[B-Greek] Which Text - TR, Byzantine, UBS ???

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Aug 11 10:10:12 EDT 2003


At 10:04 AM -0300 8/11/03, Erich Vaughan Burton wrote:
>In light of my posts this morning, I was wondering which Greek text one
>should refer to?
>
>Up until today I had access to the TR and the Byzantine Text that come
>with the "Online Bilbe".
>
>This morning I installed the "PC Study Bible" (after I received Carl's
>post) which has the UBS text.
>It does not indicate that it is UBS4/NA27  as  Carl quoted, however I'm
>assuming they are one in the same???
>
>I would say I have been enlightened to the necessity of checking
>other versions, both in Greek and the English.
>
>I usually check the English versions but only when I find the construction
>of the words
>difficult to understand.

There is no universal consensus on this matter (if there were, of course,
there wouldn't be alternative Greek texts of the NT), but I think you'll
find that many, if not most, of those who pay serious attention to the
Greek text of the New Testament at least START with the UBS4/NA27 text
because they believe it is the most reliable representation of the oldest
trustworthy manuscripts and that it offers a reasonably fair selections of
the alternative manuscript readings to permit the knowledgeable student of
the GNT to see what those alternative readings are. There are some who
prefer to rely on the so-called "Majority Text" on grounds that it is the
text upon which more of the extant manuscripts are in agreement (but others
may say that means only that the grammar and phraseology of earlier
manuscripts has been leveled out). We don't really want to discuss this on
B-Greek, but you'd do well to read either Metzger's or Aland's book(s) on
how the Greek text of the NT has come into its various editions.

>This question is for Carl.
>
>
>I am aware that the direct object of a verb is not always in the
>accusative case, but
>I would say I have been negligent in taking that into consideration when
>viewing a passage.
>
>Where does one find information with regards to which complement a verb takes?
>In the past I downloaded your paper on "irregular verb tenses" and I was
>wondering
>if you had anything similiar for verbs which take a different compliment
>than the accusative?

This won't normally be spelled out in lists of irregular verbs; ultimately
you need to consult a lexicon for any particular verb. I'll say only
briefly that although most transitive verbs take an accusative direct
object, there are many that are intransitive in Greek (whether they're
intransitive in English or not) and take a dative complement (e.g.
SULLALEW, APOKRINOMAI); then there are several verbs that take a genitive
complement, some of perception or memory or grasping (e.g. AKOUW,
MIMNHSKOMAI, EPILANQANOMAI, hAPTW/hAPTOMAI). I'd say that if you find an
apparent object that's not accusative and you don't know for sure about the
verb governing the word, you'd better check a lexicon that tells you what
the normal complement is. BDAG is, sooner, or later, a more or less
indispensable tool for serious students of the GNT.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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