Recognizing that readers of this blog represent various levels of competence in reading Ancient Greek and levels of familiarity with Hellenistic Greek texts, I am posting an email I wrote to a user of Greek-Language.com back in 2005 in response to the question, “Did Ancient Greek use punctuation?” If you already know the answer to that question, just skip this post! (Or better yet, comment!)
On Mon, August 29, 2005 I wrote:
Dear __________:
Thank you for your letter. Your question is an interesting and important one, and we have considerable evidence with which to answer it.
The ancient Greeks did not have any equivalent to our modern device of punctuation. Sentence punctuation was invented several centuries after the time of Christ. The oldest copies of both the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament are written with no punctuation.
In addition, the ancient Greeks used no spaces between words or paragraphs. Texts were a continuous string of letters, with an occasional blank line inserted to mark the end of a major section, though even this was not always done.
They also had no equivalent to our lower case letters. Texts were written in all capitals.
While this clearly creates some challenges for Bible translation, those challenge are seldom very large. As a simple test, try reading the English text in the following line:
WHATDOESTHISSAY
With very little difficulty you can probably tell where the spaces should be and what kind of punctuation belongs at the end. You can tell this because you are a native speaker of the language in which the text is written, so you can easily recognize the words as well as the implication of the word order. Native speakers of Ancient Greek, in the same way, could recognize where one word ended and another began even though the spaces were not written. They could also distinguish a question from a direct statement without the need of punctuation.
Here’s the real problem: You and I are NOT native speakers of Ancient Greek.
While I read Ancient Greek quite well, I did not grow up speaking it. All modern scholars, including those who grew up speaking Modern Greek, are in this same situation.
When there is more than one possible way of dividing the words in a sentence or paragraph, or when there is more than one possible set of punctuation, we must look for clues as to what the author intended in order to correctly determine which is the correct division and what punctuation the author would have used if it had been available.
Of course there is an element of subjectivity in this process, but many scholars have dedicated the better part of their lives to reading the Biblical documents in the original languages and have come to have a good sense of the style and preferences of each author. As we develop this skill, it becomes easier to see what the author would most likely have intended in each of the few places where a sentence could be divided more than one way.
If you do not read Ancient Greek and Hebrew, it is important to compare various translations to see what the options for punctuation might be. Then you should ask yourself which punctuation results in something that the author would most likely have said. This may not always provide you with the correct answer, but it will be a valuable learning experience.
Thank you again for your letter. I wish you well in your studies.
Micheal W. Palmer
Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway
http://greek-language.com
Since the writing of this post on December 27, 2010, two other discussions of the lack of punctuation in Ancient Greek have been posted. You can find them by following the links below:
- Punctuation in Ancient Greek Texts, Part II
- Punctuation in Ancient Greek Texts, Part III (Quotations)
Another topic tangentially related to this one is available here:
| Important! [Added Jan. 19, 2015] |
|---|
| While the earliest manuscripts of the biblical texts did not contain punctuation, it is usually clear to a competent reader of Ancient Greek where the punctuation belongs.
It is a serious mistake to assume that the absence of punctuation in those manuscripts means a person who does not read Greek is free to choose where to put the punctuation in an English translation. To make decisions about where the punctuation belongs it is necessary to read Ancient Greek very well. Many options that would seem to be available in an English text are ruled out by the structure of the Greek text. |
Hi Michael
I have looked at P75 (P. Bodmer XIV-XV) a third century mss and noticed a number of high dot punctuation marks. As far as I can tell they seem to correspond to our full stop. There are also some middle dots (possibly equivalent to our comma) and low dots (possibly equivalent to our semi-colon)? Though these are on a lesser scale than the high dots. How does one account for these if punctuations were not the norm?
Kindest regards,
Joe
Thanks for your comment, Joe.
Can you give a little more specific information? Where in the text of P75 (P. Bodmer XIV-XV) did you find these dots? I have looked at a good portion of the manuscript and have not been able to find them.
If you can tell me exactly where you’ve seen them, I’ll be glad to comment on what they’re doing there. So far, it looks to me just like other manuscripts of its period—no punctuation. I’ll be glad to reconsider, though, if you can tell me where to find the dots.
By the way… there are some decent images of this manuscript online in the form of a slideshow at http://multiply.com/slideshow/chrles:photos:53/1. You can increase the size of the images by clicking “settings”.
Thanks for your reply Micheal
I’ll use Lk 24 as an example starting at folio 42v Line 10. Here is a summary of the notes I took after viewing the photographs of Martin and Kasser’s edition. I also checked these with the University of Munster’s INTF.
High-dot (stigme teleia, “final dot”) corresponds to our full-stop. Signifies complete thought. Found at Lk 24:1 (Line 12), 3 (L 15), 4 (2 times; L 16, 18), 5 (L 20), 6 (L 22), 10 (L 32), 12 (2 times; L 37, 38), 13 (L 41), 14 (L 43), 15 (F 43r; L 3), 16 (L 4), 17 (2 times? One may be a middle-dot? L 6, 7), 18 (L 8), 19 (3 times; L 11, 13, 14), 20 (L 17), 21 (L 19, may be a middle-dot?), 23 (L 26, may be a middle-dot?), 24 (L 28), 25 (2 times; L 29, 31), 26 (L 33), 27 (L 37), 28 (L 39), 29 (2 times?; L 40, 42?), 30 (3 times; L 44, 45), 31 (F 43v; L 3), 32 (L 6), 33 (L 7, may be a middle-dot?), 35 (2 times; L 12), 37 (L 15, may be a middle-dot), 38 (L 18), 39 (2 times; L 19, 21), 40 (L 23), 41 (2 times; L 24, 25), 42 (L 27), 43 (L 28), 45 (L 34), 46 (L 36), 47 (L 39, 40), 48 (L 40), 49 (L 41), 50 (L 45) & 51 (F 44r; L 3).
Low dot (hypostigme, “underdot”) corresponding to our semicolon. Signifies thought not yet complete. Found at 24:15 (F 43r, L 2), 19 (L 12), 28 (L 38), 36 (F 43v; L 12), 46 (L 35) & 52 (F 44r, L 4).
Middle-dot (stigma mese, “middle-dot”) corresponds to our comma. Sign for breath. See above for Lk 24: 17, 21, 23, 33 & 37.
These dots mark out sense-units. This seems to me the obvious conclusion after looking at their positioning. Sometimes these high-dots make the sense-units confusing. I noticed one such example in Lk 22:39 (F 40r, L 3, 4). Here the high-dot turns the disciples that leave the Passover meal with Jesus into two groups when it should be one.
At least that is how the dots look like me. Otherwise I have no idea of their purpose.
Any insights you can share will be greatly appreciated.
Kindest regards,
Joe
Thank you for the references. I’ll take another look at the manuscript and respond soon.
Update (late Thursday evening): I’ll have to get back to this tomorrow. Some unexpected demands on my time prevented me from looking at the text today.
Unfortunately, I do not have a very good copy of P75. I’m relying on the images online, so I can’t see as well as you can, but I do see many of the points you mention. What follows are some reflections on what the significance of their presence in this early manuscript could mean.
First, we should note how unusual the presence of these markings is for the period.
Second, it is significant that P75 bears a close relationship to Codex Vaticanus (often called simply B). These two manuscripts are too similar for most text critics to see them as representing unrelated text traditions, yet B lacks punctuation.
Third, P75 is clearly older than B.
Fourth, while the two have amazingly close readings, there are enough minor differences to make it clear that the copyist who produced B did not copy from P75. It is more likely that the two are both copies of an earlier manuscript, each introducing minor differences.
Fourth, it is unlikely that the common ancestor of these two manuscripts contained the dots we see in P75. It is more likely that P75 introduced them than that B eliminated them.
Preliminary Conclusion:
If we can rule out the possibility that the dots were added by a later hand, then P75 must represent a very early attempt to introduce rudimentary punctuation.
The poor quality of the images I have at my disposal do not allow me to rule out that possibility, though. Perhaps you can help us here.
Looking at the rudimentary punctuation in P75 many seem to mark out complete thought, though some seem to subdivide these thoughts into smaller units. This is also what the Introduction to Martin and Kasser’s edition seems to say (p. 16), I think. (Unfortunately for me it is in French, not my strongest point). Occasionally the subdivisions make the reading more confusing (Lk 22:39). What is interesting with this verse is that Martin and Kasser do not record the high-dot, neither do Comfort and Barrett. INTF record the high and the photograph copy I have clearly shows it so I accept INTF here. The passage in question reads here ηκολουθησαν δε αυτω· και οι μαθηται· This leads me to a translation question if you don’t mind me asking. The scribe may have made an error in the division of these sense-units. But can the last sense-unit be translated “and these are disciples.”? If so, the scribe may be trying to say that those who follow Jesus are his disciples. This would make much sense if P75 was transcribed for a monastic community like the Pachomian one.
Back to the dots: The dots do not seem to have been added in later by another hand. There is enough space between letters to show that the dots were not squeezed in.
It is hard to tell whether some dots are high or mid height. In relation to this, if I have understood Martin and Kasser here, they seem to think that when the manuscript was transcribed, the scribe attempted to carefully represent the different positions clearly as possible, but must have been unsure of the height (p. 16). This would insinuate that the exemplar of P75 also had these dots, therefore not the creation of P75. Someone who is more fluent in French than me should check this reference to see if it is correct.
I tend to think that the scribe added these dots. I think that the dots reveal the emphasis of the scribe.
I also did a small comparison between P66 and P75 at the beginning of John’s Gospel. P66 also include the dots, some of which are in the same position as P75, but not all. P75 is not the only papyrus manuscript with these types of punctuation marks. There are others.
Emmanuel Tov does note the existence of such marks in the “Appendix” of Features of Early Greek Scripture. This can be viewed here http://pa-john.freehostia.com/AG/Tov-ScribalPractices.html#s02. I also found this http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html.
That’s exhausted my thinking of the issue. If there is any info you can add at any point of time it will be greatly appreciated.
regards,
Joe
p.s. I love your site. I’m getting much out of it.
Thank you very much, Joe, for going to the trouble to do the comparison with P66. Do you know if it has any mid-hight dots? I am only aware of high dots at the end of sentences and double points at the end of sections. Like P75, though, it’s fairly clear that this is one of the early attempts to introduce punctuation. Notice that the dots in these early manuscripts do not match later Greek punctuation where the sentence-final dot is low, and the raised dot is used more like a colon or semicolon.
My own interest in this issue is not so much text critical as it is an interest in the development of the language. I wish you well in your studies. Have a wonderful New Year!
From what I’ve seen from P66 they are mostly high-dots with some lower-dots (similar amount to that of P75, but I have only lookd at the first couple of chapters but not very thoroughly). I haven’t noticed any mid-dots.
Happy New Year to you also
Joe
Okay….
Now that we’ve had some time for discussion, I think I could have been more careful in the way I composed that original email back in 2005. Here are some ways that I would revise it if I were writing today:
Strikethroughindicates words or phrase I would delete.Bold indicates words I would add.
I don’t know Greek. I have a question about Biblical Greek, which often strikes me as ugly in literal translation. I was just reading Colossians in English and wondered whether most of the “and”‘s in it ought to be translated by periods. In other words: is the Greek word kai actually mean NEW SENTENCE?
3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have aquarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
3:14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also yeare called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Because Eric’s question raises the broader issue of the usage of καί in addition to the punctuation issue, I have moved my response to a new discussion focussed specifically on the use of καί. You can find that discussion here:
http://greek-language.com/grklinguist/?p=1141
I thank you for your information on Greek punctuation.
I am having a Bible discussion over Jesus words found at Luke 23:43 where Jesus says to the evildoer “Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise.” The comma placed on either side of the word today changes the entire teaching.
Concerning Jesus words at John 3:13 where he states “No man has ascended into heaven, but he that desended from heaven, the son of man.” We know Jesus spent three days in hell and did not ascend to heaven until 40 days later.
The evildoer could not have ascended to heaven prior to Jesus. NO ONE HAD.
Wow! So much responsibility in translating Greek to English in God’s Word, where JUST ONE comma can change an entire doctrine.
James:
The fact that the earliest Greek texts did not have punctuation does not mean that we can insert punctuation in every place it might seem possible in English. To make judgments about where the punctuation should go it is absolutely necessary to be able to read the text in Greek. There are many places where a change of punctuation might seem possible on the basis of the English translation, but once you read the Greek text you may see that the change you have in mind does not work in Greek.
If you do not read Greek, you should check a wide variety of translations to see if they show any differences in punctuation. If you do this for Luke 23:43, you will notice that none of them place the coma after “today.” There’s good reason for this. The order of the words in Greek is somewhat different from English, and the placement of σήμερον (translated as “today”) makes it clear that it modifies ἔσῃ (will be), not λέγω (I say).
As to how to square this with John 3:13, that’s a theological question, not one about ancient Greek or Linguistics. The purpose of this website is limited to those two topics.
I thank you for this enlightening description of ancient greek and hebrew writings. I thought you might like to know in the first paragraph after WHATDOESTHISSAY you used the word “form” and I believe you intended to say “from”.
I would like to publicly thank Gary McGill for pointing out a typographical error in this post. I greatly appreciate diligent readers who bring such things to my attention. It makes the blog better for everyone.
I have corrected the mistake. If any of you see more, please don’t be shy about pointing them out! If you don’t want to do that in a public comment, you can always click on the “Questions” link at the top of the page and post your correction privately.
Thank you, Micheal! Great summary of the punctuation topic.
This explanation is very helpful to me as a non-European/English native speaker. It does confirm my thoughts (at least for me) and explain one issue that bothers me in understanding the Bible Galatians 5:22.
At least now I can be comfortable in deciding/choosing between
The fruit of the Spirit is love, (comma) joy, peace, longsuffering, ..
and
The fruit of the Spirit is love: (full colon) joy, (comma in the rest) peace, longsuffering, …
and at the same time taking into account “is”.
I’m glad you found the post useful, Timothy. Your reference to Galatians 5:22 inspired me to take another look at that verse. The list (ἀγάπη χαρὰ εἰρήνη μακροθυμία χρηστότης ἀγαθωσύνη πίστις) can be divided in a number of different ways. Each option is an interpretive decision. I do not think that all interpretive decisions are valid, of course. Some can be far-fetched and arbitrary. Others are more grounded in the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of the context. The NA28 text has the punctuation in neither of the two ways you mention. The editors have punctuated the list as follows:
Why they have created three groupings within the list, I do not know. They kept the punctuation that was present in NA27, but I don’t know how early that punctuation is represented in the manuscripts. Westcott and Hort placed commas between each of the items in the list and its neighbor, as did Tischendorf. So do most of the late manuscripts. I’ll have to dig a little deeper to understand what motivated the editors of NA27 and NA28.
This is a wonderful discussion regarding punctuation in ancient Greek texts.
It is true that ancient Greek manuscripts are less rigorous about punctuation, spacing, formatting, and unit divisions. However, ancient Greek manuscripts often include punctuation.
View the spaces between words and sentences throughout the second century letter of Arrios Eudaimon, Oxyrhychus 31.2559, online at http://163.1.169.40/gsdl/collect/POxy/index/assoc/HASH014c/718ecdfa.dir/POxy.v0031.n2559.a.01.hires.jpg.
View the accents, breathing marks, and punctuation throughout the second century manuscript of Xenophon, Oxyrhynchus 36.2750. Particularly note the stops in lines 15 and 17. The manuscript is online at http://163.1.169.40/gsdl/collect/POxy/index/assoc/HASH0110/df2a8119.dir/POxy.v0036.n2750.a.01.hires.jpg.
The paragraphus is a common punctuation mark. It indicates a paragraph division. The paragraphus is horizontal bar over the first letter in a new line. View the paragraphoi in the first century manuscript of Thycydides, Oxyrhynchus 49.3451, fragment 10, lines 5 and 8. Observe the space between words in fragment 10, line 6. View the sentence stop in fragment 15, line 3. The manuscript is online at http://163.1.169.40/gsdl/collect/POxy/index/assoc/HASH0127/3e74823a.dir/POxy.v0049.n3451.a.01.hires.jpg.
Dionysius Thrax, in his second century BC treatise, The Art of Grammar, devotes an entire section, “On Punctuation,” to ancient punctuation writing conventions. Read it online at http://www.academia.edu/7891168/The_Grammar_of_Dionysius_Thrax_Translated_into_English. This instruction makes no sense if punctuation is not a feature of ancient writing convention.
The earliest currently published manuscript of the Christian Greek Bible, papyrus 52, contains a second century fragment of the gospel of John 18. This manuscript contains punctuation and space divisions. Note the space separating the words οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ‘the Jews’ on the first line of the front side. Note the wider space indicating a half-stop, or colon, between Ἰουδαῖοι ἡμῖν ‘Jews: To us …’ (18:31). Note a similar wide space ending the next sentence in the second line between οὐδένα ἵνα ‘anyone. So that …’ (18:31-32). Also note the dieresis over the first letter in ἵνα ‘so that’ (18:32). This manuscript contains lots more punctuation. View the manuscript online at http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/ManchesterDev~93~3~22986~100256?trs=4&qvq=q%3Agreek+papyrus+457%3Blc%3Aman~3~3%2Cmaps2~1~1%2CManchester~91~1%2CManchesterDev~95~2%2CLearning_and_Research~91~1%2CMan4MedievalVC~4~4%2Cnonconform~91~1%2CManchesterDev~93~3%2Clib1~1~1&mi=0.
Even the fourth century manuscript depicted in the second part of this discussion, Codex Sinaiticus, contains lots of punctuation. Observe the title and decorations προς φιλιππησιους ‘to the Philippians’ on quire 84, folio 7, reverse side, column 3, page 283. Note the projection of the first word into the left margin παῦλος ‘Paul’ Philippians 1:1, column 3, line 1, and also lines 11, 24, 29, and 42. Sinaiticus uses these projections to indicate paragraph unit divisions. Note that the last words in line 10 contain lines over each word κυ ιυ χυ ‘lord Jesus, the messiah’. Greek manuscripts use these bars to mark an abbreviation, a type of punctuation. These words end in the middle of the line. This is because the next word begins with another projection into the left margin on the next line, beginning another paragraph, εὐχαριστῶ ‘I give thanks …’. View this page online at http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=42&lid=en&side=r&zoomSlider=0.
These are only representative examples. Punctuation is quite common in ancient manuscripts.
Punctuation and unit divisions, even word divisions, are far from rare in ancient Greek manuscripts. Virtually all manuscripts contain some punctuation.
I greatly appreciate you posting the images. They make it easy to see the evidence you are citing that has lead to your point of view on the issue of Ancient Greek punctuation.
I find your point of view a bit overstated, but it certainly is the case that rudimentary attempts at punctuation, accentuation, and breathing marks were developing by the mid second century at least in the papyri. They are not always consistent even within the writings of a single author, and sometimes not even within the same document, but they do appear.
While these markings sometimes appear in even earlier manuscripts, they are rare, and it is possible that they were placed there later as punctuation, breathing marks and accents began to be more accepted and necessary (since not everyone reading the texts were native Greek speakers, and they needed the extra help).
Punctuation appears regularly in manuscripts prior to the second century, including private letters.
The letter from Dionysius, Oxyrhynchus 2.293, dated November 27, AD 15, has spaces between some words, for example, line 1, διονύσιος διδύμῃ τῆι ἀδελ ‘Dionysius Didymus to his sis-‘. It has spaces between numerous sentences, lines 3, 8, 11, 12.The end of the sentence in line 3 also appears to contain a dash. The final salutation ἔρρωσο ‘good health’ is set on its own line, as is the date of the letter on the final line. These spaces cannot be later additions. View the manuscript with transcription http://www.papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;2;293?rows=3&start=1&fl=id%2Ctitle&fq=series_led_path%3AP.Oxy.%3B*%3B*%3B*&fq=series_led_path%3Acolumbia%3B*%3B*%3Bapis&sort=series+asc%2Cvolume+asc%2Citem+asc&p=2&t=23.
Similar characteristics are found in the letter from Serapion, Oxyrhynchus 2.294, dated December 11, 22 AD. It has spaces between some words, for example, line 2, σαραπίων δω[ρίωνι] ‘Serapion Do[rion]]. Note the enlarged letters at the beginning of some sentences, line 14 letter 16, line 16 letter 21, line 25 letter 20. There are spaces between some sentences, lines 24 and 26. The date at the end of the letter is preceded by a bracket, line 33. View the manuscript with transcription http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;2;294?rows=3&start=178&fl=id%2Ctitle&fq=series_led_path%3Ap.oxy%3B*%3B*%3B*&sort=series+asc%2Cvolume+asc%2Citem+asc&p=179&t=2998.
The letter of Ilarion, Oxyrhynchus 4.744, dated June 1, 17 BC, contains lots of punctuation, including spaces between words, lines 1, 2, and elsewhere. It frequently has a space between sentences, lines 3, 4, 5, 12, 13. The date is written on a separate line. View the manuscript with transcription http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;4;744?rows=3&start=373&fl=id%2Ctitle&fq=series_led_path%3Ap.oxy%3B*%3B*%3B*&sort=series+asc%2Cvolume+asc%2Citem+asc&p=374&t=2998.
Literary works also contain punctuation from much earlier periods. A late third century BC manuscript of Menander’s play, The Sicyonians, contains many paragraph markers. Observe the horizontal lines above the first letter in a paragraph, called the paragraphus, lines 3, 4, 6-10. The end of the section is marked by a decoration. There is a title between sections with vertical space. These all represent various levels of unit divisions, a form of punctuation. View the manuscript at http://www.papyrologie.paris-sorbonne.fr/photos/2092272.jpg.
As previously stated, the second century BC work of Dionysius Thrax, The Art of Grammar, contains a section about punctuation, “There are three punctuation marks: a period, a colon, a comma. A period marks the end of a complete thought. A colon marks a dependent clause. A comma marks an incomplete thought. It is a clause. How is a comma different in punctuation? It differs by time. The pause for other punctuation is longer. The pause for a comma is quite short.” These instructions are only sensible if early written punctuation exists.
In the fourth century BC, Aristotle mentions the existence of a written sentence punctuation mark, “A sentence should break off with the long syllable: the fact that it is over should be indicated not by the scribe, or by his period-mark in the margin, but by the rhythm itself.” Rhetoric 3.8.
The earliest biblical manuscripts contain lots of punctuation. Granted, some were introduced at a much later date: For example, the breathing marks, accents, and punctuation marks in Codex Vaticanus were added by a tenth or eleventh century scribe. However, papyri 52, 75, 77, 104 and other second century papyri contain original punctuation. Even the marginal dieresoi in Vaticanus are in the original ink–they are not produced by a later corrector, for example, 2 John 1:7, 1:8a, 1:8b. Vaticanus also contain paragraph spaces which cannot be later additions, for example, 2 John 1:4, 1:10, 1:13.
Few ancient manuscripts are absent all punctuation. Punctuation is far from rare or late in Greek manuscripts. It is ubiquitous, early, and ordinary, just inconsistent.
Ancient punctuation is irregular compared to modern English convention. However, rigorous enforcement of punctuation, spelling, and grammar is present only in the late modern English period. It is an anachronism to expect ancient Greek scribes to follow modern convention. They followed the conventions of their age.
The presence of a number of punctuated Greek manuscripts creates a bit of a puzzle. If writers knew of the idea of punctuation and word spacing, why didn’t it catch on?
Convention.
You know that some Greek manuscripts have accent marks, and modern Greek printed works almost always contain accent marks.
However, you probably never accent English words, even though spoken English definitely uses accentuation.
Until recently, standardized spelling in English was highly fluid.
Conventions vary from place to place, and from time to time. When comparing, I tend to notice familiar advantages, but ignore the unfamiliar weaknesses.
Furthermore, punctuation did catch on. Most Greek manuscripts have punctuation, just not the same conventions of punctuation as modern English. You can randomly pick almost any ancient Greek manuscript. It will likely have some punctuation.
I looked up this discussion because I was surprised to see that the UBS 4 apparatus on MAT 11:9 cites a difference amngst the oldest MSS as to the focust of the question/s (“what did you go out to see? — a prophet??” // “…? — a prophet!!”, but I had alway understood and seen in facsimeles that there is no punctuation in these MSS as you state. What dies the apparatus mean?
… focus … what does … !
You are quite right that there is no punctuation in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew 11:9. The difference between the manuscripts at this point in the verse has to do with the order of the words ἰδεῖν and προφήτην. The original hand of Codex Sinaiticus reads προφήτην ἰδεῖν implying something like, “What? Did you go out to see a prophet? The original hand of Codex Vaticans, on the other hand, reads ἰδεῖν προφήτην, which could more easily be read to imply “What did you go out to see? A prophet? The second corrector of Codex Sinaiticus changed the order to what we see in Vaticanus.
The way we know this sequence of words is meant to be a question is by the use of the interrogative pronoun, τί earlier in the clause.