What Comes First, Destruction or Handing the Kingdom to the Father?

Following τέλος are two ὅταν clauses. The end will come “when” (ὅταν) Jesus “hands over the kingdom to God the Father, and “when” (ὅταν) Jesus “has destroyed every dominion, every authority and power.” What is wrong if you follow concordance and translated both uses of ὅταν as “when” as do the NASB, CSB, and NET? The most obvious meaning is that first the kingdom is given to the Father and then Jesus destroys the spiritual powers.

However, what is actually going to happen first? Obviously the spiritual powers must first be destroyed before Jesus can hand the kingdom over to his father. Slavishly following concordance and translating both occurrences of ὅταν as “when” creates an illogical and confusing situation. So what is a translator to do?

BDAG does not list “after” as a meaning for ὅταν, so you can leave the passage confusing as do the NASB, CSB, and NET, or you can interpret the context accordingly. You would think the NIV and NLT would correct the confusion, and they do. “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power” (NIV). The NLT translates the subjunctive καταργήσῃ as a past perfect: “After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.”

What surprised me is that the ESV interprets the second ὅταν as “after” following the RSV. “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” The NRSV does the same.

Fee comments: “In these two clauses (a single sentence in Greek) he begins by setting forth the ‘order’ of events that lead to ‘the End.’ At that time Christ will do two things: (1) ‘he [will] hand over the kingdom (reign) to God the Father’; and (2) ‘he [will] bring to an end all dominion and all authority and power.’ As the rest of the argument indicates, these two items logically occur in reverse order (hence the NIV’s ‘after he has destroyed’). In Paul’s sentence, however, they are coordinate and without a conjunction; most likely he intended them to be in double apposition to ‘the end.’”

All good translation is necessarily interpretive. That's just the nature of languages.

But let’s not miss the most important point you, that you and I can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we will be raised after we have died because Christ has been raised. And we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the evil spiritual powers that afflict us so much in this life will someday be destroyed and all things will rest in the hands of the Father. Amen.