Any standard Koine grammar will have at least a brief section on our Koine word kai. Here we will examine what various such grammars, from the simplest to the classic expanses ones. can teach us.
A Simple Grammar: Biblical Greek Made Simple by H.D. Zacharias
Below is the entirety of a grammar that covers “all the basics in one semester” according to its tag line below its title:
3. CONNECT INDEPENDENT CLAUSES TOGETHER: Several high frequency conjunctions can at times connect two independent clauses (which you will learn about in §7.4.2.1). Καί, δέ, and ἀλλά are the ones that can function this way.
4. CONNECT EQUALS: Καί is one of the most frequent words in Greek and can do several things. Καί is often a “teeter-totter” conjunction, in that it will immediately connect things of equal grammatical weight. It may connect verbs together, nouns together, or clauses together. If you recall from when you first learned καί as vocabulary, it can mean “also” as well. When translated as “also,” καί is an adverb, not a conjunction.
Zacharias, H. D. (2018). Biblical Greek Made Simple: All the Basics in One Semester (p. 158). Lexham Press. [δέ and ἀλλά, de and alla, are other connectives usually translated by the word “but” and related words such as “however.”]
The above two brief paragraphs are in chapter 7, “Adverbs, Prepositions, Phrases and Clauses Made Simple.” More specifically. they are in a subsection, 7.3, headed by “More Little Words.” The reason for brevity is, I think, two fold. First, the ‘meat’ of Koine is always considered to be, as with most languages, the nouns and verbs. This is particularly the case with Koine because of the multiple “cases” for nouns and verb forms, both heavily inflected. Even the comparatively simple definite article (parallel to the English word “the”) has 24 different forms, all of which must be memorized by a student. Then there are adjectives, adverbs, participles, and so forth, again all are inflected in multiple forms, each of which must be memorized. And of course there is the Koine vocabulary of the NT, ca. 5400 words. In comparison the category generally known as “conjunctions,” to which our kai belongs, is extremely simple in its form: “These little words are simple in that they are not inflected, and they do not pair themselves with other words as do adjectives or prepositions.” ibid., Sec. 7.3 “More Little Words.”
A second reason, which is more my perspective on the matter, is that conjunctions are widely believed to be not very important and their translation is in any case simple. In the first chapter of Zacharias’s book, included in his initial section on vocabulary needed to be memorized includes “kai” gives it the possible meanings as: “and,” “even,” or “also.” Some other grammars would add a fourth possibility: “yet.” As we will see using the ESV as our reference text, it translates kai by using additional English words than the above four as well as not infrequently ignoring the mss kai entirely.
Other, More-Comprehensive Grammars
More rigorous and comprehensive Koine grammars relating to kai as a connective are linked to other pages on this site by below headings.
AT Robertson
Dan Wallace
Moulton
Winer
Example Uses of kai in the NT
Here we will make an introductory look at certain simple but important NT uses of kai.
Be Fruitful and Multiply, and Then The Fall
Gen 1:22 kai And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful kai and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, kai and let birds multiply on the earth.” (ESV) [Highlights mine]
Gen 1:28 kai And God blessed them. xAnd God said to them, “Be fruitful kai and multiply kai and fill the earth kai and subdue it, kai and have dominion over the fish of the sea kai and over the birds of the heavens kai and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (ESV) [Highlights mine]
Gen 3 23 kai therefore the LordGod sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 kai He drove out the man, kai and at the east of the garden of Eden kai he placed the cherubim kai and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (ESV) [Highlights mine]
God and Father
God and Jesus Christ
John 1
Isaiah 5:20