Hebrews 6:1

[vyctr]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to greek and this forum but I thought I'd drop a question about Hebrews 6:1. The author starts a list of doctrines in verse 1 and as far as I can tell in the greek, there are 2 separate ones listed in verse 1. But my english translations (NASB, ESV) kind of group them together by omitting the comma. Is this due to the interpretive liberties of the translators or is there a solid greek grammar principle behind it? I noticed the KJV separates them.

1Διὸ ἀφέντες τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ λόγον ἐπὶ τὴν τελειότητα φερώμεθα, μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι μετανοίας ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων, καὶ πίστεως ἐπὶ θεόν,

Thanks for your help in advance!

[thesaurus]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to greek and this forum but I thought I'd drop a question about Hebrews 6:1. The author starts a list of doctrines in verse 1 and as far as I can tell in the greek, there are 2 separate ones listed in verse 1. But my english translations (NASB, ESV) kind of group them together by omitting the comma. Is this due to the interpretive liberties of the translators or is there a solid greek grammar principle behind it? I noticed the KJV separates them.

1Διὸ ἀφέντες τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ λόγον ἐπὶ τὴν τελειότητα φερώμεθα, μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι μετανοίας ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων, καὶ πίστεως ἐπὶ θεόν,

Thanks for your help in advance!

I don't think there is any essential need for the comma. As you probably know, there would have been virtually no punctuation in the ancient texts themselves, so adding punctuation is almost always an interpretative decision. καὶ joins these two clauses together so it can be understood regardless. The comma is mostly an aide to seeing the doctrines as separate entities, each referring back to the prohibition "μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι μετανοίας."

I'm not an expert on this though, so someone feel free to correct me.

[GTM]

thesaurus

You said:

I don't think there is any essential need for the comma. As you probably know, there would have been virtually no punctuation in the ancient texts themselves, so adding punctuation is almost always an interpretative decision. καὶ joins these two clauses together so it can be understood regardless. The comma is mostly an aide to seeing the doctrines as separate entities, each referring back to the prohibition "μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι μετανοίας."

I think that you are correct. I believe that the first century reader read and understood that language and the grammatical constructions of that language. But that isn't necessarily the case for us. I believe that the punctuation was added for our benefit and was an attempt on the part of the translator to make it easier for us to grasp.

GTM