Translation Greek

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Jul 24 17:37:38 EDT 2002


> I was reading an old article [R. A. Martin "Syntactical Evidence
> of Aramaic
> Sources in Acts I-XV" New Testament Studies vol 11, no. 1 (1964):38-59.].
> Martin suggested  three characteristics demonstrate a probability that a
> text was originally translated from a Semitic source:
> 1. A significantly greater frequency of the use of KAI instead of DE (at
> least a 2 to 1 ratio)

Which KAI? It would be inaccurate to count just the number of DE's and KAI's
in a book using electronic counting. One would need to compare those KAI's
that function as sentences connectors with the DE's, and eliminate all the
KAI's that function at the phrase or word level.

Even if there are an enormous number of KAI's in a book (e.g. 1123 in
Revelation, counting all kinds of KAI) as opposed to few DE's (7 in Rev) it
does not mean that Revelation was necessarily translated from Hebrew or
Aramaic (although that might well be the case). It could also just reflect
that the author was a Jew whose Greek was strongly influence by Semitic
sentence structure. Revelation certainly shows a Semitic thought pattern in
its circular structure.

Iver Larsen




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