Adversative use of KAI in 1 John 2:1?

Bret A. Hicks bret at viafamily.com
Thu Jun 13 09:16:42 EDT 2002


I am studying 1 John, and am a little puzzled by John's statement in 1 John
2:1, especially his use of KAI:

TAUTA GRAFW HUMIN HINA MH HAMARTHTE KAI EAN TIS HAMARTHI

The use of KAI here seems to be adversative ("but") rather than conjunctive
("and") since John is clearly not writing to get them to sin.  In my reading
KAI usually seems to have the idea of "and", "even" or "namely," but I can't
remember seeing this nuance before.  I could not find a discussion of this
use in a grammar or commentary.  Isn't this unusual for KAI?  Are there
other places where KAI has this idea?  Is there a grammatical reason for
using KAI here rather than DE or ALLA?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!



Bret A. Hicks
Pastor
Bay Ridge Christian Church
Annapolis, Md




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