Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 03:8 (Apr 1999)
Article: Connectors in Koine Greek: The Gospel Of John
Author: Ervin Starwalt

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CTJ 3:8 (April 1999) p. 134

Connectors in Koine Greek:
The Gospel Of John

Ervin Starwalt

Professor of English
University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX

The following article may seem “heavy” to many of our readers, especially those who do not have a working understanding of the Greek language. The article attempts to show how discourse analysis may be of help in our interpretation of the scriptures. The article is presented to expose our readership to this fairly new approach to analyzing the original text. In the future, it may benefit us greatly in the hermeneutical process.

Introduction

A prominent feature in John’s Gospel is the introduction of clauses either by oun, de, kai, or asyndeton. A survey of the grammars on the use of these narrative connectors can be confusing.1 For example, often in beginning Greek courses, de and kai are presented as generally synonymous terms with de having more of the adversative force of

but

, yet not always, and kai meaning something like

and

, yet again not always. More advanced discussions seldom go beyond a listing of possible glosses with some examples categorized according to syntactical functions: copulative, disjunctive, adversative, inferential, and so forth.2 Such lists are helpful for determining the scope of possible meanings for a connecting particle; however, the lists still often do not provide a clear explanation for how these connectors work, resulting in some confusion at times as to how they work.

Overview of Recent Research

The confusion is, at least in part, due to trying to develop a syntax of these connectors only at the sentence level. They can be classified as what

CTJ 3:8 (April 1999) p. 135

Robert Longacre calls mystery particles: sequential particles whose function relate to some unit larger than the sentence—the paragraph or discourse.3 Several questions may be asked. How do these connectors function in discourse? What might the choice of one versus another imply? In what ways are they similar and dissimilar?

Stephen Levinsohn4 has developed a scheme to explain the use of these connectors in Acts and the Gospels. He sees the key feature for explaining how the connectors work to be that of development: does the author see what follows as a development in the story? Some information such as background material does not move the story forward, and thus from the author’s point of view, it does not develop ...

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