| 29. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the clause ho de Petros ephe autō {ὁ δὲ Πέτρος ἔφη αὐτῷ | ho de Pé-tros é-phē au-tō̂} “but Peter said to Him,” where ho de functions as a contrastive discourse marker, signaling a shift of speaker and highlighting Peter’s response against the backdrop of the other disciples. The main verb ephe is a narrative reporting verb that introduces Peter’s direct speech. The conditional protasis Ei kai pantes skandalisthēsontai {Εἰ καὶ πάντες σκανδαλισθήσονται | Ei kaí pán-tes skan-da-lis-thé-son-tai}, literally “if even all will stumble,” employs Ei with a future indicative verb to present a real, future-oriented condition. The particle kai intensifies pantes, stressing the breadth of possible failure (“even if absolutely everyone”). The verb skandalisthēsontai is future passive, portraying the disciples as being caused to stumble rather than purely initiating the action, which supports the nuance of external pressure or temptation. The apodosis is reduced to the compact adversative clause all' ouk egō {ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐγώ | all' ouk e-gṓ} “but not I,” where the strong adversative all' heightens the contrast with “all,” and the end-position egō gives emphatic prominence to Peter’s self-assertion. In English, the conditional relationship is preserved with “Even if…,” the adversative is maintained with “But,” and the emphatic pronoun is reflected by the clear, resolute “I will not,” while word order is adjusted to natural subject–verb progression. |