From: Nichael Cramer (nichael@sover.net)
Date: Tue Jun 11 1996 - 13:21:53 EDT
On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, Alan Repurk wrote:
> Sinse the original manuscripts were all written with capital letters,
> no spaces between words and no punctuation, are there many instances
> where there is dispute as to what form of the word was intended by
> the Author ?
In his _Text of the NT_(p13, 2nd ed), Metzger cites some example of
ambiguities resulting from (the lack of) word division in scritio
continua: in Mk 10:40 --ALL' OIS HTOIMASTAI vs. ALLOIS HTOIMASTAI; Rom
7:14 --OIDAMEN vs. OIDA MEN; I Time 3:16 -- KAIOMOLOGONMENWS MEGA ESTIN
v.s KAIOMOLOGONMEN WS MEGA ESTIN. (To these examples might be added
MARANTHA, which can be parsed as MARANA THA, "Our Lord has come" or MARAN
ATHA "Our Lord, Come"-- although presumably only the latter makes sense in
context.)
However, Metzger also takes pains to point out that such ambiguities are
quite rare in Greek (as surprising as that might seem to a native English
speaker). For example, I recall reading somewhere that there were only a
half dozen or so examples of true ambiguities in the whole of the NT.
Nichael Cramer
nichael@sover.net
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