Development of Greek Terms in the NT

Jürg Buchegger j.buchegger at datacomm.ch
Mon Sep 23 09:37:40 EDT 2002


In his initial mail, Kent Clarke wrote:

<Dear Colleagues:

<snip

<My actual question pertains to this development of languages. Can any one
<think off the top of their heads of any instances where the New Testament
<authors "coin a new phrase" or develop new terminology? I believe that
Paul,
<at least, does this in several places (especially where he is developing a
<theological thought or concept) but I am unable to put my finger on any of
<these instances. Failing this, can any one think of examples where a Greek
<term is used in the New Testament but in a relatively new sense without
<earlier precedent? My interest here is not to show any type of "inspired"
<development of a "sanctified language"; but rather to display the fluidity
<of the Greek language and, in some manner, the innovation of the biblical
<authors. I would be pleased to learn of any specific Greek New Testament
<examples you might be able to bring to light; and if any one knew of any
<monographs, book chapters, or journal articles dealing with such issues, I
<would be grateful.

Dear Kent,

may I point to my article in the Jahrbuch für evangelikale Theologie 15,
2001, p.11-35 on
"Mögliche paulinische Neologismen. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung des
paulinischen griechischen
Wortschatzes"? In this article I discuss the research on the pauline
vocabulary since Grimm, Thayer,
Deissmann and Cremer (19.th century), reflect some linguistic questions on
language and neologisms,
develop my methodology and present a list of 94 words, that have not (yet)
been found before Paul
in the greek texts available to us today. Note: this is a purely statistical
list and its only Paul (here:
the 13 epistles that go under his name).
My (theological) dissertation takes two words from this list (ANAKAINWO and
ANAKAINWSIS)
as its starting point and investigates the "renewal of man in Paul", trying
to find out (mainly on the
exegetical level), what reasons could have made Paul coin this word in 2 Cor
4:16; Rom 12:2; see
Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:10 and Tit 3:5. - I am pretty much convinced that Paul
coined the term
ANAKAINWO/ANAKAINWSIS. A definite proof of this is not possible.

Jürg Buchegger

Buchs, Switzerland




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