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#12.
The conjunction Kai, "And" (Eph. 1: 1).
p. 37
The addressees of this epistle are given a double title, "The saints which are at
Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus". This double title is joined together by the
conjunction "and" which is Greek is kai.
Conjunctions come under the heading of "Particles", a term that includes a number of
minor parts of speech, and, as their name implies, they are connectives. The most general
translation is "and", but there are occasions when the exact shade of meaning demands
some other English equivalent, "also" and "even". Kai unites things that are strictly
co-ordinate, things that can be "added", having something in common.
ALSO.--"Yea I beseech thee also" (Phil. 4: 3, R.V.).
In Matt. 5: 39 it would be almost impossible to translate kai other than "also", "turn
to him the other also", yet the original reads kai ten allen.
EVEN.--"Children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2: 3).
Occasionally the translation and also seems called for:
AND ALSO.--"And will also raise us up" (I Cor. 6: 14).
Other renderings found in the A.V. are:
MOREOVER.--"Moreover ye see and hear" (Acts 19: 26).
THOUGH.--"Though He bear long with them" (Luke 18: 7).
No good purpose would be served by occupying precious space with examples of such
renderings as "withal", "likewise", "both", "very", "the same", etc., etc.
We might take note of one or two peculiarities in the use of kai given by Winer.
Kai before interrogatives, as in Mark 10: 26. Kai dunatai sothenai, "Who then can be
saved?", which is better than the literal "And who can be saved?" Rom. 8: 24: Ti kai
elpizo, "Why doth he yet hope for?", which is better than the literal "What and hoping?"
Kai never occurs as strictly an adversative. Where two circumstances, one encouraging
and the other favourable, are stated as jointly detaining the Apostle in Ephesus
(I Cor. 16: 9), he uses kai as the simple copula. Kai is used epexegetically, that is, in
elucidation of something immediately preceding, by the addition of a word or words:
"Of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace' (John 1: 16). In the expression
Theos kai Pater, the meaning is simply and "God, Who is at the same time Father", not
"God, namely the Father".
As we meet this conjunction in our progress through "Ephesia" we shall become
acquainted with its usage and the shades of meaning that it conveys. In every usage,