[B-Greek] commas and periods in the original text
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 9 16:08:19 EDT 2009
On Mar 9, 2009, at 3:15 PM, Nathan Smith wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 02:51:30PM -0400, JMonte2000 at aol.com wrote:
>> Greetings all
>> Were commas and periods and things like this in the original Greek
>> text from
>> the bible or added as time went on? I was told in my second year
>> class, that
>> they were added. For those who believe in the infallibility of the
>> original
>> text, are the commas and periods infallible? I'd think if they
>> weren't in the
>> original's you'd say no. I'm asking because we are studying Eph Ch
>> 1 and
>> particularly, Ch 1:3 -14 and I have heard from many, that this is
>> the longest
>> sentence in the Greek text, true?
>>
>> Jim Montesano
>
> The question of infallibility is probably best left to another
> mailing list. That being said, seeing as commas and periods were
> not part of the semantics of the origin writing, I don't think they
> should be authoritative. They are intended for the benefit of
> modern interpreters, not for exegesis.
The question of infallibility, as clearly indicated in the B-Greek FAQ
("B-Greek is not a forum for general Bible issues, except insofar as
they may bear specifically upon interpretation of a particular Greek
text, Neither is it a forum for general or specific hermeneutical or
theological issues."), is outside the boundaries of appropriate list-
discussion.
BDF §16 "Punctuation and Colometry" says, in part: "It is certain that
the authors of the NT could have used punctuation just as other people
did at that time, not only in MSS, but sometimes also in letters and
documents. However, whether the NT books were punctuated no one knos,
and it is unknown, moreover, where and how they were punctuated, since
no authentic traditions have been handed down. Modern editors are
compelled to provide their own punctuation and hence often their own
interpretation. The latter is very definitely the case, e.g., when a
mark of interrogation occurs (found in MS in ix AD at the earliest).
It is probably most correct to adhere to modern habits of punctuation
without being economical in their use and with due consideration for
the peculiarities of Greek sentence-structure (circumstantial
participle, etc.)."
The annotation of the critical edition -- both NA27 and UBS4 --
display the major variant ways in which the text has been punctuated
wherever there is no consensus; if there were or had been an
authoritative "original" punctution of the GNT, that would hardly be
the case.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)
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