If you have some time, take
the challenge over at the ESV Bible Blog. Download the RTF document of the Philippians 1 text, and put in your own paragraphs. Then compare it to what they have.
This isn't just an exercise for fun--you can really learn something. In fact, that is precisely what Bill Mounce suggests to folks in his book Greek For the Rest of Us. If you read through the passage enough times to find the breaks yourself, you'll find that you can understand both the flow of the passage and the actual content better. Mounce is so convinced of this that he even goes so far as to say that if you're pressed for time in your preparation, do this (even if you're not able to do anything else).
By the way, you can get the text devoid of any additions (verse numbers, section headings, footnotes, etc.) either through a website (the ESV website will let you adjust your preferences, or you can use the Bible Gateway) or with a bible program, such as e-Sword(which have no paragraphs).
If I have time, I'm gonna try to do it, and post my results.
2 comments:
What is this book by Bill Mounce that you refer to? Is it new? I have his Basics of Biblical Greek.
You can check it out
here at his website. It's a book written for those who don't necessarily want to learn Greek, but want to benefit from some of the study tools out there.
I liked it because it had some practical suggestions for studying the Word, and also for some of the stories behind the ESV translation. Would love to pick up a copy after I finish with Greek.
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