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Rachel Lei's avatar

Absolutely essential reading. Let me just also note that here is yet another instance of later-imposed punctuation/sentence/paragraph/section breaks weaponized to justify hierarchy and dehumanization . . . there was no comma in the Greek text. https://askanarmchairtheologian.substack.com/p/why-i-dont-refer-to-the-bible-as

Mark Ramm's avatar

Thank you for this!

Rachel Lei's avatar

Just to be clear (in case your readers are reading this comment), the Greek text was written in all caps, without spaces or punctuation between words, like this: WHATDOESTHISSAYTOYOUANDWOULDYOUPUTAQUESTIONMARKSOMEWHERE

https://blog.greek-language.com/2022/02/14/punctuation-in-ancient-greek-texts-part-i/

In InterVarsity manuscript studies, they told us that the paragraph and section breaks and chapters and verses were later imposed, but it wasn’t until seminary that I learned that even the spaces and punctuation marks were also later-imposed.

Mark Ramm's avatar

I used to teach a Mark 1 and Mark 2 week long IVCF manuscript bible studies many years ago when I was on IVCF staff. So many times just removing the section and chapter markers reveals things in the text and the flow of ideas that have been subverted by those "organizational tools" that are actually acting as unacknowledged interpretive frames.

Rachel Lei's avatar

Absolutely, me too. Manuscript studies are some of my fondest memories both as student and staff. Though I don’t agree with the position IVCF has taken re: LGBTQIA, there’s no denying that God used IV to form me in pivotal ways I’m still so grateful for.

AlbanianQueen's avatar

Wow. A lot to wade through but absolutely worth it. Thank you

Mark Ramm's avatar

It was a lot to try to corral into anything like the right length for a Substack article, but also hard to split into multiple articles.

Thanks for working through it.

Tracy Marks's avatar

This piece is fascinating and horrifying in equal measure. In the bowels of today's propaganda social media hearding, it's rare to encounter people with the bandwidth capacity, interest and selflessness to create such a writing.