ἄν

ἄν — án

ἄν (1), a particle indicating that something can or could occur on certain conditions, or by the combination of certain fortuitous causes. In Latin it has no equivalent; nor do the English haply, perchance, German wohl (wol),etwa, exactly and everywhere correspond to it. The use of this particle in the N. T., illustrated by copious examples from Greek writers, is shown by Winers Grammar, § 42; (cf. Buttmann, 216ff (186ff). Its use in classic Greek is fully exhibited (by Prof. Goodwin) in Liddell and Scott, under the word). It is joined:

I. in the apodoses of hypothetical sentences

1. with the imperfect, where the Latin uses the imperfect subjunctive, e. g. Luk 7:39 (ἐγίνωσκεν ἄν, sciret, he would know); Luk 17:6 (ἐλέγετε ἄν ye would say); Mat 23:30 (non essemus, we should not have been); Joh 5:46; Joh 8:42; Joh 9:41; Joh 15:19; Joh 18:36; 1Co 11:31; Gal 1:10; Gal 3:21 (but WH marginal reading brackets); Heb 4:8; Heb 8:4; Heb 8:7.

2. with the indicative aorist (where the Latin uses the pluperfect subjunctive like the future perfect subjunctive, I would have done it), to express what would have been, if this or that either were (εἰ with the imperfect in the protasis preceding), or had been (εἰ with the aorist or pluperfect preceding): Mat 11:21 and Luk 10:13 (ἄν μετενόησαν they would have repented; Mat 11:23; Mat 12:7 (ye would not have condemned); Mat 24:43 (he would have watched), 22 and Mar 13:20 (no one would have been saved, i. e. all even now would have to be regarded as those who had perished; cf. Winer's Grammar, 304 (286)); Joh 4:10 (thou wouldst have asked); Joh 14:2 (εἶπον ἄν I would have said so); Joh 14:28 (ye would have rejoiced); Rom 9:29 (we should have become); 1Co 2:8; Gal 4:15 (R G); Act 18:14. Sometimes the condition is not expressly stated, but is easily gathered from what is said: Luk 19:23 and Mat 25:27 (I should have received it back with interest, namely, if thou hadst given it to the bankers).

3. with the pluperfect: Joh 11:21 (R Tr marginal reading) (οὐκ ἄν ἐτεθνήκει (L T Tr text WH ἀπέθανεν) would not have died, for which, in Joh 11:32, the aorist οὐκ ἄν ἀπέθανε); Joh 14:7 (not Tdf.) (εἰ with the pluperfect preceding); 1Jn 2:19 (they would have remained with us). Sometimes (as in Greek writings, especially the later) ἄν is omitted, in order to intimate that the thing wanted but little (imperfect) or had wanted but little (pluperfect or aorist) of being done, which yet was not done because the condition was not fulfilled (cf. Alex. Alexander Buttmann (1873) in the Studien und Kritiken for 1858, p. 489ff; (N. T. Gram., p. 225 (194)); Fritzsche on Romans, vol. ii., 33; Winer's Grammar, § 42, 2, p. 305 (286)), e. g. Joh 8:39 (where the ἄν is spurious); Joh 15:22; Joh 15:24; Joh 19:11; Act 26:32; Rom 7:7; Gal 4:15 (ἄν before ἐδώκατέ has been correctly expunged by L T Tr WH).

II. Joined to relative pronouns, relative adverbs, and adverbs of time and quality, it has the same force as the Latincumque orcunque, -ever, -soever (German irgend,etwa).

1. followed by a past tense of the indicative, when some matter of fact, something certain, is spoken of; where, "when the thing itself which is said to have been done is certain, the notion of uncertainty involved in ἄν belongs rather to the relative, whether pronoun or particle" (Klotz ad Der., p. 145) (cf. Winer's Grammar, § 42, 3 a.); ὅσοι ἄν as many as: Mar 6:56 (ὅσοι ἄν ἥπτοντο (ἥψαντο L text T Tr text WH) αὐτοῦ as many as touched him (cf. Buttmann, 216 (187))); Mar 11:24 (ὅσα ἄν προσευχόμενοι αἰτεῖσθε (Griesbach omits ἄν), but L text T Tr WH have rightly restored ὅσα προσεύχεσθε καί αἰτεῖσθε). καθότι ἄν in so far or so often as, according as (German jenachdemgerade): Act 2:45; Act 4:35. ὡς ἄν: 1Co 12:2 (in whatever manner ye were led (cf. Buttmann, § 139, 13; 383 (329f))).

2. followed by a subjunctive,

a. the present, concerning that which may have been done, or is usually or constantly done (where the German usesmögen); ἡνίκα ἄν whensoever, as often as": 2Co 3:15 L T Tr WH; ὅς ἄν whoever, be he who he may: Mat 16:25 (L T Tr WH ἐάν); (Mar 8:35 (where T Tr WH future indicative; see WH's Appendix, p. 172)); Luk 10:5 (L T Tr WH aorist); Luk 10:8; Gal 5:17 (T Tr WH ἐάν, L brackets ἐάν); 1Jn 2:5; 1Jn 3:17; Rom 9:15 (Exo 33:19); Rom 16:2; 1Co 11:27 etc. ὅστις ἄν: 1Co 16:2 (Tr WH ἐάν; WH marginal reading aorist); Col 3:17 (L text Tr WH ἐάν). ὅσοι ἄν: Mat 7:12 (T WH ἐάν); (L T Tr WH ἐάν). ὅπου ἄν whithersoever: Luk 9:57 (L Tr ἐάν); Rev 14:4 (L Tr (T edition 7 not 8, WH) have adopted ὑπάγει, defended also by Buttmann, 228 (196)); Jas 3:4 (R G L Tr marginal reading in brackets). ὁσάκις ἄν how often soever: 1Co 11:25 f (where L T Tr WH ἐάν). ὡς ἄν in what way soever: 1Th 2:7 ((cf. Ellicott at the passage; Buttmann, 232 (201))), L T Tr WH ἐάν).

b. the aorist, where the Latin uses the future perfect; ὅς ἄν: Mat 5:21-22 (εἴπῃ whoever, if ever anyone shall have said); Mat 5:31 f (in Mat 5:32 L T Tr WH read πᾶς ὁ ἀπολύων); Mat 10:11; Mat 26:48 (Tdf. ἐάν); Mar 3:29; Mar 3:35; Mar 9:41, etc. ὅστις ἄν: Mat 10:33 (L Tr WH text omit ἄν);; Joh 14:13 (Tr marginal reading WH present); Act 3:23 (Tdf. ἐάν), etc. ὅσοι ἄν: Mat 21:22 (Treg. ἐάν); Mat 23:3 (T WH ἐάν); Mar 3:28 (Tr WH ἐάν); Luk 9:5 (L T Tr WH present); Joh 11:22; Act 2:39 (Lachmann οὕς);. ὅπου ἄν: Mar 14:9 (T WH ἐάν); (L T Tr WH ἐάν). ἄχρις οὗ ἄν until (donec): 1Co 15:25 Rec.; Rev 2:25. ἕως ἄν until (usquedum): Mat 2:13; Mat 10:11; Mat 22:44; Mar 6:10; Luk 21:32; 1Co 4:5, etc. ἡνίκα ἄν, of future time, not until then, when... or then at length, when...: 2Co 3:16 (T WH text ἐάν) (cf. Kühner, 2:951; Jelf, 2:565). ὡς ἄν as soon as (Buttmann, 232 (200)): 1Co 11:34; Php 2:23. ἀφ' οὗ ἄν ἐγερθῇ, Luk 13:25 (from the time, whatever the time is, when he shall have risen up). But ἐάν (which see) is also joined to the pronouns and adverbs mentioned, instead of ἄν; and in many places the manuscripts and editions fluctuate between ἄν and ἐάν (examples of which have already been adduced); (cf. Tdf. Proleg., p. 96; WH's Appendix, p. 173 "predominantly ἄν is found after consonants, and ἐάν after vowels"). Finally, to this head must be referred ὅταν (equivalent to ὅτε ἄν) with the indicative and much more often with the subjunctive (see ὅταν), and ὅπως ἄν, although this last came to be used as a final conjunction in the sense, that, if it be possible: Luk 2:35); Act 3:20;; Rom 3:4; see ὅπως, IL 1 b. (Cf. Winers Grammar, 309 (290f); Buttmann, 234 (201).)

III. ἄν is joined to the optative (Winers Grammar, 303 (284); Buttmann, 217 (188)); when a certain condition is laid down, as in wishes, I would that etc.: Act 26:29 (εὐξαίμην (Tdf. εὐξάμην) ἄν, I could pray, namely, did it depend on me); in direct questions (Winers Grammar, the passage cited; Buttmann, 254 (219)): Act 8:31 (πῶς ἄν δυναίμην; i. e. on what condition, by what possibility, could I? cf. Xenophon, oec. 11, 5); Act 17:18 (τί ἄν θέλοι... λέγειν what would he say? it being assumed that he wishes to utter some definite notion or other); Act 2:12 R G; independent sentences and indirect questions in which the narrator introduces another's thought (Winers Grammar, § 42, 4; Buttmann, the passage cited]: Luk 1:62; Luk 6:11; Luk 9:46; (Luk 15:26 L brackets Tr WH; cf. Luk 18:36 Lbr. Trbr. WH marginal reading); Act 5:24; Act 10:17; Act 17:20 R G.

IV. ἄν is found without a mood in 1Co 7:5 (εἰ μή τί ἄν (WH brackets ἄν), except perhaps, namely, γένοιτο (but cf. Alexander Buttmann (1873) as below)). ὡς ἄν, adverbially,tanquam (so already the Vulg.), as if: 2Co 10:9 (like ὥσπερ ἄν in Greek writings; cf. Kühner, 2:210 (sec. 398 Anm. 4; Jelf, § 430); Buttmann, 219 (189); (Liddell and Scott, under the word, D. III.)).

STRONGS NT 302: ἄν (2)ἄν (2), contracted from ἐάν, if; followed by the subjunctive: Joh 20:23 (Lachmann ἐάν. Also by the (present) indicative in 1Jn 5:15 Lachmann; see Buttmann, 223 (192); Winers Grammar, 295 (277)). Further, L T Tr WH have received ἄν in Joh 13:20; Joh 16:23; (so WH Joh 12:32; cf. Winers Grammar, 291 (274); Buttmann, 72 (63)).