Hellenistic in this broad sense, as may be seen in the psychological analysis of temptation (1'^), in the description of God's unchangeableness (1"), in the notion of regeneration (V^), in the parables (l--*' "^^ 3^- *) ; diroK^eiv (V^- ^^) belongs to the termino- logy of the Hermetic literature ; the ' wheel of nature ' (3^) is a Stoic term, etc. 1 Clement uses the legend of the phoenix to demonstrate the Christian hope of resurrection.
The Johannine literature, on the other hand, originates in a Palestinian Judaism transplanted into the soil of Asia Minor. There are Hellenistic elements iu it {e.g. the notion of the Logos), but they belong to the latest stratum in the develop- ment of the Johannine doctrine.
Christianity was thus influenced by Hellenism in various ways : after the Jewish Hellenists of Jerusalem had started it on its world-mission, the Hellenism of the Jewish Diaspora came to their aid, and the Hellenism of the Greek- Roman world received it gladly, after having prepared a way for it. In receiving it, however, Hellenism turned the gospel into a Mystery as it had done with the other Oriental cults. From this point of view Gnosticism and Catholicism are to be understood respectively as a rapid and a slow hellenization of Christianity.
Literature. — In addition to the works already cited, see A. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte*, i. [Tubingen, 1909] ; E. von Dobschiitz, Prnhleme des apostolischen Zeitalters, Leipzig', 1904, p. 97 £f.; The Apostolic Age, London, 1909 ; 'Christentuiu und Griechentum,' in Das Christentum, Leipzig, 1908 ; G. Hoennicke, Das Judenchristentum , Berlin, 190s ; C. F. G. Heinrici, ' Ilelleniamus und Christentum,' in Bibl. Zeit- nyid Streit/ragen, Leipzig, 1909; W. Glawe, Die Hellenisierung den Chrikentums in der Geschichte der Theologie, Berlin, 1912. Cf. artt. Stepuen, Paul. E. VON DOBSCHUTZ.
HELLENISTIC AND BIBLICAL GREEK.— 1.
Definition. — The term ' Biblical Greek ' denotes the language of the Greek versions of the OT, and more especially the LXX, as also that of the NT, with which may be associated the Apocrypha and the works of the Apostolic Fathers. This group of writings, however, is separated from the world of Hellenic culture not so much by any peculiarity of language as by the ideas which Hnd expression in them. In point of fact, Biblical Greek is a deposit of the widely-diffused Hellenistic language — the so-called Koine.
2. The term ' Koine.' — This term is used to signify the Gr. language in its development from the time of Alexander the Great to the close of the ancient period, excluding, of course, the older dia- lects so far as they survived at all, and excluding also the language of the Atticists (2nd-5th cent. A.D.), who sought to revive the Attic form of speech, but, as children of their age, were unable to free themselves wholly from the influence of the living, i.e. the spoken, tongue. In designating the common language of the Hellenistic period by the single word ' Koine,' we are but following the usage of the ancient grammarians, who employed the expression ij kolvt) didXeKTos to differentiate the language used by all from Attic, Ionic, Doric, and ^olic* But as the words kolvtj, kolv6v, koivQs were not employed by the ancients in a uniform way, we may venture to take the term ' Koine ' as applying both to the spoken tongue and to its literary form. The literary Koine, of which Poly- bius may be called the most typical representative, is a compromise between the spoken Koine and the older literary language. This holds good of every text written in the Koine, such works diflering among themselves only as regards the degree in which the two elements are intermingled. The so-called Atticists, i.e. the grammarians, such as
* Cf. A. Maidhof, Zur Begrifsbestimmung der Koine, Wijrzburg, 1912, and the criticism of Thumb, in Monatsschri/l fur hohere Schulen, Berlin, 1913, p. 392 ff.
552 HELLENISTIC & BIBLICAL GREEK HELLENISTIC & BIBLICAL GREEK
Moeris, who taught the rules of correct Attic, usually distinguished such words and forms of the Koine as they rejected, hy the term "EWrjves, as contrasted with the 'AttikoI, the linguistic forms they approved of ; and hence iXXi^vi^eiv means ' to speak the Hellenistic language,' and the'EX\?7i'tcrra£ of Ac 6^ 9-^ are 'Hellenistic-speaking Jews' (pos- sibly applied also to other Orientals).
3. The geographical domain of the Koine. — The native soil of Biblical Greek, i.e. Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, forms but a part of the great Hellen- istic domain, the furthest boundaries of which were nearly coincident with those of Alexander's Empii-e. The hellenization of those parts of this area which were originally non-Hellenic was, of course, not uniform. It was most complete in Asia Minor, which in the Middle Ages became the home of Byzantine-Greek culture. Even in the Koman Imperial period Asia Minor was almost entirely Greek, and dominated by Greek civilization ; nor is this contravened by the fact that the old in- digenous languages, such as Phrygian, Cap- padocian, etc., were still spoken sporadically until the 5th and 6tli centuries. Lycaonian is referred to as a spoken language not only in Ac 14^',* but, as late as the 6th cent., in the Legend of St. Martha, while the Celtic dialect of the Gala- tians was still a living vernacular in the time of Jerome. Holl t rather overestimates the import- ance of the evidences he gives of this fact, for the dialects in question occupied a position in Hellenic Asia Minor not very different from that of Albanian in Greece at the present day ; and, in fact, the im- portance of these tongues is hardly to be compared with that of Welsh in England, the Phrygian dialect alone surviving in a few short texts (sepulchral inscriptions) dating from the Imperial period. Tlie influence of the ancient languages of Asia Minor upon Greek {i.e. the Koine) was like- wise of the slightest. J In Syria, as in Egypt, Greek was probably confined in the main to urban districts. In the numerous Hellenistic towns situ- ated between the Phoenician coast and a line to the east of the Lake of Gennesaret and the Jordan — cities like Antioch, Acco, Damascus, and Gadara — the Greek language prevailed, as also did Greek administration, law, and culture. As regards Jewish Palestine, on the other hand, it can hardly be said that there was any real hellenization there at all. The Jews certainly learned Greek as the medium of intercourse and commerce and also for literary purposes, but they retained their Aramaic mother- tongue as well. Jesus and His apostles spoke Aramaic, and preached in Aramaic, though they may not have been ignorant of Greek ; as a matter of fact, the ability to use more than one language is not uncommon in the East to-day, even among the lower classes.§ From the fact that Jesus and the apostles spoke Aramaic it is to be inferred that the \6yia '1-qaov and the earliest records of His life were originally composed in Aramaic, and here too there emerges a special problem regarding the character of NT Greek (as also the Greek of the LXX) — a problem which will engage our attention below. But the general character of Biblical Greek can be understood only in relation to its basis in the Koine, and accordingly we must here deal first of all with the sources, the origin, and the character of the latter.