[B-Greek] EI and EAN Jn 3:12

Oun Kwon kwonbbl at gmail.com
Sun Mar 5 04:08:56 EST 2006


In Jn 3:12
EI TA EPIGEIA EIPON hUMIN KAI OU PISTEUETE PWS
EAN EIPW hUMIN TA EPOURANIA PISTEUSETE

Can I take EI as 'when' in contrast to EAN?

In the context, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus told him, earthly
things.  Jesus wants to say further the heavenly things  would not be
understood if Jesus tells him. (The heavenly things had not been told yet;
what these would be is a different issue I have to solve.)    The text is
saying:

when I told you earthly things, you did not understand. Then,
if I tell you heavenly things, how is possible for you to understand.

What would be different meaning/usage of EI and EAN?

Most of time EI corresponds to and rendered as 'if'.  I was not sure of my
idea of taking it as 'when' in this verse, but it seems fit the context as I
understand.

For example, in 1Jn 4:11

EI OUTWS hO QEOS HGAPHSEN hHMAS
KAI hHMEIS OFEILOMEN ALLHLOUS AGAPAN

here I don't think this EI is something like 'if'.  If God loves? Well, God
loves!  The author was not questioning this, was he? Simply rendering as 'if
God loves' is somewhat jarring.

I hope I expressed my question clear enough to be understood and hope this
does not belong to translation issue.

Thanks for your help.

Oun Kwon.



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