Clayton,
Thanks for your reply. I have the edition of Metzger that deals with textual criticism, but have not seen the other vol. you mention. The way I have been taught to do hermeneutics is to seek to discover the original intent behind the text. My inclination is that a more precise understanding of the structure of an entire thought unit would go a long way. Carl brought up the notion that the paragraph rather than the sentence may be such a unit. Now I an left asking how can I delineate such units, what are the structural markers? I want to make that judgment myself if at all possible, or at least know on what grounds others have made it. This may also account, in my mind anyway, for the swift change of topics that seem to take place in the NT, so that sometimes one has to search deeply to grasp the connection between two paragraphs standing side by side (the Gospels spring to mind!). If I apply traditional English grammar I can detemine the elements of the sentence, but then I may be thinking in English when I ought to be thinking in Greek! If I am way off base with this conjecture then someone throw out a life line before I drown!
It seems to me that the modern editions of the texts of the NT are "artificially" divided into paragraphs. By that I mean that they do not necessarily reflect some system that could be recognized as from extant and ancient MSS. I am still not sure that I am satisfied, and would like to hear from someone who can say definitively yea or nay. Is there a recognisable system, such as capitalization, in the text that tends to mark thought units? Or are the ones we have represented in our modern editions more or less drawn up by the editors according to their interpretation of the text?
Maybe I should ask if there is a recognisable structure to a Koine thought unit that would give provide clear delineation to between it and the other units around it? (I am sure I could have asked this in a better way.) In the back of my mind I am thinking of the clearly recognisable form of the the Greek letter that was adopted by Paul for his communication to the churches as an example of structure and form. Even though it does not correspond directly, I was wondering, if there was some structure that one would expect to find in Greek prose. And if the sentence is a less recognisable form in Greek, is it possible that there is a structure which expresses a unit of thought that is reconiable and if so what is it and how can it be recognized?
Paul F. Evans
Pastor
Thunder Swamp Pentecostal Holiness Church
MT. Olive
E-mail: evans@esn.net
Web-page: http://ww2.esn.net/~evans