[B-Greek] KAN in John 11:25b

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 10 17:26:59 EST 2005


At 10:45 PM +0100 3/10/05, Beata Urbanek wrote:
>Hello
>
>hO PISTEUWN EIS EME KAN APOQANH ZHSETAI
>
>Forgive me if it ist not exactly B-Greek question, but I really got stuck.
>I can't understand why Barret insists that KAN means 'even if' and not
>'though'. What's the diffrerence? Aren't they both concessive?
>BDF says that KAN can be purely conditional (and if) or concessive (if
>only, even if).
>What does it mean here?
>1. if he dies
>2. even if he dies
>3. even though he dies
>And does APOQANH refer to the future or present/general?

(1) KAN is a contraction for KAI EAN, and in the construction it really has
to mean "even if," in my opinion.
(2) This is clearly a future condition: the apodosis is in the future
indicative (ZHSETAI); the protasis is in the aorist subjective and refers
to the indefinite future: "Even if he/she ever should die, he/she will
live."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list