[B-Greek] The two hOTAN clauses in 1 Cor 15.24

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Oct 21 07:43:07 EDT 2006


On Oct 21, 2006, at 7:24 AM, moon at sogang.ac.kr wrote:

> Let me ask a question about the relationsip betwee the two hOTAN  
> clauses in
> 1 Cor 15:24:
>
> (1) EITA TO TELOS,
> (2) hOTAN PARADIDWi THN BASILEIAN TWi QEWi KAI PATRI,
> (3) hOTAN KATARGHSHi PASAN ARCHN KAI PASAN EXOUSIAN KAI DUNAMIN.
>
> The question is:
>
>   (a) are the two hOTAN clauses parallel, both connected directly  
> to TO TELOS?
>    (b) or, is the second hOTAN clause (3) connected to the clause  
> of the first
>         hOTAN clause (2)?
>
>  If (a) is right, we may translate the verse as:
>
>    Then the end (will come), when he delivers the kingdom to the  
> God and Father,
>    that is, when he has nullified all dominion, all authority and  
> power.
>
>  If (b) is right, we have the following structure:
>
>  (1) EITA [ TO TELOS,
>          (2) hOTAN [ PARADIDWi THN BASILEIAN TWi QEWi KAI PATRI,
>                 (3)  hOTAN KATARGHSHi PASAN ARCHN KAI PASAN  
> EXOUSIAN KAI DUNAMIN ] ]
>
> This option is taken by NIV, and its translation is as follows:
>
>   Then the end will come,
>    when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father
>            after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
>
> The problem with the decision of NIV is that this reading is  
> somewhat awkward.
> If Paul had intended this reading, wouldn't he have written:
>
>
>    EITA TO TELOS,
>       hOTAN PARADIDWi THN BASILEIAN TWi QEWi KAI PATRI,
>              KATARGHSAS PASAN ARCHN KAI PASAN EXOUSIAN KAI DUNAMIN
>
> The participle clause  KATARGHSAS carries less weight than does the  
> full-blown hOTAN clause,
> and thus can be subordinated to the hOTAN clause.  But in the  
> present case, the two
> hOTAN clauses look quite parallel, so it tends to prevent the  
> reader from regarding the second hOTAN
> clause to be subordinate to the first hOTAN clause. (By the way, I  
> failed to find similar examples
> in the NT and the LXX.)

Moon, I think you are asking more questions about this passage than  
the Greek text can answer. I DON'T think that you can succeed at an  
effort to subordinate the notions in the two hOTAN
clauses one to another -- BOTH would appear to be relative adverbial  
clauses with TO TELOS as antecedent; I can see why some might suppose  
that (3) in your structural outline really needs to occur logically  
and chronologically before (2), I think it is pretty difficult here  
to force a syntactical relationship between (2) and (3). I think  
those two hOTAN clauses are parallel and that they relate temporally  
to TO TELOS rather than one of them temporally to the other of them.

And although in the past I have myself attempted to rephrase what  
Paul "would have written if ... " in experimental Koine Greek, I  
don't think I'd recommend attempting it -- it diverts one's attention  
from what IS written to what one thinks OUGHT to have been written.

While some may want to read 1 Cor 15:20-28 as a timetable with the  
sequence of events spelled out precisely, others may be more inclined  
to see this as a sketch of events that should be expected at some  
point in the end-time. But B-Greek is not a forum for hermeneutics,  
and differences of perspective such as that regarding this textual  
sequence are not to be resolved in this forum.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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