Il participio nell’exordium di Col 1,3-23: valore sintattico e funzione retorica

The article focuses on the presence and on the value of the participle in the exordium of the Letter to the Colossians (Col 1:3-23). The detailed reading of the text allows us to understand the syntactic semantic multiplicity/richness of this verbal adjective and to detect its rhetorical function in the argument. The abundant use of its aspectual and temporal dimensions shows an emphatic amplified style of the Letter, but always at the service of the narrative. The long syntactic phrases seem well-constructed and held together by the presence of the participle which has the “responsibility” to bind the different parts of the proposition and to bring forward the argument. The participle contributes to better define not only Paul’s identity/mission and his co-workers, but also that of the recipients. There is no clear separation between the interested parties, but there is a kind of analogy that the apostle establishes with the believers of Colossae: what regards the apostle is equally applicable to its recipients. From the point of view of their rhetorical function, the participles, which refer to the sender and to the recipients, assume the value of loci rhetorici (a nostra persona and ab auditorum persona).