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Punctuation

Posted: August 19th, 2012, 7:00 am
by Jonathan Robie
Is there a good article or two that compares the punctuation used in different editions of the Greek New Testament?

Which edition do you think has the best punctuation? On an intuitive level, I'm finding I like the punctuation in the Patriarchal Edition of 1904 better than the Nestle-Aland, but I can't make a solid argument for that position. Does the Patriarchal Edition use the same punctuation as modern Greek? Is the Nestle-Aland punctuation heavily influenced by German punctuation?

Do the Discourse Analysis people take a stand on punctuation?

Re: Punctuation

Posted: August 20th, 2012, 5:06 pm
by Nikolaos Adamou
Antoniades, in the introductory comments of his 1904/1912 edition that do not have a title either as introduction or preface, notes that he is faithful to the MSS and the only thing that he changed is orthography and punctuation.
This punctuation give the natural Greek tone to the text.
I noticed that the 1904 edtion (available in Goggle books) of Nestle has closer punctuation to that given by Antoniades than the later editions of NA Greek New Testament.
Antoniades punctuation is also better than the other editions available in Greece circulated by Saliveros or others that are not giving the Patriarchal text.
For example in Mark 16, 6
Antoniades gives
ὁ δὲ λέγει αὐταῖς· μὴ ἐκθαμβεῖσθε· Ἰησοῦν ζητεῖτε τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον· ἠγέρθη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε· ἴδε ὁ τόπος ὅπου ἔθηκαν αὐτόν.
Whole others put a question mark after ἐσταυρωμένον as
ὁ δὲ λέγει αὐταῖς· μὴ ἐκθαμβεῖσθε· Ἰησοῦν ζητεῖτε τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον; ἠγέρθη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε· ἴδε ὁ τόπος ὅπου ἔθηκαν αὐτόν.
even the verb states λέγει and not asks.
The usage of semicolon is particularly interesting in the Patriarchal edition.