Sharp's rule

Dave Washburn dwashbur at nyx.net
Fri Jun 22 11:38:15 EDT 2001


Harry,
> As I understand it, Sharp developed his rule by finding all the 
> instances in which the construction <article> <Noun> kai <Noun> lead
> to the conclusion that <Noun> = <Noun>. And that seems to me to be
> like saying, since every construction in the NT, except one, of 
> <Truely I say to you> has a comma after it then  all such constructions
> must have a comma after them. In other words, it's a rule based more
> on statistics than the axioms of the NT Greek grammar.

Sharp had an ax to grind, there's no doubt about that.  In particular, 
he was responding to a person named Blunt whose views Sharp 
labeled Socinian.  However, that doesn't negate the potential 
usefulness of his rules.  In addition, since NT Greek is a dead 
language, what other method do we have for determining what its 
"axioms" are?  Induction based on usage is one  
of the few tools we have for figuring out the grammar of a dead 
language, so if we eliminate it we're not left with much.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"You just keep thinking, Butch.  That's what you're good at."




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