contra Deissmann
Michael D. Marlowe
abe at tusco.net
Tue Sep 3 22:35:42 EDT 2002
List,
I am doing some research on style in the NT, and ran across Jimmy Adair's
review of Harry Y. Gamble's "Books and Readers in the Early Church: A
History of Early Christian Texts." in TC vol. 2
(http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/vol02/Gamble1997rev-x.html)
He summarizes Gamble:
"While early Christian writers might not have been self-consciously
creating Hochliteratur, there are many indications that they intended for
their works to be copied and used by people other than the original
recipients. Adolf Deissmann's famous dictum that early Christian works
were written in popular, colloquial Greek must now be modified to
recognize that these writings are written in the professional prose of the
day. Early Christian letters are similar to official and philosophical
letters, and the gospels are similar to other Greco-Roman biographical
literature."
Question: Would anyone here care to comment on the statement that the NT
was largely written in the "professional prose of the day," contra
Deissmann?
Regards,
Michael Marlowe
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