Lining Out a Greek Text

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Table of Contents

What is lining out a Greek text?
How to line out a Greek text

What is lining out a Greek text?

A long Greek sentence with even moderately complex structure can be daunting. Lining out a Greek text is a way to break it down into manageable phrases, in the original order, using whitespace to show relationships among the phrases of the text. Lining out a text not only makes it easier to see the relationships among the words, it also makes the sentences much easier to read out loud—most people who try it find that reading the text repeatedly out loud is a particularly good way to get a feel for a text. Many students approach complex Greek texts by hunting for subjects and verbs, then trying to fit the other phrases and subordinate clauses into the framework of these subjects and verbs, a process that is often unwieldy and self-defeating. Lining out texts is an intuitive process that teaches how to recognize the natural underlying structure of a text.

The goal of lining out a text is to grasp the basic structure of the text, working in the original language, before turning to external aids such as lexicons or commentaries. You do not need to be an expert in the Greek language to line out texts, but you do need to be able to read at least simple Greek texts with the help of a lexicon. In some ways, lining out is like diagramming a sentence, but it is much simpler, can easily be done with any text editor that supports the Greek font in use, and preserves the original order of the words. If you know enough Greek to understand the relationship between independent and dependent verbs, and to identify the objects of a verb, you can line out a Greek text.

I have already generated files containing the text of the New Testament formatted according to the first two steps, which are easily automated. I plan to make these available on the Web.

How to line out a Greek text

This section presents a series of steps you can use to line out a Greek text. In general, I like to follow these steps roughly in order until there are no more than 7 words on a given line and it's relatively easy to grasp the structure of the text. Once you reach this point, applying further steps is not particularly helpful. In this section we will show the steps, then apply them to a few texts.

Here are the steps we might apply. The first three steps are always applied; after that, the remaining steps may be applied depending on the complexity of the text and the taste of the interpreter. I tend to apply the first three steps all at once, then look at any lines that remain too long or too complex, applying the remaining steps as needed.

  1. Put each sentence on one line, ignoring verse boundaries.

    Example 1. 1 John 1:1-3, presented as one sentence

    1 ὃ ἦν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς — 2 καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν — 3 ὃ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν. καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ.


  2. Start a new line for each comma, question mark, dash, or period. (The punctuation was not part of the original Greek texts, but it does reflect the way very knowledgable people have come to understand the text. A critical text of the New Testament often offers more than one choice for punctuation.)

    Example 2. 1 John 1:1-3, Adding line breaks for punctuation


    1 ὃ ἦν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, 
    ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν,
    ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, 
    ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, 
    περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς 
    —  2 καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, 
    καὶ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν 
    —  3 ὃ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν,
    ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν. 
    καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ.
                    


  3. Place each independent verb on its own line, together with any verbs that are dependent on it.

    Example 3. 1 John 1:1-3, placing each independent verb on its own line


    1 ὃ ἦν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, 
    ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν,
    ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, 
    ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα 
    καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, 
    περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς 
    —  2 καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, 
    καὶ ἑωράκαμεν 
    καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν 
    καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον 
    ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα 
    καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν 
    —  3 ὃ ἑωράκαμεν 
    καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν 
    ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν,
    ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν. 
    καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ.    


  4. If a line remains complex, consider placing the objects of a verb on separate lines, if they occur after the verb. Keep the subject on the same line as the verb, and only do this if the result is easier to grasp. It often makes more sense to put direct objects or prepositional objects on a separate line than to put indirect objects on a separate line.

    Example 4. Placing objects of a verb on separate lines

    In 1 John 1:1-3, the only candidate for this change is in the following line:

    καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον

    To be obsessively clear, we might place both the direct object and the indirect object on separate lines, but this is often overkill:

    καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν 
       ὑμῖν 
       τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον

    Reading this aloud, we are not likely to pause on these line boundaries, which is a sign we've taken this too far. However, placing only the indirect object on a separate line corresponds more naturally to the pauses we would make in reading the text aloud:

    καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν 
       τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον

    Here is an example where placing the direct object on a line makes a bigger improvement in readability:

    καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ κύριος ὁ θεὸς 
       τὸν θρόνον Δαυὶδ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ,   


  5. If a line remains too long, consider whether phrases beginning with καὶ can be placed on separate lines.

    Example 5. Placing phrases beginning with καὶ on separate lines

    Phrases beginning with καὶ can often be placed on separate lines.

    καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς 
    καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ.  

    When multiple phrases joined by καὶ are modified together by another phrase, keep them on the same line:

    καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ μὴ πίῃ


  6. If a phrase modifies the noun that precedes it, place it on a separate line.

    Example 6. Placing phrases that modify a preceding noun on a separate line

    Ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἡρῴδου
    βασιλέως τῆς Ἰουδαίας

    ἱερεύς τις
    ὀνόματι Ζαχαρίας
    ἐξ ἐφημερίας Ἀβιά,
    καὶ γυνὴ αὐτῷ
    ἐκ τῶν θυγατέρων Ἀαρών,
    καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς Ἐλισάβετ.


  7. Consider indenting some lines to reflect hierarchy.

    Example 7. Indenting lines to reflect hierarchy

    ἱερεύς τις
        ὀνόματι Ζαχαρίας
        ἐξ ἐφημερίας Ἀβιά,
    καὶ γυνὴ αὐτῷ
        ἐκ τῶν θυγατέρων Ἀαρών,
        καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς Ἐλισάβετ.


  8. Note questions within the text, at the end of each line.

    After lining out a Greek text, you can write down things that you do not understand after a given line, as shown below. That way, you make sure your questions don't get lost without forcing yourself to stop and look everything up immediately. This makes it easier to spend more time working with the Greek and less time reading aids written in English or other languages.

    Example 8. Noting a question

    Ἐπειδήπερ πολλοὶ ἐπεχείρησαν ** Ἐπειδήπερ?