# 正在 as a Progressive: 9 Bible Clauses

> 正在 marks an action in progress in 9 clauses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified); of its 57 occurrences, the rest are the plain locative 在.

**Pattern:** subject + 正在 + verb
**HSK level:** 1 — the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'
**Rule used to find it:** 正在 immediately before a word with a verb sense. Where 正在 is locative (正在律法之下) a noun follows instead.
**Confidence:** counted — all 11 matches of the rule were read, 9 of them are the construction, checked by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker

正在 is the textbook progressive: 正在开花, is in blossom. It appears in this translation, but rarely, and it is outnumbered even among its own occurrences by a different thing that looks identical — 正在律法之下, under the law, where 正 is just so and 在 is the ordinary preposition.

The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 正在 57 times. 48 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.

Every match was read rather than sampled, so this is a count. Ongoing action in the Chinese Bible is usually carried instead by the durative 着 on the verb, or by nothing at all: 的时候, when, plus a bare verb does most of the work that a European language would give to a continuous tense.

It is commonest in Genesis, with 3 of them, and 45% of all of them fall in the Old Testament — which is mostly a statement about length, since the Old Testament is the longer part of the book.

## Examples

- **Psalms 94:23** — 他叫他们的罪孽归到他们身上。 他们正在行恶之中，他要剪除他们； 耶和华—我们的 神要把他们剪除。
  - tā jiào tā men de zuì niè guī dào tā men shēn shang 。  tā men zhèng zài háng è zhī zhōng ， tā yào jiǎn chú tā men ；  yē hé huá — wǒ men de   shén yào bǎ tā men jiǎn chú 。
  - He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.
  - construction: 正在行
- **Luke 24:4** — 正在猜疑之间，忽然有两个人站在旁边，衣服放光。
  - zhèng zài cāi yí zhī jiān ， hū rán yǒu liǎng gè rén zhàn zài páng biān ， yī fu fàng guāng 。
  - While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.
  - construction: 正在猜疑
- **Genesis 34:25** — 到第三天，众人正在疼痛的时候，雅各的两个儿子，就是底拿的哥哥西缅和利未，各拿刀剑，趁着众人想不到的时候来到城中，把一切男丁都杀了，
  - dào dì sān tiān ， zhòng rén zhèng zài téng tòng de shí hou ， yǎ gè de liǎng gè ér zi ， jiù shì dǐ ná de gē ge xī miǎn hé lì wèi ， gè ná dāo jiàn ， chèn zhe zhòng rén xiǎng bú dào de shí hou lái dào chéng zhōng ， bǎ yí qiè nán dīng dōu shā le ，
  - On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.
  - construction: 正在疼痛
- **Song of Solomon 2:15** — 要给我们擒拿狐狸， 就是毁坏葡萄园的小狐狸， 因为我们的葡萄正在开花。
  - yào gěi wǒ men qín ná hú li ，  jiù shì huǐ huài pú tao yuán de xiǎo hú li ，  yīn wèi wǒ men de pú tao zhèng zài kāi huā 。
  - Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.
  - construction: 正在开花
- **Acts 10:17** — 彼得心里正在猜疑之间，不知所看见的异象是什么意思。哥尼流所差来的人已经访问到西门的家，站在门外，
  - bǐ dé xīn li zhèng zài cāi yí zhī jiān ， bù zhī suǒ kàn jiàn de yì xiàng shì shén me yì si 。 gē ní liú suǒ chāi lái de rén yǐ jīng fǎng wèn dào xī mén de jiā ， zhàn zài mén wài ，
  - Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate,
  - construction: 正在猜疑
- **2 Peter 2:12** — 但这些人好像没有灵性，生来就是畜类，以备捉拿宰杀的。他们毁谤所不晓得的事，正在败坏人的时候，自己必遭遇败坏。
  - dàn zhè xiē rén hǎo xiàng méi yǒu líng xìng ， shēng lái jiù shì chù lèi ， yǐ bèi zhuō ná zǎi shā de 。 tā men huǐ bàng suǒ bù xiǎo de de shì ， zhèng zài bài huài rén de shí hou ， zì jǐ bì zāo yù bài huài 。
  - But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,
  - construction: 正在败坏

## The words this point is built on

| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 正在 | zhèng zài | 1 | 57 |

The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 1.

## What those occurrences are doing

|  | Occurrences | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| the construction | 9 | 16% |
| the same words doing something else | 48 | 84% |

## Words the 和合本 uses in the same slot

| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 在 | zài | 1 | 11,604 | the plain locative, which is what most 正在 spans are |
| 着 | zhe | 1 | 1,876 | the durative suffix on the verb |
| 正 | zhèng | 1 | 183 | 'just then', before a verb |

The candidates are chosen by hand; the counts are measured, and a candidate the corpus cannot illustrate with a real verse is left out. No claim is made that they are interchangeable.

## Questions

**How does the Bible say while something was happening?**

Usually with …的时候 — at the time when — wrapped around a plain verb, sometimes with 正 alone in front of it. The construction is a frame around the clause rather than a mark on the verb.

**How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?**

9 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 57 occurrences of the words that mark it.

**Which book of the Bible uses it most?**

Genesis, with 3 — followed by Acts (2), Luke (2), 2 Peter (1).

**How do you know the count is right?**

Every one of the 11 clauses the rule found was read: 9 are the construction and the rest are something else. This is a count, not an estimate.

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/grammar/zhengzai-progressive

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