epeita

BDAG divides ἔπειτα into temporal succession ("thereupon, then") and succession in an enumeration ("then, next, in the next place"), assigning Lk 16:7; Jn 11:7; 1 Cor 15:6, 7, 23, 46; Gal 1:18, 21; 2:1; 1 Th 4:17; Heb 7:27 and Jas 4:14 to the first, and 1 Cor 12:28 (twice), Heb 7:2 and Jas 3:17 to the second. LSJ documents the same range in classical prose, together with the correlation πρῶτον μέν ... ἔπειτα δέ that Heb 7:2 and Jas 3:17 reproduce, and Moulton and Milligan attest the word as an ordinary sequencing particle in the papyri. Two clusters of exegetical discussion attach to it. On 1 Cor 15:23-24 Fee and Thiselton read the alternation of ἔπειτα and εἶτα in the resurrection catalogue as stylistic variation marking order alone, so that the question of an interval between the raising of Christ's people and the end is decided by the argument of vv. 20-28 rather than lexically. On Gal 1:18-2:1 the three ἔπειτα clauses form the backbone of Pauline chronology: Betz and Martyn take the series, reinforced by the oath of 1:20, as a complete and sequential account of Paul's contacts with Jerusalem and identify 2:1-10 with the conference of Acts 15, whereas Bruce and Longenecker identify 2:1-10 with the famine-relief visit of Acts 11:30 and date the letter before that conference. On either reconstruction the phrase διὰ δεκατεσσάρων ἐτῶν in 2:1 fixes only the length of the interval and not the point from which it is measured, so whether the fourteen years run from the conversion or from the visit of 1:18 remains open.