[B-Greek] hOUTWS KAI in 1 Cor 15.45

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Sun Sep 5 18:38:14 EDT 2004


Hi all:

hOUTWS KAI GEGRAPTAI: EGENETO hO PRWTOS ANQRWPOS ADAM EIS YUCHN ZWSAN, 
hO ESCATOS ADAM EIS PNEUMA ZWiOPOIOUN.

hOUTWS may refer to what precedes or what follows. It's usually not 
very difficult to decide one way or the other, and at first blush it 
would seem that in 1 Cor 15.45 it must refer to what follows, since it 
is used with GEGRAPTAI, which introduces a quote from the OT. BDAG 
notes that hOUTWS is used in connection with "spoken or written words: 
what is so introduced follows immediately after hOUTWS GEGRAPTAI" (BDAG 
2, s.v. hOUTWS).

But in 1.b, s.v. hOUTWS, it says that hOUTWS may refer to what 
precedes, "Pointing the moral after figures of speech, parables, and 
examples." Seeing as the preceding context uses the figure of sowing, 
it occurred to me that hOUTWS may refer to what precedes, with the 
quote from Gen 2.7 pointing the moral or offering the explanation of 
the figure. The idea would be, "All this is clarified/confirmed by the 
scripture, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul (YUCHN; cf. 
YUCIKON in v. 44),' the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (PNEUMA; 
cf. PNEUMATIKON in v. 44)." Adverbial KAI here would seem to lend some 
weight to this latter understanding ("also" pointing to and building on 
what precedes).

So, does hOUTWS here refer to what precedes or what follows?
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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