When And Means AND, And When It Doesn’t
The conjunction “καί” is by far the most common particle in the Greek New Testament.
Its default use is as the simple connective or copulative conjunction “and”. It simply adds one idea to another in a series of paratactic i.e. side-by-side words, clauses, phrases or sentences.
One of the joys of Homeric poetry is the ease with which the poet strings together an elegant series of paratactic verses like pearls on a string to tell the story using simple connective and contrastive conjunctions like καί and ἀλλά.
There are however several other uses of καί in the New Testament that are not uncommon and the reader needs to be aware of them.
The first is really a subset of the above use but specifying an addition that is key and not necessarily coordinate. It is normally translated as also. e.g. καὶ Ιούδαν Ισκαριώθ, ὸς καὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτόν - and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him. Mark 3:19. Here the first καὶ is a simple connective while the second adds a key piece of information not coordinate with the simple list of disciples.
The second is as the ascensive conjunction even e.g. ότι καὶ οι άνεμοι καὶ η θάλασσα αὐτω υπακούσιν - that even the winds and the sea obey him. Mat 8:27. Here the first καὶ is ascensive and the second connective.
A third, more easily recognised, use is as a correlative conjunction. This involves the construction “καί…καί” and can be translated as “both…and” e.g. καὶ ἐν ὀλίγῶ καὶ ὲν μεγάλῶ - both in a little and in a lot. Acts 26:29.
A fourth use to be aware of is counterintuitive to all of the above. Καί can at times be used as an adversative or contrastive conjunction i.e. “and” can at times mean “but” e.g. καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐπέβαλεν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὴν χεῖρα - but no one laid a hand on him. John 7:30.
These are the four major uses of “καί” outside of the standard connective use. As the textbooks say, context determines meaning. A general rule of thumb when it comes to this little conjunction is: if the default meaning “and” does not make sense in the context, check out one of these alternative meanings to see if it fits.
Of course all languages are living, breathing things and, although nobody speaks first century Greek now, it was a living, breathing thing when Herod was hosting dance parties.
It should come as little surprise then that this little, commonplace word also had a few other quirky meanings at the time. Very occasionally you will stub your toe against “καί” in a place where you least expect it. These occurrences are so few and far between that recourse to a good translation or interlinear will suffice to provide the correct nuance of the word.
However, for the sake of completeness, the list of meanings of this truly portmanteau conjunction should also include these entries: “that”, “yet”, “for”, “when” and even “if”.
This little word does a lot of joinery work in the New Testament. It will repay you in the long run to be familiar with it.
