The conjunction eite ('whether...or') typically appears in doubled form -- eite...eite -- to present two or more alternatives as equally possible or equivalent. Paul is especially fond of this construction, using it to catalogue the irrelevance of distinctions before Christ: 'whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free' (1 Cor 12:13), 'whether we live or die, we are the Lord's' (Rom 14:8), and the sweeping inventory of 1 Cor 3:22: 'whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death.' Spanish sea...sea, French soit...soit, and German ob...ob each replicate the balanced disjunction cleanly, confirming a single grammatical function.