Initial Considerations

1
Initial Considerations
grammar

• Definition The syntactical relationship of words
  in a sentence.

Meaning of words (lexicography) form and
function of words (morphology) order of words
(syntax)
2
Important Considerations
grammar

• Types of sentences Declarative, questions,
  imperative, exclamatory

Word order parts of speech. English sub,
verb, obj Heb verb, subj, obj Gk anything
Punctuation While not in the original, it can
radically alter meaning The teacher said Johnny
is an idiot Cf. Lk 323 Rom 95, etc.
3
Grammatical Considerations
grammar

• 1. Grammar is not generally most important

2. Study of grammar may not solve all problems
but will narrow our range of possibilities.
3. English (only) readers are often more balanced
in exegesis because they do not spend too much
time on original languages.
4
Grammatical Considerations
grammar

• 4. Identify theme, verb tense (Jn 2023), and
  subject (Rom 826) of the sentence.

5. Observe carefully conjunctions (Heb 121),
prepositions (Acts 238), and pronouns (Acts 21)
6. Helps to identify the original syntax
Translations, commentaries, interlinear, and
analytical lexicons.
5
Grammatical Considerations
grammar
For Greek Students

• 7. Understand the basic elements of a verb.

8. Understand the basic elements of the noun.
9. Have a well-marked grammar
6
Diagrammatical Analysis
grammar
What is it?

• A rewriting of the text with a series of
  indentations which help to show grammatical
  relationships

7
Diagrammatical Analysis
grammar
Why Use It?

• 1. It isolates the main idea in a way that can be
  seen at a glance.

This works best with Epistles Psalms
2. It identifies grammatical relation-ships in a
non-technical way.
3. It allows the structure of the text to drive
the outline of lessons.
8
Grammatical Analysis
grammar

• 1. Independent clauses go to the left margin

2. Dependent clauses are indented on the
following line under the word they modify or
placed in brackets if kept on the same line.
Rules
a. Prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases,
relative clauses.
b. There may be additional sub-clauses which are
further indented.
9
Grammatical Analysis
grammar

• 3. Connectives are placed above the line they
  modify

4. Observations and comments are placed in a
different color ink in-between the lines.
Rules
5. The fewer phrases to the left the better.
6. Circle the subject, underline the main verb,
and box the connective words. Vertical arrows can
be used to show connections of words between
lines.