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The participle, like any other adjective, can stand in the attributive position.
Examples:
(1) It will be remembered (see §70) that ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἀπόστολος means the good apostle. In exactly the same way ὁ λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἀπόστολος means the saying-these-things-in-the-temple apostle. The participle (with its modifiers) is here an adjective in the attributive position; it takes the exact place of the attributive adjective ἀγαθός in the phrase ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἀπόστολος. It is more usual, however, to place the attributive participle (with its modifiers) in the second of the two alternative positions in which the attributive adjective can stand. Thus the usual order would be ὁ ἀπόστολος ὁ λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ. Here the λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ takes the exact place of ἀγαθός in the phrase ὁ ἀπόστολος ὁ ἀγαθὸς, which is one of the two ways in which the good apostle can be expressed.
Of course the "literal" translation, the saying-these-things-in-the-temple apostle, is not good English. The idiomatic English way of expressing the same idea is the apostle who is saying these things in the temple.
The difference between this attributive use of the participle and the use which appears in Example (1) in §232 should be noticed very carefully. In the sentence ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ βλέπει τὸν κύριον, the participle λέγων, being in the predicate, not in the attributive, position, goes only somewhat loosely with ὁ ἀπόστολος (though it agrees with it), and really modifies also the verb βλέπει - that is, it tells when the action denoted by βλέπει took place. But the addition of the one little word ὁ before λέγων makes an enormous difference in the meaning. When that word is added we have the sentence ὁ ἀπόστολος ὁ λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ βλέπει τὸν κύριον, the apostle who says these things in the temple sees the Lord. Here λέγων stands in the attributive position, and does not in any way modify the verb βλέπει; but it tells what apostle is being spoken of. Suppose some one asks us what apostle we are talking about. We could reply, "Not the good apostle or the bad apostle, or the great apostle or the small apostle, but the saying-these-things-in-the-temple apostle". It will be seen that the attributive participle identifies the particular apostle that we are talking about.
(2) Compare εἶδον τοὺς ἀποστόλους λέγοντας ταῦτα, I saw the apostles while they were saying these things or I saw the apostles saying these things, with εἶδον τοὺς ἀποστόλους τοὺς λέγοντας ταῦτα, I saw the apostles that/who were saying these things. In the latter case the (attributive) participle tells what apostles we are talking about.
The participle, like any other adjective, can be used substantively with the article.
It will be remembered that ὁ ἀγαθός means the good man; ἡ ἀγαθή, the good women; τὸ ἀγαθόν, the good thing; οἱ ἀγαθοί, the good men, etc. In exactly the same way ὁ λέγων ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ means the saying-these-things-in-the-temple man. The participle (with its modifiers), just like the adjective, tells what man we are talking about. But how shall the same idea be expressed in idiomatic English? There are various closely related ways - for example, the man who says/is saying these things in the temple, or the one who says/is saying these things in the temple, or he who says/is saying these things in the temple. It should be observed, however, that none of these English phrases is a literal translation of the Greek. The Greek ὁ does not mean the man or the one or he. It means the, and it is just as simple an article as the article in the phrase the cat or the dog or the house. But in English we do not use the article with the substantive participle. Therefore we have to reproduce the idea of the Greek ὁ λέγων by a phrase of which the individual parts have absolutely nothing to do with the individual parts of the Greek phrase. It is only the total meaning of the English phrase which is the same as the total meaning of the Greek phrase.
The following examples should also be examined:
(1) εἶδον τὸν λέγοντα ταῦτα ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, I saw the one who was saying these things in the temple. Here the Greek uses the present participle because the time of the action denoted by the participle is the same as that of the action denoted by the leading verb, even though the action denoted by the leading verb here happens to be in past time.
(2) εἶδον τοὺς λέγοντας ταῦτα, I saw those who were saying these things
(3) ὁ ἀδελφὸς τῆς λεγούσης ταῦτα δοῦλός ἐστιν, the brother of the woman who is saying these things is a servant
(4) ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν ἐγείροντα τοὺς νεκροὺς σώζεται, he who believes on the One who raises the dead is being saved
(5) τὸ σώζον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν, the thing that saves (or that which saves) men is the will of God
(6) τὰ βλεπόμενα οὐ μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, the things that are seen do not remain for ever