Abstract

Lexicographers have always considered ‘advantage’, ‘profit’ as a possible meaning of kairos. And yet none of the ten passages cited in LSJ under this meaning is convincing. No less than four of these instances exemplify kairos as ‘due measure’. Three other instances exemplify spatial kairos. The remaining instances exemplify the meaning ‘opportunity’ that develops from temporal kairos. In none of the examples are we encouraged to take the further step from ‘what is morally, spatially or temporally appropriate’ to the ‘profit’, if any, deriving therefrom. Before considering whether kairos can ever bear this meaning, I will start from the citations in LSJ.