[B-Greek] Mood Frequencies in the NT
Randy Leedy
Rleedy at bju.edu
Wed Jan 11 14:16:33 EST 2006
I'm not sure the correct answer has yet been given to the question about
discrepancies in various sources' counts of the number of imperatives in
the NT.
Apparently the program that is returning 1820 hits is using the Friberg
database. That database parses some items according to sense rather than
traditional morphology. For example, future indicatives, aorist
subjunctives, and participles in attendant circumstance to imperatives
can all be understood as having imperatival force. I believe Friberg's
base text is NA/UBS.
BibleWorks contains both the Friberg database (in the GNM/T versions)
and a more traditional morphology (in the BNT/M versions), also based on
the NA/UBS texts. A search for imperatives in GNM (Friberg) yields 1820
hits; in BNM (more traditional) the count is 1648.
Other databases will provide other counts. For example, WHM
(Westcott-Hort with a morphology of origin unknown to me but probably
credited within the program or in the manual) yields 1870 hits. I noted
off the top that IDOU qualifies as an imperative in this database. SCM
(Scrivener's TR) yields 1863; I suspect the morphologies must be from
the same source and the difference lies in textual variants and probably
some other details.
All this illustrates the necessity of knowing the nature of your data
thoroughly if you want to make statistical claims based on the output of
searches in current software packages.
Hope this helps.
Randy Leedy
Professor of New Testament
Bob Jones University Seminary
Greenville, SC
RLeedy at bju.edu
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