Paul's Greek

Randall Buth ButhFam at compuserve.com
Wed Jul 31 13:40:37 EDT 2002


shalom Donovan,

>I raise this issue not because of any disagreement I have
>with the general consensus on gender, but in an effort to
>explain what I so often see as missing in some of these
>arguments:  Our appreciation of Paul's understanding of
>Greek.
>
>Thank you all for keeping this list such a fascinating
>place.<

Good question, and one that must be remembered in the background
of any discussion.

For the record, Paul studied under Gamliel in Jerusalem,
who was famous for teaching 
'500 of his students Greek wisdom, while teaching the other 500 
Tora'. 
Paul's vocabulary level, general clarity of expression, reasonably 
complex sentence structures, acquaintance with Greek poets, and 
profession of travelling to speak in Greek areas, all testify to a 
sophisticated, fluent control of educated Koine Greek. 

I actually assume it was a mother-tongued, though if not, I would 
assume that it was close to an 'adopted mother-tongue' level, if 
many years of his education were in that language and he used it
professionally for most of his life.

blessings,

Randall Buth
www.biblicalulpan.org



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