Shortest verse in GNT
How can I use Logos to search for the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament? I have heard multiple versions of the shortest verse being one of these: John 11:35, Luke 20:30 or 1 Thessalonians 5:16. I want to be able to analyze this in a statistical format.
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I think the issue is defining the question better. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 has only 2 words and just 14 letters, so by word count it is the shortest. Luke 20:30 has 3 words but is only 12 letters, so it is the first by number of letters. John 11:35 is the shortest in most (all?) English translations but not in Greek - it has 3 words because of the article ( ὁ Ἰησοῦς) and 16 letters.
This is a good use case for a smart all search.
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Justin Gatlin said:
I think the issue is defining the question better. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 has only 2 words and just 14 letters, so by word count it is the shortest. Luke 20:30 has 3 words but is only 12 letters, so it is the first by number of letters. John 11:35 is the shortest in most (all?) English translations but not in Greek - it has 3 words because of the article ( ὁ Ἰησοῦς) and 16 letters.
You left out Lamsa and therefore, what is shortest in Aramaic rather than Greek. [8-|] [:#] I mean I am allowed to challenge the presuppositions of the GNT in the original question aren't I?
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:
You left out Lamsa
I have no clue what "Lamsa" is so I'll just let this sit, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that verse needs quotation marks or an edition note since versification happened centuries after the original manuscript was inspired (that is ONE of my theological assumptions).
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MJ. Smith said:
You left out Lamsa
It's a good thing you have the glasses-guy and George's old cigar-smoker. Back-translating from the Peshitta, and then forward translating into english (with the Peshitta a forward translation from the greek!). Now, if someone could then translate Lamsa's english into maybe latin, we'd have a perfect ... Jerome?
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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David Thomas said:
I only had a vague memory that Lamsa would be an author, so I fired up library search, first mine, then the "add to" - from the product page it sounds interesting: https://www.logos.com/product/311127/idioms-in-the-bible-explained-and-a-key-to-the-original-gospels
Have joy in the Lord!
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I clearly need to shovel more Byzantine and Oriental church history into the forums. As Perplexity nicely told me in order to post here
[quote]Based on the search results, some of the primary proponents of the Aramaic original text of the New Testament theory include:
- George Lamsa - He was instrumental in advancing the view that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic. Lamsa published a translation of the Bible from Aramaic to English in 1957.
- Charles Cutler Torrey - While teaching at Yale, he wrote a series of books presenting manuscriptural evidence supporting an Aramaic New Testament, including "The Translations Made from the Original Aramaic Gospels" and "Our Translated Gospels".
- The Assyrian Church of the East - This denomination holds to Aramaic Primacy as an article of faith. In 1957, their patriarch Shimun XXIII Eshai declared that they received the scriptures from the apostles in the original Aramaic.
- Some segments of Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots Movement also support this theory.
- David Bauscher - He appears to be one of the earliest to use the specific phrase "Aramaic primacy" in print.
It's worth noting that this theory, also called "Peshitta Primacy" or "Aramaic Primacy," is not supported by the majority of biblical scholars. The consensus among modern scholars is that the New Testament was originally written in Greek, with possible Aramaic sources for some portions, especially in the Gospels.
.I found Lamsa's translation in a used bookstore some forty plus years ago. It then took some considerable time to figure out where to place him in the realm of non-mainstream Christian scholars.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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