[B-Greek] Force of KAI in 1 Cor 11:23?
Bryant J. Williams III
bjwvmw at com-pair.net
Thu Feb 17 10:18:56 EST 2011
Dear Stephen,
It seems that the hO KAI is referencing back to PARELABON. Thus, "For 'I' have
received from the Lord, which 'I' EVEN (KAI) handed over to YOU, that the Lord
Jesus, ..." The KAI then has the force of being almost a independent clause when
translated as "EVEN." This corresponds to the Greek quite well. The use of
"also" seems to be somewhat like an (parenthetical) statement like it is what
really new or important information.
It sounds that Paul is really controlling his emotions (compare Galatians 1).
The abuse of elements and handling of the Lord's Table by the Corinthians was
appalling. Paul is definitely reminding them of how they came about knowing
about the Lord's Table and how he performed it before them. There was no excuse
whatsoever for their behaviour and the subsequent consequences EVEN (KAI) to the
point death.
Bryant
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Carlson" <stemmatic at gmail.com>
To: "Biblical Greek Mailing List" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 5:57 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Force of KAI in 1 Cor 11:23?
> A famous passage in Paul, 1 Cor 11:23 reads:
>
> Ἐγὼ γὰρ παρέλαβον ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου, ὃ καὶ παρέδωκα ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ κύριος Ἰησοῦς ...
>
> EGO GAR PARELABON APO TOU KURIOU, hO KAI PAREDWKA hUMIN, hOTI hO
> KURIOS IHSOUS ...
>
> It is usually rendered as "For I received from the Lord, which I also
> handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus ..."
>
> Curious about the force of the καί KAI, I looked up the entry in BDAG
> p. 496, s.v. καί, 2f, and saw this explanation: "used w[ith] a
> relative, it oft[en] gives greater independence to the foll[owing]
> relative clause," citing 1 Cor 11:23 among other passages.
>
> What does BDAG mean by "greater independence"? Unfortunately BDAG does
> not cite any secondary literature on this point.
>
> For what it's worth, Denniston on Particles, pp.294-295, treats KAI
> with the relative pronoun as follows:
>
> "In general καί emphasize the fact that the relative clause contains
> an addition to the information contained in the main clause: whereas
> δή stresses the importance of the antecedent, and γε usually marks the
> relative clause as having a limiting force. . . . The emphasis which
> καί gives to a relative clause can often be best brought out in
> English by the insertion of a new (pronominal) antecedent."
>
> Applying Denniston's proposed translations of some Attic examples to 1
> Cor 11:23 may mean that the following translation gives the feel of
> the construction: "For I received from the Lord (and that is what I
> handed on to you) that the Lord Jesus ..."
>
> Turning back to BDAG's notion of "greater independence," would that
> mean that the relative clause with KAI almost becomes a parenthetical?
>
> Stephen Carlson
> --
> Stephen C. Carlson
> Graduate Program in Religion
> Duke University
> ---
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