[B-Greek] KAN in John 11:25b
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 10 17:51:52 EST 2005
At 11:45 PM +0100 3/10/05, Beata Urbanek wrote:
>> 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/
>> ---
>> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
>> B-Greek mailing list
>> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
>Thanks a lot, Dr Conrad. Would you (or somebody else from the list) be so
>kind and explain to me the difference between 'even if' and 'even though'?
>Is the first one 'more conditional' and the seconr 'more concessive'? If we
>translate 'even if' does that mean that not everyone has to die and when we
>say 'though' it is taken for granted that everyone dies?
>[I did check my understanding of the English words].
There's not really any great difference at all in Hellenistic usage,
although I think earlier Greek would have used K'AN more strictly in a
conditional sense; I think that any preference for using "even though" and
seeing it as concessive derives from interpreting the ZHSETAI as
adversitive: "even so--yet--will he/she live." The possibility that the
believer will die is considered as remote but not as affecting the
certainty of ZHSETAI. Some of this may have to do with the special
characteristics of Johannine "realized" eschatology, but this is NOT the
forum for any discussion of that.
--
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