[B-Greek] Luke 3:9 hHDE ** DE KAI ** hH AXINH PROS THN hRIZAN TWN DENDRWN KEITAI

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 8 15:51:52 EDT 2007


On Jun 8, 2007, at 5:19 AM, Jonathan Robie wrote:
Luke 3:9 hHDE **DE KAI**
hH AXINH PROS THN hRIZAN TWN DENDRWN KEITAI

Luke 3:9 ἤδη **δὲ καὶ**
ἡ ἀξίνη πρὸς τὴν ῥίζαν τῶν  
δένδρων κεῖται

Grosvenor tells me that DE KAI lends emphasis, and that this is typical
of Luke. Should I treat hHDE DE KAI as a unit, as shown in my indenting
above? In other words, does DE KAI simply lend emphasis, in an
untranslatable way, to "already", or what kind of emphasis does it give?

**  **  **

Two scholarly answers already. Here is an alternative reading.

DE KAI in is often used in Luke-Acts as a constituent in the  
narrative meta-structure. I would suggest exploring the possibility  
of reading hHDE as part of JohnBapt's speech act and DE KAI as a  
joiner of two distinctive speech acts, not a part of the speech act.

LUKE 5:35 ELEUSONTAI DE hHMERAI, KAI hOTAN APARQHi AP' AUTWN hO  
NUMFIOS, TOTE NHSTEUSOUSIN EN EKEINAIS TAIS hHMERAIS.  36 ELEGEN DE  
KAI PARABOLHN PROS AUTOUS hOTI OUDEIS EPIBLHMA APO hIMATIOU KAINOU  
SCISAS EPIBALLEI EPI hIMATION PALAION: EI DE MH GE, KAI TO KAINON  
SCISEI KAI TWi PALAIWi OU SUMFWNHSEI TO EPIBLHMA TO APO TOU KAINOU

Luke 5:35 ἐλεύσονται δὲ ἡμέραι, καὶ  
ὅταν ἀπαρθῇ ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ὁ νυμφίος,  
τότε νηστεύσουσιν ἐν ἐκείναις  
ταῖς ἡμέραις.  36 Ἔλεγεν δὲ καὶ  
παραβολὴν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὅτι οὐδεὶς  
ἐπίβλημα ἀπὸ ἱματίου καινοῦ  
σχίσας ἐπιβάλλει ἐπὶ ἱμάτιον  
παλαιόν· εἰ δὲ μή γε, καὶ τὸ καινὸν  
σχίσει καὶ τῷ παλαιῷ οὐ συμφωνήσει  
τὸ ἐπίβλημα τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ καινοῦ

In this example DE KAI links two speech acts. The second speech act  
is given an elaborate introduction  ELEGEN DE KAI PARABOLHN PROS  
AUTOUS hOTI which we do not see in Luke 5:9, see also Lk 6:38,39.

The following is an example where DE KAI appears to be a constituent  
within a speech act. The high level of semantic cohesion within this  
quotation seems to require us to read it as a continuous saying. This  
is not the case in Lk 3:9 where we have two independent sayings.

LUKE 11:17 AUTOS DE EIDWS AUTWN TA DIANOHMATA EIPEN AUTOIS: PASA  
BASILEIA EF' hEAUTHN DIAMERISQEISA ERHMOUTAI KAI OIKOS EPI OIKON  
PIPTEI.  18 EI DE KAI hO SATANAS EF' hEAUTON DIEMERISQH, PWS  
STAQHSETAI hH BASILEIA AUTOU; hOTI LEGETE EN BEELZEBOUL EKBALLEIN ME  
TA DAIMONIA.

Luke 11:17 αὐτὸς δὲ εἰδὼς αὐτῶν τὰ  
διανοήματα εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· πᾶσα  
βασιλεία ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτὴν  
διαμερισθεῖσα ἐρημοῦται καὶ οἶκος  
ἐπὶ οἶκον πίπτει.  18 εἰ δὲ καὶ ὁ  
σατανᾶς ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτὸν διεμερίσθη,  
πῶς σταθήσεται ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ;  
ὅτι λέγετε ἐν Βεελζεβοὺλ  
ἐκβάλλειν με τὰ δαιμόνια.

These examples could be multiplied.

The standard translations of Luke-Acts appear to favor viewing DE KAI  
as part of a continuous speech act unless there is an explicit  
quotation formula following DE KAI. I would suggest that the  
quotation formula is optional if the same person is speaking and  
there is no shift of genre (e.g.to a parable) or other compelling  
reason to restate the quotation formula. The criteria for determining  
if we have two speech acts   should be discourse cohesion between the  
two sayings. However, there is no question in my mind that the  
standard reading of DE KAI in Lk 3:9 can be defended from Luke-Acts.


Elizabeth Kline






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