But I say to you…

I’m doing it. I’m reading the Greek New Testament. It is slow going but I’m working on it. Every day I spend about half an hour on the train reading.What I’ve been doing is reading the verse until I get it. That may be once through (rarely) or it may take three or four times to get through. After I feel like I have it, I check it in my NASB on my Treo  650. I also have GRAMCORD with the UBS dictionary so I can double check my parsing and get a little discussion on some of the words.  That means I typically get through about 5 or 6 verses in my half an hour on the train. I also make notes of interesting things I see in the text and any words or constructions I need to review or dig into.

This week, in Matthew 5:22, I read:

πας ο οργιζομενος τω αδελφω αυτου ενοχος εσται τη κρισει
ος δ’ αν ειπη τω αδελφω αυτου ρακα ενοχος εσται τω συνεδριω
ος δ’ αν ειπη μωρε ενοχος εσται εις την γεενναν του πυρος

So it starts out that all who are angry are a liable to the judgement, just like it was said about murder. The other two phrases begin with "ος δ’ αν" which the NASB translate as simply "and" but it seems that there is more than just "and" in that phrase. BDAG says that αν is "a particle…denoting [an] aspect of contingency".

So it seems that Jesus is not saying here that he is replacing the Mosaic Law, he is simply telling the Pharisees that it is much worse than they thought. You haven’t murdered? Great. Have you been angry? Oh, then you’re guilty of murder. But even more than that, if you call your brother a fool, then you’re not just liable to the judgement, you’re liable to the council. And you have called him a moron? Oh my, you’re subject to the fires of hell!

In other words, it feels like there is a progression. I was expecting και not "δ’ αν".

Am I reading too much into this? Is δ’ αν just a literary device that Jesus used or does it have some significance?

Update:

Yes, I am reading too much into it. :) For one thing, I totally overlooked the fact that δε ("δ’" above) is postpositive. That is, it is not in the first position in the sentance, it alsways slides one word back. So the phrase I’m looking at is not "δ’ αν" but  "ος αν". As Lee Irons pointed out to me that phrase just means "whoever." This is why beginning Greek students can be so dangerous! :)

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