{"id":1804,"date":"2017-11-04T18:10:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T15:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2017-11-04T18:10:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T15:10:27","slug":"greek-language-from-the-completion-of-the-septuagint-to-the-new-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/1804\/greek-language-from-the-completion-of-the-septuagint-to-the-new-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek language from the completion of the Septuagint to the New Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roughly speaking, an interval of about two hundred years separates the New Testament<\/a> from the Septuagint<\/a>. In most languages a period of that duration would mean great modifications and many new developments. It is different with the two centuries we are considering. Two types of speech have become stereotyped, and have both been used in literature.<\/p>\n

The one, indeed, is only a literary language; for this purpose it has been formed, and its aim is to keep itself as free as possible from accommodation to the popular standard. The other is originally the common speech of the people; but, after passing through the mould of Hebrew thought, it, too, has become, in a sense, literary, or at least it has become the vehicle of a large and uniquely important collection of books. That has given fixity to it, so that henceforward it may be used as a standard or norm.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, this “Hellenistic” type of Greek cannot be said to be found again until, for the second time, a group of writers whose modes of thinking are predominantly Hebrew, give it currency in a more influential form than ever, through the collection of works which make up the New Testament. There are breaks, so to speak, in this long interval of silence. That cluster of writings which form a kind of appendix to the Old Testament and a prologue to the New, which, for want of a better designation, are termed “Apocrypha,” must, we think, be regarded as belonging, in point of language, both to the Hellenic type of the “Common” dialect, and in a much less degree to the “Hellenistic” of the LXX.<\/p>\n

The greater part of them is, in all likelihood, the work of Jewish writers; yet these are imbued with Greek influences, and especially with Greek conceptions, to an extent which places them in a quite distinct sphere from that in which the writers of the LXX move. So that it is perhaps advisable to glance at their characteristics, as regards vocabulary, in the same line of development as the authors of the “Common” dialect.<\/p>\n

A brief survey of some of the distinguishing features of these authors, in the particular province of “vocabulary,” should place us at a better point of view for estimating the language of the New Testament, and the influences which moulded it. As has been already noted, those writers after the days of Alexander who were conscious of a real literary impulse, created for themselves a special type of literary speech. The “Common” dialect, therefore, is not a mere vague reflection of the mixed language prevailing all round the shores of the Mediterranean. It is differentiated from that by several distinct characteristics.<\/p>\n

For one thing, the writers who employ it are cultivated men. They have received a polite education. They write not only for the purpose of giving information to the public regarding certain important or interesting subjects, but also with the sense of the worth of literature as itself educative. Certainly they aim, above all things, at clearness of statement and plainness of speech, but they never exhibit that entire artlessness of language which marks the Hellenistic writers. The latter are, one may say, conscious of their vocabulary. Lucidity is their one aim.<\/p>\n

The writers of the \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u1f74 have not lost entirely the sense for effect. So they choose their words, and even seem to lay down definite principles for themselves as to their mode of selection. They have studied, and know the great masterpieces of earlier times. The influence of these cannot be disregarded.<\/p>\n

They are aware that literary prose has reached a definite level in the past. Accordingly, the standard once attained will have, in any case, an unconscious effect on their work. But to counterbalance their culture and education, and even their innate feeling for literature (for it may be presumed that in this they surpass their contemporaries), stands a long array of unfavourable conditions. They cannot escape their environment. They are surrounded by mixed populations, whose dialects comprise words and phrases and forms borrowed from every variety of Greek.<\/p>\n

The separate provinces in which they were born and brought up have each its peculiar type of language. Local colouring prevails all round. And common to all of them is the original corrupted Attic which forms the basis of the new cosmopolitan Greek. Besides, vigorous national life, that life which kept the earlier Attic pure and forcible, and which afforded so keen a stimulus to thought that only a refined and subtle tongue could express the conceptions of the great thinkers, that life bas given place to a spurious, relaxed existence which calls forth a corresponding artificial language. And so the striking fact comes to light that these writers, although they are acquainted with the wide and expressive and pure vocabulary of the Golden Age, are really unfit to use it.<\/p>\n

The great, fruitful ideas of the past, nourished by the pride and glory of Athens, have made room for meagre, thin conceptions which reflect themselves in the language. Therefore we find that the writers of the \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u1f74 use only an excerpt from the Attic vocabulary. This they supplement by recent formations, sometimes due to the general tendencies underlying the speech of the time, sometimes the result of special local idiosyncrasies. After all, however, their dialect, which in its main features is common to them all, stands high above the speech of popular intercourse. It is therefore artificial, with a real effort after literary effect. …<\/p>\n

It seems to us impossible to speak of a development, in the strict sense, being found, either in a downward or upward direction, in the language employed by the leading writers from the time of the LXX to that of the New Testament<\/a>. What we do meet with is rather a more or less stable basis of words which supports, so to speak, a constantly shifting surface. In other words, the earlier literary tradition, modified by the mixture of dialects and the weakened sense for language, has fixed, though not within rigid limits, a type of language distinct from the current popular speech, which becomes the standard for literature. This vocabulary is diversified by individual writers through personal predilections, local peculiarities, and the particular bias given by their own cast of thought.<\/p>\n

_______
\nFrom H. Kennedy, Sources of New Testament Greek<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roughly speaking, an interval of about two hundred years separates the New Testament from the Septuagint. In most languages a period of that duration would mean great modifications and many new developments. It is different with the two centuries we are considering. Two types of speech have become stereotyped, and have both been used in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[8,5,13,317],"tags":[332,3996,3997,3998,1851,4001,4000,3999,101],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-greece","category-education","category-greek-history","category-greek-language","tag-bible","tag-biblical-criticism","tag-hellenistic-civilization","tag-koine-greek","tag-language-of-the-new-testament","tag-languages-of-europe","tag-linguistics","tag-literary-language","tag-septuagint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}