3. VOCABULARY AND STYLE.—({a) Vocabulary. A full examination of the remarkable vocabulary of 2 P is beyond the limits of this article. The following are the main points :—
LXX.—Th tains “τ re eee in five plncen—22 (ls 02) 20 Pr 2) 98 Pa 90 (6) #314 δὲ ) 813 511 6622). But in none of these passages is the resem- blance of — ΤᾺ = close vy to eee cyan το ἐδ ἘΣ rtain. ef vives
com but adopt a type of δ τέσ in early Christian literature ; see Lightfoot on aaant 1. The only word common and Pr 2611 is κύων, and we may have a current proverb based on the words of Proverbs. Much the same may be said of 8% (see above, p. 800). In 8137. the writer is [rae adopting the logy of Christian a) lyptic writings based on Is (cf.
γ 211, Apoc, Petr. apud us Magn. iv. 7; see Lightfoot on ‘2 Olem.' xvi). Other LXX phrases are εἰρήνη «Aniurduin 13 (Dn 898, but see 1 P 12, Jude), % αἰώνιος βασιλεία 1}} (Dn $100), κατακλυσμὸν ἱπάγων 25 (Gn 617), ix’ ἰσχάτων τῶν ἡμιρῶν 85 (6.0. Jos 2477). For ee ἁγίῳ ὅρω (118) compare Ps 28, Is 119 27 6815, Ezk 2814 (where, however, ‘my,’ ‘thy,’ or the like, is always added). The phrase ἡμέραν if ἡμέρας 28 (LXX 8) is also classical (Eur. Rhesus 446). Words in this Epistle which are characteristic of the LXX are isytis (Job 3), ἱντρυφᾶν (LXX5), κπαθαρισμός (common in LXX), κατακλύζειν (LXX°, Wis4), κατα- πονσθα, (2 Mac}, 8 Mac), καταστροφή (Gn 19%), μωγαλμότης (LXX 4), μεγαλοαριπής (Dt}, 2 Mac 3, 8 Mac}; see above, p. 799),
* ‘common in LXX), νυστάζιων (LXX 11), σκήνωμα (Common in fx), ὑσοζύγιον(οοτοτηοη in LXX=‘ ass’). Some of these words, however, such as καθαρισμός, usues, were at an early period adopted into the vocabulary of the Church, and so, without any borrowing from the LXX, would naturally be used by a Christian writer. That the author of 2 P derived some of his words and phrases from the LXX is clear. But it is no less clear that a was not steeped in its language. It was not a book which he was wont ‘nocturna uersare manu, uersare
diurna.’
(11.) Classical words.—A |e element in the vocabulary consists of what may be roughly described as classical words. are, however, any a taken not to set up a delusive standard. In his articles on 2 P in Bapos. (Ser. τι. vol. iii) E. A. Abbott
writes thus (p. 206): ‘In order to appreciate the resemblance between this Indian-English [{.6. a passage quoted from the Madras Mail) and the style of the Second Epistle, we must bear in mind that some of the words employed by the author of the latter are very rare in Greek literature; and others, though good classical Greek in themselves, are rare or non- existent in the New Testament.’ A modern scholar, with his apparatus of NT lexicons and concordances, is apt unconsciously to isolate the vocabulary of the NT writers or of a certain section of them, and, forgetting that the limits of this voca- are accidental, to make it something of an absolute rule by which to judge a document whose authenticity is doubtful With this caution the following list of words is given which do not occur in the NT except in 2 P*—aéseuer (3 Mac?, Dicd., Philo, J h., Plut.), ἀκατάπσαυστος (v.l. in 2'4; Polyb., Diod., Joseph., Plut.), ἅλωσις (LXX1; Pind., Herod., Asch.), ἀμαϑάς Symm. (Ps); Herod. and onwards), ἀμώμνητος (Hom., inscr.; adv. lerod.; vl, in Ph 215), ἀ ποφεύγειν (common Herod. and onwards; Sir)), ἀργῶν (Soph., Eur., and onwards; LXX6), ἀστέήριατος (Ar ἐν Longin.), aizxunpés (Eur., Plato, etc.; Apoc. Petri), βλέμμα ( h. and onwards; on meaning see below), Sépsepec XX1; ach. and onwards; comp. ἐν βορβόρῳ χυλίισθα, Epict. . 4. 11. 29), βραδυτής (Hom. and onwards), S ανγάζων (Polyb., Plut., Aq. (Job)), δυσνόητος (Lucian, Diog. Laert.), ἐγκατνικῶν Herod., Eur., Polyb.), ἑκάστοτε (Herod. and onwards common aims (Philo, Joseph., Plut., Arrian), ἱξακολουδεῶῖν (LXX®; Polyb., Joseph., Plut., Dion. Hal., Epict.), ἐπάγγελμα (Dem., Isocr., Aristot.), ἐσίλυσις (Aq. (Gn), 8 . (Hos); Hermas, Iren., Clem., Sext. Emp., Heliod.; verb Mk), iréerrns (4sch., Dem. ‘spectator’; Plut., Inscr. in reference to mysteries), ieerijuses = ilo, Joseph., Plut., Lucian, A2l.), λήθην λαβῶν (Jos. Ant. π΄ x; μίασμα (LXX8; g. and onwards common), uwiaeués (Wis}, 1Macl; Aq. (Dt), Symm. (K), Plut., Test. zit. Patr., Hermas), ὁλήγως (Aq. (Is); Anthol.), ὁμέχλη (LXX10; Hom. (JL), sch., Ar., Xen., Aristot.), sapaveuia (LXX9; Thuc., Plato, Polyb., Dion. Hal.), σαρωσάγων (Isocr., Polyb., Plut., Diod.), παρωσφίρειν (Dem. ‘to bring in a law’), τλαστός (Herod., Eur., Xen., Lucian), στνριγμός (Aristot., Diod., Plut.), στρεβλοῦν (LXX}, 8 Mac}, 4 Mac4; Herod. and onwards common in literal sense), ταχινός (LXX6; Theocr., Callim., Aratus), τερροῦν (Theophr., Lycophro, Philo, Dion. Cass., Antonin., Anthol.), τοιόσ (LAX; Hom. and onwards common), τολμητής (Thuc., Philo., Joseph., Plut., Lucian), J (LXX7; Hom. and onwards common), φωσφόρος
(Tim. Locr., Philo).
ii) Very rare or unique words.—They are ἀκατάπαστος (0.1. in 214; on the possible origin and meaning of the word see Hort’s Introduction (Notes Ὁ. 170)), ἑμσαυγμονή a and other authorities omit ἐν iue. in 3), ἑξίραμα, xviueues (80 ΒΟ" curs; πύωσμα RAKLP, etc.), wapagperia, poilndév, ταρταροῦν. Of these, two (ἐξέραμα and avenues) occur in the two proverbs cited In 222, and we cannot be sure therefore that they are due to the writer himself. In the case of three of the words the matter is one of form. The word iuvaryuer4 does not seem to occur elsewhere; but iuezsyués, which does not occur in profane writers, is found in LXX6, in Theodot.}, in an anonymous Greek version 2, and in He 1138. Again, there does not seem to be any- thing to choose in point of rarity between κυλσμός and κύλέσμαι. For both, a reference is given in the lexicons to a work on farriery (Higpiatrios) of late date. The former is found in Theod. (Pr 25), the latter in Symm. (Ezk 1015), The former ex- resses the act of rolling, the kindred Aristotelian word κύλσις es inadmissible since it has a technical athletic sense; the latter properly the thing rolled, and so perhaps the place of rolling—the word πυλίστρα, which is in Xen. Eq. 5. 8, is apparently a technical term in the training of horses. Again, it casslapeetin is found in Plato and Hippocrates, the wapagper/« of 2 P shares the opprobrium of bein, vo ὄνησις, Which is used by the LXX in Zec 124. Again, for 4 πὸόν (a8 for ῥοιζηδά) Nicander, a poet who wrote about 150 8.c., quoted, the verb (sfc) and the noun (jeter) both bang nized Greek words. Again, the verb ἱξερᾶν is used o vomiting (metaphorically) in classical Greek (Aristoph.) and in Aquila ἄν 1825), and ‘vomit’ is a natural meaning of ἐξίραικα, Lastly, though ταρταροῦν is found apparently only in 2 P and in a scholium on Homer, the compound καταταρταροῦν is used by Apollodorus and Sextus Empiricus. The words which have been examined are, it cannot be denied, strange and unusual terms; but something can be said in defence of each of them. The papyri which have been discovered of late years have brought home to us our ignorance of colloquial Greek, and suggest caution in peremptorily condemning a word found only in a particular writer as the barbarism of an individual,