Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:2

ὧδε אABCDFG Vetus Lat. Vulg. Peshito. Rec. ὃ δέ with E.

2. ὧδε. According to Meyer, this being so, though Dean Alford would interpret it here on earth. R.V. translates here, moreover. Lachmann connects it with the last verse, and puts the period after it. But this yields a poor meaning, and makes a very unusual sentence. The rec. ὃ δὲ λοιπόν would mean simply moreover.

ἵνα. Great endeavours have been made by Classical purists to make ἵνα bear the telic sense here. Thus Meyer translates ‘it is sought’ (what is sought he does not say), ‘in order that a man be found faithful.’ But it is impossible, in the face of innumerable passages, to maintain this rendering. See Winer, Gr. Gram. Pt III. § 44.8, and Mark 6:25; Mark 9:30; John 4:34, &c. The fact is (see Prof. Jebb’s Appendix to Vincent and Dickson’s Modern Greek Grammar, p. 320), that colloquial Greek had undergone gradual changes, which had affected written Greek in the Apostles’ time. Cf. Dion. Halic. (25 B.C.) I. 215 δεήσασθαι ἔμελλον ἵνα�, I was going to ask her to bring me, where, as in many passages in the N. T., ἵνα is no more than the sign of the infinitive, like the modern Greek νά. See also next verse.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:2

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