[B-Greek] Diagramming of Greek Sentences

Suedaleg at aol.com Suedaleg at aol.com
Sat Dec 4 11:01:25 EST 2004


Bill Burks, et al


Can someone suggest a good book on an easy method to diagram Greek
> sentences, or to lay them out in logical order so that I can establish the
> relationships of the words in a Greek sentence

I agre with this suggestion.  It includes a very good explanation of the 
tools and processes.  also a good example in a relatively short book (Colossians).


John D. Grassmick, "Principles and Practice of Greek
Exegesis"
http://bookcenter.dts.edu/shopexd.asp?id=17891

Also, Munce's "Greek for the rest of us" has a section on "diagramming" which 
is good for those who have not been exposed to it before.  He does not do the 
word by word diagramming but does a phrase diagram of sorts which is helpful 
for doing a quicker analysis of the relationships in the sentance.

Rodney Decker also has a good section on diagraming including examples of 
Romans and Corinthians linked from here.  Also many other good helps there.

http://www.ntgateway.com/greek/

I also was first exposed to grammatical diagramming in 7th grade and enjoyed 
it imensely. But I have since noticed that I am in a huge(?) minority on this, 
maybe as little as 1% of the educated population.  But I am somewhat of a 
"word-geek".  If your experience with diagramming has been limited (7th grade or 
less - my kids NEVER did it) you should start with a section with short 
sentences and familliar, possibly Matthew or Mark.  Christmas story is good for 
this.  

As you progress you will find that short sentences are easy enough to wrap 
your head around that you will not need to do the time diagramming them. But on 
the longer sentences the result is well worth time spent.  Hebrew, because the 
sentences are short and the sentence structure very similar to English will 
fall into the category of more often not needing the time to understand the 
relationships within the sentences.  I suspect that the Hebrews' idea of what a 
sentence is may have been different than ours, but that is a discussion for a 
different list.

Good luck with diagramming.  I think once you get started and conquer your 
first "mountain" sentence you will become eager to conquer them all.

Dale Greenlee



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