[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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