Programme
Previous research has shown that the delimitation of pericopes, verses, strophes and other sections determines exegesis to a large extent. The scope of this research group now has been widened and also attention will be paid to paragraphing in modern translations (especially European translations) and in ancient biblical texts (Hebrew Bible and New Testament) and translations (e.g. Septuagint, Vulgate, Peshitta).
Recent overviews show that there is hardly any consensus among commentators and translators with regard to the delimitation of pericopes in the Bible. Previous research has established that it is very helpful to compare modern paragraphing with the delimitations found in ancient manuscripts. Examples of such research abound already, not only in many contributions to the series Pericope (Scripture as Written and Read in Antiquity, see http://www.pericope.net), but also in other works, like Jack Lundbom’s commentary on Jeremiah in The Anchor Bible, as well as a recent work by Marjo Korpel and Johannes de Moor, The Silent God (Leiden 2012). The latter work discusses several examples of blank spaces in Hebrew texts that seem to coincide with significant rhetorical silences.