Accents in ancient manuscripts

dalmatia at eburg.com dalmatia at eburg.com
Sat Jun 20 13:32:29 EDT 1998


Tim Duke wrote:
> 
> Can somebody answer this for me:  Were accents (and/or breathings) part
> of the original manuscripts?   They're in my greek bible, and some
> variants have slightly different accents to others; but when I've seen
> the odd photocopy of an ancient manuscript, it is in capitals
> (=uncials???) and has no visible accents.
> So are they in the original - or not?  And if not, why bother learning
> them?

Hi Tim ~

There are none to speak of in the oldest mss ~ But for us newbies,
they help sort out the grammar and give those of us who wish to
pronounce the Greek a boost in doing so.  I've got the Concordant
Greek Text that is published in Sinai style [uncial] print, and love
it, but rely on the 'school' version in Sodhiates text for parsing. 
When I write out and diagram a sentense, I do it in the uncial ~
Probably as an affected vanity, yet it feels better...

George Blaisdell



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