This question resembles the thread on the force of tenses in participles
that has been running for about a week now. To answer the "case" part of
your query, the "while"-clause in English represents a genitive absolute
construction in Greek: a noun and participle (usually) in genitive case,
representing an attendent circumstance. The first, best guess for an
English translation is a temporal clause (altho' they can represent
causal, concessive or conditional ideas). English occasionally uses
participial constructions in a similar way: "all things being equal....",
"this being the case...."
I am still of the belief that, as a rule of thumb, aorist participles
represent time prior to the main verb and present participles time
simultaneous with the main verb, and I think the exceptions we've looked at
tend to prove this general rule. But it's not necessary to decide that
question in this case because the present participle alone doesn't carry
the burden; the adverb ETI, "still" makes it clear: "while P. was still
speaking....the Holy Spirit fell...."
Mary
Mary Pendergraft
Associate Professor of Classical Languages
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem NC 27109 910-759-5331 pender@wfu.edu