Questions about "The" Septuagint, Koine, and Attic Greek

Erik Westwig ewestwig at palisade.com
Fri Nov 2 10:38:44 EST 2001


I have a few beginner questions for you.  I apologize if these questions
have been asked before.

1. Is the Greek of "The" Septuagint of essentially the same dialect of The
New Testament?  That is, lets say I've worked hard at learning to read the
New Testament, and I reach a comfortable level with the vocabulary, grammar,
and syntax.  How much trouble will I encounter reading "The" Septuagint?

2. How large is the corpus of works we have available that are considered to
be in effectively the same Koine dialect as the New Testament?  While I
definitely am interested in hearing about other works related to
Christianity and the early church, I am also wondering about secular
writings.  How useful are secular documents in resolving questions about how
to interpret the biblical texts in the context of everyday life?

3. How different is Koine from Attic Greek?  Will it all be Greek to me,
again?  (Not that I really understand Koine all that much, either.)  I've
been attempting to teach myself Koine for the last 10 months or so.  If I
looked into Attic Greek at the same time, would I end up confusing myself
hopelessly?  Does knowledge of Attic Greek (or other earlier Greek dialects)
substantially help in biblical studies (or vice-versa, for that matter).

Erik Westwig
westwig at palisade.com



More information about the B-Greek mailing list