An Exploration of Conditional Clause Exegesis 377 One can speculate that a classical Greek speaker might under these circumstances have used the optative to express the hypothetical idea. Paul perhaps thought it conceivable that he might, one day, begin to preach a message that was not the true gospel. He knew that apostolic status was not proof against mistakes, having had to rebuke Cephas for separating himself from the Gentiles (Gal 2,11-14). There is also an interesting parallel to Gal 1,8 in 1 Cor 9,16b: ajnavgkh gavr moi ejpivkeitai oujai; gavr moiv ejstin eja;n mh; eujaggelivswmai. Here also, using a third class condition, Paul raises the possibility of his failing to preach the gospel. Again it seems that this eventuality was not inconceivable to Paul, but he feared it, recognizing that it would bring him woe. If something is “probable”, that usually implies an expectation that it will happen unless circumstances change. For Paul to turn from the gospel was possible, but to present this as the likely outcome would be bizarre. He was humble enough to recognise the possibility of falling, but surely not so despairing of himself that he expected this. The limited likelihood of fulfilment of this protasis is signalled in the text, but not by the mood. Rather the kaiv (“even”) makes the clause concessive so as to emphasise that a surprising suggestion is being made (71). Burton describes the clause as “unfavourable to the fulfilment of the apodosis” (72), noting that the inclusion of the intensive kaiv shows that what the protasis expresses is “only rhetorically a possibility” (73). Taken as a whole this condition has general applicability (74), but this is not because it is third class, but because of its content. The startling suggestion that even apostate preaching by a heavenly messenger would lead to anathematization implies that the same consequence applies universally. 2. Gal 1,9 a) Lexical and syntactic issues In Gal 1,9, Paul describes the consequences of anyone preaching contrary to what the Galatians received. The apostate preaching is described in v. 8 as par∆ o} eujhggelisavmeqa uJmi'n, but in v. 9 as par∆ o} (71) LIGHTFOOT, Epistle, 77, suggests that kai; ejavn is characteristically used to introduce a “highly improbable supposition”. (72) BURTON, Galatians, 25 (73) BURTON, Galatians, 26. (74) This general applicability is slightly reduced if the textual variant of v. 8 which includes uJmi'n is taken as original.