Page 1 of 1

καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα and μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα in narrative

Posted: October 1st, 2014, 5:47 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
I have been for two days thinking once again about the use of καὶ vs δὲ to connect narrative segments. I have read Levionsohn:2000 until I am blind. So it doesn't help to refer me to that framework. To clear my mind of the fog from looking at the Gospels and Acts I have been looking at Thucydides but will not repeat that since you can see it here

http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-foru ... 33#p167417
and here
http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-foru ... 33#p167439

It seems that there is a difference between the contexts in which we find μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα compared to καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα but I am having a hard time getting a handle on it.

Re: καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα and μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα in narrative

Posted: October 1st, 2014, 8:06 pm
by Stephen Carlson
I have found this helpful:
  • Black, Stephanie L. Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew: καί, δέ, τότε, γάρ, οὖν and Asyndeton in Narrative Discourse. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 216. Studies in New Testament Greek 9. London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

Re: καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα and μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα in narrative

Posted: October 2nd, 2014, 2:09 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Thank you Stephen.

I have captured three paragraphs from Iver Larsen's recent article for the book in honor of Stephen Levinsohn.
Levinsohn (2000) then proposes that for δὲ to be used a new step or development in the author’s
story or argument needs to be present. I find it simpler to say that δὲ can indicate a change from
one theme (or paragraph) to another. Levinsohn (2000) also talks about an “event cluster” where individual
events within the cluster are normally linked by καὶ whereas different clusters are
separated by δὲ.5

I think it is safe to say that δέ is an adversative particle. It signals change (Buth 1981a:17). Its
various functions should correlate with this basic idea. Therefore a change of participants is
acceptable, but introduction of participants is not. (Of course, if δέ is used to change scenes, then
new participants will often come along.) A change from event-line to background or from
background to event-line is also acceptable. That it may introduce a response as suggested by
Levinsohn (1977:3) is questionable, but it may well introduce an adversative, uncooperative, or
hostile response. A co-operative, expected response would be introduced by καί or asyndeton.


Levinsohn (1981a,b, 2000) has shown that in Luke and Acts καί often works in harmony with δέ.
The δέ particle often separates or starts off what he calls “development units,” while καί binds
together the sentences within such a unit.
The problem I ran into looking at Thucydides καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο/ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα seemed to fit one or more of the criteria described above. I will try to pull out a few good examples. Levinsohn 2000:72 admits this happens "at least a 100 times" in Acts.

Re: καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα and μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα in narrative

Posted: October 2nd, 2014, 6:05 pm
by Stephen Carlson
At a recent SBL (2012?), Levinsohn backed off the "development" marker understanding of δέ and now favors something like that it marks a "distinct point."

Re: καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα and μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα in narrative

Posted: October 3rd, 2014, 1:29 am
by RandallButh
Stephen Carlson wrote:At a recent SBL (2012?), Levinsohn backed off the "development" marker understanding of δέ and now favors something like that it marks a "distinct point."
Sounds like coming full circle to Buth1981 "+change". A long conversation.
Perhaps it should be fleshed out to say that "change" means "significant/emic change", lotsof things can change but this is relative in a system where one has a simple switch to mark (δε) "+change, +connection" and another (και) that just marks "+connection"..