John 20:8 — ExegesisTAB

The verse opens with the adverb tote {τότε | tó-te} ‘then’ followed immediately by the inferential conjunction oun {οὖν | oûn} ‘therefore’, forming a tight temporal and logical link to the preceding narrative. The main finite verb of the initial clause is eiselthen {εἰσῆλθεν | ei-sêl-then} ‘he entered’, whose subject is the noun phrase ho allos mathetes {ὁ ἄλλος μαθητὴς | ho ál-los ma-thē-tês} ‘the other disciple’. This noun phrase is further specified by the attributive participial phrase ho elthon protos {ὁ ἐλθὼν πρῶτος | ho el-thôn prô-tos} ‘the one who had come first’, where the article ho binds the participle elthon to the noun as a defining relative-like modifier, and protos adds the nuance of prior arrival. The prepositional phrase eis to mnemeion {εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον | eis to mnē-meî-on} ‘into the tomb’ expresses the goal of the motion verb eiselthen. A sequence of coordinated aorist indicatives follows: eiselthen … kai eiden kai episteusen {εἰσῆλθεν … καὶ εἶδεν καὶ ἐπίστευσεν | ei-sêl-then … kaí eî-den kaí e-pís-teu-sen}, presenting entry, seeing, and believing as distinct, completed narrative steps. The repeated kai {καὶ | kaí} ‘and’ creates a stepwise progression that climaxes in episteusen ‘he believed’, indicating that the act of seeing the state of the tomb led to an act of faith. In translation, the participial construction ho elthon protos is rendered as a relative clause (“who had come first”) to preserve its defining force while keeping English syntax smooth, and each kai is retained to mirror the deliberate narrative pacing.