do not worry!” 365 times, suggesting the idea of possessing peace instead of worry every day. There are also those who claim it appears 366 times, implying that even on the additional day of a leap year, one should lay down their worries. While it’s uncertain if the phrase truly appears that many times, Jesus taught not to worry about tomorrow.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)
This does not mean, however, that one should simply be carefree. Instead of worrying, the Bible advises to always pray with a thankful heart.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
Having a thankful heart inevitably leads to humility. And a humble person must pray, as they recognize their own insufficiency and weakness. Thus, Apostle Paul taught, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17)
This context reflects the scene where Daniel, despite being a captive and in the face of a decree that forbade worshiping any god other than the king of Babylon, always gave thanks and prayed three times a day.
We have learned to create noun clauses, adjective clauses, or adverbial clauses to make more complex English expressions. However, as sentences become longer, there’s a downside that expressions can become confusing or complicated. Let’s now try simplifying long sentences using participle constructions.
Participles are easily defined as adjectives formed by adding “~ing” or “~ed” to verbs. These transformed adjectives can perform all the roles that other adjectives do. Having examined such expressions, let’s look at how to simplify long sentences using participle constructions. A participle construction uses a participle to turn an adverbial clause (conjunction + subject + verb) into an adverbial phrase beginning with a participle. Naturally, this results in shorter and simpler sentences that can also be better. Consider the biblical passage given above.
He got down on his knees and prayed three times a day, giving thanks to his God.
The phrase ‘giving thanks to his God’ is a participle construction meaning “while giving thanks to his God.” If we were to express this with a conjunction for ‘while,’ the sentence would become longer as in “as he is giving thanks to his God.” The participle in a participle construction, as shown above, reduces “conjunction + subject + verb” and thus, the missing conjunction’s meaning must be inferred from the context. However, this also aligns with our principle of syntax and curiosity resolution. For instance, after hearing “He got down on his knees and prayed three times a day,” wouldn’t one wonder ‘how?’ The subsequent participle construction explains this curiosity.
Thus, participle constructions typically shorten adverbial clauses of time, reason, condition, concession, etc., implying meanings like ‘when doing,’ ‘after doing,’ ‘while doing,’ etc. They can also simply mean ‘and.’
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. -James 1:4
The phrase ‘not lacking anything’ in the biblical passage can be seen as a shortened form of ‘and you may not lack anything.’ The examples above all have the same subject in the main sentence and the participle construction. If the subjects differ in meaning between the main sentence and the participle construction, the subject must be specified before the participle. Consider the following biblical passage.
After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. – Luke 2:43
In this passage, the main sentence’s subject is ‘the boy Jesus,’ whereas the subjects for after and while are ‘the Feast’ and ‘his parents,’ respectively. In such cases, when converting adverbial clauses to participle constructions, the implied subjects must be kept as follows: The Feast being over and his parents returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem,
To clarify the meaning of participle constructions further, it’s possible to retain prepositions or conjunctions.
On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. -Acts 5:24
The interpretation of ‘on hearing’ can be “after hearing” or “upon hearing.” Remembering the following idiomatic participle constructions can also be helpful:
Generally speaking, Considering ~, Granting that ~, Frankly speaking, Strictly speaking, Supposing ~, Given ~, Provided (that) ~ = Providing (that) , Seeing that
It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. – Galatians 4:18
In the Korean Bible, we sometimes encounter ambiguous sentences and passages difficult to understand precisely. However, English expressions are relatively clear. Breaking down the above sentence as follows… It is fine to be zealous/provided the purpose is good)/and to be so always/not just when I am with you. Therefore, reading the Bible in both Korean and English can offer the advantage of better understanding its meaning.
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