[B-Greek] original Greek versus translation greek
Michael Abernathy
mabernathy at isot.com
Sun May 18 17:02:59 EDT 2003
I have been trying to evaluate the methods of scholars like Raymond Martin who claim to be able to identify Semitic elements and hence Semitic sources in the New Testament. I chose 1 Thessalonians as a test case believing it is possible that Paul used some form of Q for his information about Jesus. For those not acquainted with Martin's methods, he computed the statistical average for syntactical features found in translation Greek and compared those with original Greek. I do not believe that 1 Thessalonians was originally written in any Semitic language, but it looks to me like the Greek of this book falls well within the statistics given by Martin for translation Greek. In fact, I found it easier to list the few places where the Greek used in this passage differs Hebrew syntax than where it conforms to Hebrew syntax. Has anyone attempted this study with the other epistles?
Do other Jewish authors outside of the New Testament write in a similar style? Would you consider it likely that Paul was imitating the style of the Septuagint to impress on his readers that the subject matter was holy?
Sincerly yours,
Michael Abernathy
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