ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ πιστεύομεν σωθῆναι καθʼ ὃν τρόπον κἀκεῖνοι.
The sermon was on this last week, and I was a bit surprised by the translation of “καθʼ ὃν τρόπον κἀκεῖνοι.” I was surprised by the nominative at the end, and I took καθ’ distributively, “each according to his nature, even as they.” Needless to say, nobody seems to translate the verse that way, so I must be missing something obvious.
I interpret it simply, ‘— — in which manner also they [τοῦτ’ ἐστί· σωθήσονται].’ Nominative because it’s the subject of passival verb (which is understood).
We have in the LS dictionary (p. 1827a) κατὰ πάντα τρόπον “in every fashion”, κατ’ οὐδένα τρόπον “in no way”, κατὰ τὸν Ἑλληνικὸν τρόπον “in the Greek manner” κτλ.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. “Manner” or “fashion” or “way” is clearly the way to take τρόπον, and everything else fits in after that.
We believe we (were/will be) saved by grace, by which manner they also (were/will be) [saved].
I also realize what confused me. The guest pastor dwelt on the “just as they are” (from the NIV’s translation), and took it to mean “just the way they are” – ie., don’t impose your culture on them. Reading along in the Greek, I tried to fit this in mentally and confused myself.
Thank you Joel for posting this topic. This example encapsulates precisely the reason I committed myself to learn the Greek of the New Testament. To erase the ambiguity of translation and go right to the source to shed light on the meaning.
Yes, thanks for posting this! I myself am a little confused by the word κἀκεῖνοι, as I am not familiar with it, although I am familiar with ἐκεινοι. Are these two words synonymous, or is there a subtle distinction? Is κἀκεῖνοι more common in the Koine dialect than the Attic?
κἀκεῖνοι = καὶ ἐκεῖνοι
Oh, that makes sense! (And it’s also where we get the also). Thanks.
But as for the second question, do you find κἀκεῖνοι in Attic Greek as well?
Yes, it’s rather common. And so are other contractions of two words even more than in Scripture.