(B) Inflexion. — (1) For the vocative 6 9e6s see
• Especially in his ' New Testament Greek in the Light of Modern Discovery ' (ComJrirfff« Biblical Essays, London, 1909, p. 461 fp.).
t op. cit. L 6ff.
t In what follows, a star (•) placed before the word indicates that the form is found in both the LXX and the NT ; forms not 80 distinguished are in the NT.
§ The occasional use of v for ov in papyri (cf. SvXos for JoiiAos in LXX, 1 K 1421) shows that it wag akin to u ; Init at an early period it had also the value of i in Asia and Egypt.
above, § 8. Observe rb (for 6) ?Xeos, and the like. vovs is declined vo6s, vot after the example of /3oCj, /3o6s. (2) For viKxav, *xe'ipa.v, ^aaiKiav, etc., see above. (3) rb fiXas (for 6 aXs) ; 6pvi^ for 6pvi^ is perhaps a Dorism. (4) Verbs in -fXL went gradually out of use, as is attested by the MS readings l(TTd(j) (LXX),IcrTd;'a>, *d<pi(j}, *(jvvlw, dfj-viw. In the inflexion of ei/xl we And an imi3. mid. -qiJi-nv. Tlie earliest un- mistakable use of ivi ( = ^i/ecrrt), from which arose the Mod. Gr. elvai, ' he is,' instead of icrrl is found in the NT ; the imperative is ^rw (for ^aru). (5) (TT-fiKii) (Mod. Gr. ffriKio), the use of which is better attested in the NT than in the LXX, is an innova- tion formed from 'icr-i^Ka, and on the analo^i;y of rjKu, which could be inflected like a perfect (LXX VKafiev and iJKaTe). (6) Contracted verbs : *Treiva.i> and *5itpdv, but *iriv ; the Hellenistic xp3-<T6ai is but meagrelj' attested in Biblical Greek. (7) The spelling x'^""'^ (LXX x'^"^) i^ of special interest, as presents with pv occur also in the Cyprian dialect of to-day, i.e. in Eastern Greek. (8) Personal endings : (a) the ending -aav extends far beyond its original usage, but occurs more frequentlj' in the LXX (ifKdocrav, icpipocrav, iyevvQidav, ihfiL\ov<Tav) than in the NT [dxoa-av, idopv^ovaav) : in Mod. Gr. it is confined to contracted verbs ; [b) the termina- tions of the first and second aorists begin to coa- lesce, e.g. *evpafiev, *e'tdaiiiev ; as found in the im- perfect {e.g. *^\eyav), we cannot be so sure that they belong to the original text ; (c) in 3rd plur. perf. we sometimes find -avfor aai, as in *i<hpaKav, *yiyovav.
(C) Syntax. — (1) Indications of the decreasing use of the dative are the occasional confusion be- tween eh with ace, and iv with dat., the preference for the gen. and the ace. after prepositions taking three cases, and the growing use of the ace. after verbs like *xpd<j9aL, Karapdcrdai, ivedpe6€iv. After certain verbs, moreover, the ace. tends to supersede the gen., as e.g. Kparelv, Kara^LKd^eiv nvd. (2) A pre- positional construction sometimes takes the place of simple noun with case, as e.g. eaOieLv eK rod dprov, dir^X^ffdai dirb. (3) The aorist, in comparison with the imp. indie, is more frequently used than in the classical period ; the use of the aorist in a perfective sense is made distinct by prepositions, thus wpay- yuarei/o-ao-^ot ( Lk 19'^), ' trade with,' but diawpayfiaTeij- aaadai (v.^^), 'gain by trading.' This force of the preposition explains also why a preposition is more frequently attached to the aorist than to the pre- sent stem ; but presents with aoristic force could be formed in a similar way : cf. rbv fiiadbv dTr^xo""'' (Mt 6-- ^- '^), ' they have received their reward ' ; dw^xo) is used in a like sense in receipts found among the papyri. A characteristic feature of the LXX and NT is that they always employ the aorist imperative in invocations of God — a usage to which we find an analogy in Homer. (4) The ex- tent to which the perfect was used in Biblical Greek with the force of the aorist is disputed ; the usage of Hellenistic Greek generally ratlier favours the aoristic function (as e.g. of *€t\Tj(pa, *^(txvi<0') in Biblical Greek as well. (5) The optative was obsolescent, alike in principal and in subordinate clauses ; its disuse is more marked in the NT than in the LXX. (6) The infinitive shows no sign of decay in the LXX ; but in the NT it is widely (as in Mod. Gr. always) superseded by tva, hence e.g. fTjrtD tVa, irapaKoXu) tva ; to look for a purposive force in every 'iva in Biblical Greek is a mistake. Tlie infinitive witli tlie article, however, is common also in the NT, and it may be remarked that a number of old infinitive forms survive in Mod. Gr. as nouns, e.g. Tb(f)i\i — Tb <pi\eiv, ' the kiss.' (7) The present participle active sliows a tendency to be come rigid (tlie Mod. Gr. X^yovras is indeclinable), as e.g. in Jn 15' : /j.ivup iv ifiol Kdyu (fidvoj) iv avr-^. A remarkable feature is the use of the participle
HELLENISTIC & BIBLICAL GREEK HELLENISTIC & BIBLICAL GEEEK 559
without copula as a predicate.* As this usage is not only found in papyri, but is still very common in Malalas, it was probably a peculiarity of the Eastern Koine. (8) The wealth of particles char- acteristic of the classical langua";e has been largely lost. The Gospels, like the popular tales of Modern Greek, generally exhibit a simple co-ordination of clauses, either without connectives or connected by Kal, Tore, Si, fiera. touto, iv iKeifui ti^ KaipQ. As already said, it is quite wrong to regard this feature— and in particular the f req uent use of /cat — as a Hebraism, the paratactic sequence of clauses being in reality a characteristic of simple popular narrative.t (9) In Biblical Greek the verb would seem to head the sentence more frequently than in Greek generally. Its initial position may well be due in part to Semitic influence (see above), but we must on this point await the results of a more searching and detailed investigation.