2 Pet 2:1-2 punctuation

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James Ernest
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Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:26 pm

2 Pet 2:1-2 punctuation

Post by James Ernest »

I am trying to imagine why the editors of NA27 would place a period after ἀρνούμενοι and a comma after ἀπώλειαν. It seems quite unnatural to me, and a quick check of some other print editions lying around here (UBS3, Kilpatrick, Merk, Scholefield) turns up no one else who did it that way. It seems a comma would be expected after ἀρνούμενοι--unless one has somehow predetermined that ἐπάγοντες should depend on πολλοὶ rather than ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι. Am I missing something?

1 Ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι. ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν, 2 καὶ πολλοὶ ἐξακολουθήσουσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀσελγείαις δι᾽ οὓς ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται, 3 καὶ ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται, οἷς τὸ κρίμα ἔκπαλαι οὐκ ἀργεῖ καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει.
Last edited by Stephen Carlson on October 31st, 2011, 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Fixed citation
Brett
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Joined: October 23rd, 2011, 10:21 am

Re: 2 Pet 2:1-2 punctuation

Post by Brett »

How about a parenthetical remark (see below)? This allows for the full stop "after" ἀρνούμενοι. The play on words being παρεισάξουσιν...ἐξακολουθήσουσιν. For some, the chiastic structure falls between 1a and 1b, which only seems to make the full stop under question all the more odd.

1 Ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι (ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν). 2 καὶ πολλοὶ ἐξακολουθήσουσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀσελγείαις δι᾽ οὓς ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται, 3 καὶ ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται, οἷς τὸ κρίμα ἔκπαλαι οὐκ ἀργεῖ καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει.
Brett Williams
Nikolaos Adamou
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Re: 2 Pet 2:1-2 punctuation

Post by Nikolaos Adamou »

There are significant differences in punctuation among various editions of the NT.
The most noticeable shift is with Nestle. From his 1904 edition that is very close in punctuation to the edition of Antoniades of the same year kwon as the Ecumenical Patriarchate Orthodox edition, to the NA27, punctuation varies.
The two editions of the Byzantine text, also vary in terms of punctuation.
RP have more punctuation marks than the others.
The implication of the punctuation is twofold.
One, and the most important to all, is how an editor understands the syntactical structure of the sentence.
Second, and important only to us who read aloud the bible for personal and ecclesiastical purposes, how one can fluctuate and intonate his voice given the punctuation and accentuation. Of course, this is a case ONLY for the native speakers, and those who want to hear Greek in its natural form, since the rest of the users have their own opinions based on their theories.
Punctation matters, even it is not indicated in the manuscripts, as accentuation matters, and I am thankful to the Byzantine grammarians who put it there, and we have it.
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