known as the ‘Common Dialect’ (ἡ κοινή, se. διάλε- xros), a prominent abode of which for two centuries or more before the Christian era was the empire of the Ptolemies and their capital Alexandria. Here dwelt myriads of expatriated Jews, to whom in time their native or ancestral tongue became so unfamiliar that a Gr. translation of their sacred books was prepared to meet their needs (approxi- mately between B.C. 285 and B.C. 150 ; see SepTUA- GINT). To this version much of the reverence felt for the Heb. originals was soon transferred, and its common use by all Jews resident outside of Pales- tine did much to fix and perpetuate the type of Greek it represents. That Greek, after undergoing the modifications resulting inevitably from the use of separated localities and intervening generations, furnished the vehicle by which the revelation of God through Jesus Christ was given to the world.
Its origin discloses its fitness for its providential office. It embodied the lofty conceptions of the Heb. and Christian faith in a language which brought them home to men’s business and bosoms. It was an idiom capable of such use as not to forfeit the respect of the cultivated (see, for example, Ac 17**% 26%); yet, in substance, it was the language of everyday life, and hence fitted for the dissemination of the gospel by preaching wherever Greek was spoken. It differs evidently from the language of writers like Philo and Josephus, who, though of Heb. extraction, addressed themselves to the educated classes and aspired after idiomatic elegance of expression. It occupies apparently an intermediate position be- tween the vulgarisms of the populace and the studied style of the litterateurs of the period. It affords a striking illustration of the divine policy in putting honour on what man calls ‘ common.’
(c) History.—The true nature, however, of this noteworthy idiom was for a time in certain quarters unrecognized. This is surprising in view of the deviations from the classic standard which stare one in the face from every page of the NT. Moreover, the educated man among the apostles frankly con- fesses his lack of the graces of classic diction (1 Co 21-4 117, 2Co 11°); and competent judges of Greek among the early Christians, such as Origen (6. Cels. vii. 59 f., Philocalia, iv., ed. Robinson, p. 41 f.) and Chrysostom (Hom. 3 on 1 Co 17), not only are for- ward to acknowledge the literary inferiority of the biblical language, but find evidence in that fact both of the divine condescension to the lowly and of the surpassing dignity of the contents of revela- tion in that, though destitute of the charms of polite literature, it could yet command the alle- giance of the cultivated. Leading scholars of the Reformation period also (Erasmus, Luther, Melan- chthon, Beza) held in the main the same correct opinion. But early in the 17th cent. this opinion encountered emphatic dissent, which led to a dis- cussion (known as the ‘ Purist Controversy ’) which was protracted for more than a century, and con- ducted at times with no little heat. The heat was largely due to the circumstance that those who denied the classic purity of NT Greek were thought by their opponents to dishonour the divine author of the book. But if these over-zealous champions of the divine honour had had their way, they would have disproved the claim of the volume to be the production of Greek-speaking Jews of the Ist cent., and have nullified the philological evidence it affords that, at that epoch, there entered a new and trans- forming energy into the realm of human thought. We see the foolishness of God to be wiser than men. (A full bibliography of this instructive controversy, with a critical estimate of the arguments advanced on both sides, is given in Schmiedel’s Winer, ὃ 2).
The peculiarities of the NT language will be
LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TEST.
most conveniently exhibited in connexion with the several elements entering into its composition, viz.— το The later or ‘Common’ spoken Greek. 41. The Hebrew or spoken Aramaic. III. The Latin and other foreign tongues. IV. The religious or distinctively Christian element. To the consideration of these will be subjoined— Vv. Asummary view of the peculiarities of Individual Writers. VI. Some of the linguistic Problems in the NT, with the aids to their solution. VII. A glance at the Bibliography of the subject.
The peculiarities noticed in the first four divisions may be classified as (A) Lexical, and (B) Grammatical:—The former comprising—a. New Words, and b. New Meanings; the latter, = Peculiarities of Form, and b. Peculiarities of Construction or
yntax.
At the outset it should be noted that not a little uncertainty still exists with regard to many points of detail; and the limits of the present exposition will restrict for the most part the scennles and specifications given to a few representative par-
culars.
_ I. THE ‘COMMON’ OR SPOKEN GREEK.—(A) In its Levical relations:—a. New words. A few of the NT words commonly reckoned as belonging to later Greek are the following :—
ἀβαρής, ἀγαλλιάομαι, ἀγνόημα, ἀδηλότης, ἄθεσμος, ἀθετέω, ἀκαιρέομαι, ἀκατάλυτος, ἀκατάπαυστος, ἀλεκτορο- φωνία, ἀλληγορέω, ἀμετάθετος, ἀμετανόητος, ἀνάδειξις, ἀναθεωρέω, ἀναντίρρητος, ἀναπολόγητος, ἀνάχυσις, ἀντι- διατίθημι, ἀντοφθαλμέω, ἀνυπότακτος, ἀπαράβατος, ἀπελ- πίζω, ἀπερισπάστως, ἀποθησαυρίζω, ἀποκαραδοκία, ἀπο- κεφαλίζω, ἀπρόσιτος, ἀστοχέω, ἀτενίζω, βραβεῖον, γογγύζω, γονυπετέω, δεισιδαιμονία, διαγνωρίζω, διαγρη- yopéw, διαυγάζω, διαφημίζω, διερμηνεύω, διθάλασσος, διοδεύω, δίψυχος, δουλαγωγέω, δυσερμήνευτος, ἐγγίζω, ἔγκακέω, ἐγχρίω, ἐθνικός, ἐκδαπανάω, ἐκδικέω (etc.), ἔκθαμβος, ἐκπλήρωσις, ἐκτένεια, ἐξαρτίζω, ἐξισχύω, ἐπιθανάτιος, ἐπισκηνόω, ἐπιχορηγέω, ἑτερόγλωσσος, εὐα- ρεστέω, εὐδοκέω, εὐθυδρομέω, εὐκαιρέω, εὔκοπος, ἡμιώριον, ἤρεμος, θηριομαχέω, θριαμβεύω, ἱματισμός, ἰσότιμος, καθημερινός, καταβαρέω, καταγωνίζομαι, κατάκριμα, κατάλυμα, καταντάω, καταπονέω, κατοπτρίζομαι, κενο- Ookla, κερματιστής, κωμόπολις, μεθερμηνεύω, μεταμορφόω, μετριοπαθέω, νεωτερικός, ὁδηγός, οἰκοδομή, ὀψώνιον, παλινγενεσία, πάντοτε, παραχειμασία, παρείσακτος, παρεισ- ἔρχομαι, παρεπίδημος, περιλάμπω, περιοχή, πορισμός, προελπίζω, προσεγγίζω, πρόσκαιρος, προσκληρόω, ῥᾳδι- οὔργημα, σημειόω, σκωληκόβρωτος, στρατολογέω, στρα- τοπεδάρχης, συνκατάθεσις, συνβασιλεύω, συνμερίζω, συνοδία, συνπνίγω, συνυποκρίνομαι, τελώνιον, τετράδιον, τετράρχης, τρίστεγος, υἱοθεσία, ὑπερπλεονάζω, ὑπογραμ- μός, ὑπολιμπάνω, ὑποτύπωσις, φίλαυτος, φιλήδονος, χειρόγραφον. Several verbs in -όω (6.4. ἀνακαινόω, δολιόω, δυναμόω, χαριτόω), -ἰζω (e.g. αἰχμαλωτίζω, ἀναθεματίζω, ἀνεμίζω), -εὐω (e.g. αἰχμαλωτεύω, γυ- μνιτεύω, μαθητεύω, μεσιτεύω) are either of later coinage or modifications of earlier endings.