Re: Matt 27:53 ".. they went into the holy city"

Clayton Bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 16 Jul 1997 23:25:03 +0000

Pondering this passage and its immediate context raised a question in my
mind about temporal sequence and the use of KAI. When a NT author is
describing an event that transpired over several days and the description
takes the form of a long string of clauses connected with KAI (only KAI), is it
safe to assume that the author intended the sequence of clauses to be
understood as a strict chronological sequence?

There are more explicit ways of indicating chronological order than the use
of KAI by itself (e.g. particles and adverbs). When these more explicit means
of marking chronology are absent, what can we assume about the order in
which things took place?

Clay Bartholomew
Three Tree Point