[B-Greek] commas and periods in the original text

Ian W Scott iscott at tyndale.ca
Mon Mar 9 16:09:47 EDT 2009


You're right, Jim, that there would have been little if any punctuation 
in the manuscripts for the early centuries. If you find a photograph of 
codex sinaiticus online (there's one on commons.wikimedia.org if you 
search) you'll see no periods or commas, and that's in the fourth 
century or so. I've been working recently with some Greek manuscripts 
from the 12th century and even then there was often no distinction 
between commas, periods, or semicolons. All three are marked in my ms 
with a dot that is raised slightly above the line. So even into the 
medieval period it would be difficult to tell, for example, whether we 
are dealing with a co-ordinate clause starting with KAI (within one 
sentence) or with a new sentence that is introduced with KAI. In fact, 
prior to the modern standardization of punctuation it doesn't really 
make that much sense to talk about sentences. It makes more sense to 
talk about "main clauses" or "periods" in the sense of one independent 
subject-predicate sequence, along with its dependent clauses.

Cheers,

Ian

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
> **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
> steps! 
> (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1219671244x1201345076/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID
> %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>   




More information about the B-Greek mailing list