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Re: John 14:3



At 6:39 PM -0400 6/12/97, Jim Brooks wrote:
>The phrase in question is: KAI EAN POREUQW.
>
>One commentator said that EAN here presents expectancy and certainly.
>Meaning, perhaps, "since I go" or "I am certainly going." Another, along the
>same lines, said that EAN in this context should be interpreted as an adverb
>if time and, thus, "After I have gone."
>
>Can EAN take on this meaning?
>
>Thanks in advance for any insights.

Yes, it can, and I think this is a subject I've touched on in a post a week
or two back. Classical Attic made a sharper distinction between the
categories of temporal, relative, and causal types of what are
traditionally called "future less vivid" and "present general" conditions
taking AN + subjunctive in the protasis, but in many Koiné writers one
finds EAN used as an equivalent of hOTAN, EPEIDAN (or EPEIDH AN or EPAN),
and hOSTIS AN. In this instance in Jn 14:3 I'd definitely say that EAN is
the equivalent of hOTAN or EPEIDH AN, i.e., ".. and once I have gone and
prepared ..." or "... and because I have gone and prepared ..."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/