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Punctuation at the end of 2 Peter 1:2

Posted: December 3rd, 2015, 1:19 am
by klitwak
Both NA27 and UBS 4 have this for 2 Peter 1:2-3a:
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν.
3 Ὡς πάντα ἡμῖν τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ
There is a period at the end of v. 2. We of course cannot say what punctuation Peter originally had in mind, since there wasn't any. (I have long wondered by Greek eschewed punctuation while punctuation was a standard part of Latin, as I understand it.) However, the NET Bible notes state that there should "properly be a comma" there because v. 3 continues the sentence. I'm wondering about that judgment, given that the printed Greek NTs I have use a period. Does v.4 necessarily need to be the continuation of the sentence begun in v.2? One could make that argument. I have not done analysis of how often sentences might begin with Ὡς.

Ken Litwak
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Mill Valley, CA

Re: Punctuation at the end of 2 Peter 1:2

Posted: December 3rd, 2015, 8:39 am
by Jonathan Robie
For what it's worth, I have a Stephanus edition from 1822 that has a raised dot at the end of that verse.

But I think the period makes sense here, verse 2 seems to end the greeting at the start of the letter. Several GNTs have a heading after verse 2.