As a way to prepare for Easter, I invite you to join me on a 58 day journey through the 58 verses of 1 Corinthians 15 in Greek. Below is a link to the video. Click here for the previous video on 1 Cor 15:1 and click here for the next video on 1 Cor 15:3.

1 Corinthians 15:2 Video

Below is a link to a PDF version of the PowerPoint used in the above video.

1 Corinthians 15:2 (PDF)

1 Corinthians 15:2

2 δι᾽ οὗ καὶ σῴζεσθε, τίνι λόγῳ εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν εἰ κατέχετε, ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ εἰκῇ ἐπιστεύσατε.

2 through which you also you are being saved, if you hold fast to what word (which) I proclaimed to you, unless you believed haphazardly without due consideration.

δι᾽ οὗ – prep. phrase. Marks a fourth rel. clause within vv. 1-2.

καὶ – additive/adjunctive conj. [W671]

σῴζεσθε, – subj. and verb of fourth rel. clause [pres-pass-ind-2-p-σώζω]

τίνι λόγῳ – τίνι is an interrogative adj. modifying the noun λόγῳ. This adj.+noun combination together constitutes the dat. ind. obj. of the verb κατέχετε. Scholars agree that this part of the sentence is a bit awkward grammatically. Even so, while τίνι should literally be translated as “what,” in modern English vernacular, it probably sounds and feels more natural to our ears and tongues as the demonstrative “that.”

εὐηγγελισάμην – subj. and verb of an albeit elided fifth rel. clause within vv. 1-2 [aor-mid-ind-1-s-ευαγγελίζω] Paul used the rel. pronoun ὃ twice in v. 1 to mark explicitly a relative clause. Here in v. 2 he omits/elides the rel. pronoun, which would be probably be ὃν (masc., not neut.) with the antecedent being the masc. sg. λόγῳ. This is not uncommon, even in English, and Paul probably does this for stylistic variation.

ὑμῖν – dat. ind. obj.

εἰ – cond. conj. First class cond. (ει + indicative [any tense]; assumed true for argument’s sake).

κατέχετε, – subj. and main verb of cond. clause [pres-act-ind-2-p-κατέχω]

ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ – BDAG identifies this as an idiom for “unless, except.” It marks a sub. clause of exception.

εἰκῇ – adv. Usually gets translated as “in vain,” but BDAG gives a specific gloss for this: “pertaining to being without careful thought, without due consideration, in a haphazard manner” and “thoughtlessly…and in disorder.”

ἐπιστεύσατε. – subj. and verb of sub. clause [aor-act-ind-2-p-πιστεύω].