[B-Greek] Greek language changes during Flavian period

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 24 11:46:11 EDT 2003


At 4:52 PM +0200 9/24/03, Super Zeeral wrote:
>I am an Italian student and I'd like to study the
>Greek language during the Flavian period (Vespasian,
>Domitian, Titus). In particular, I'd like to
>understand the connection between this kind of Greek
>(the one of their official documents, letters,
>edicts...) and the Greek of the New Testament.
>Could you help me in some way?
>Thanks a lot,
>Robert

First of all, if you intend to post again to this list, please use a
full-name signature as is required by list-protocol: we do not allow
anonymous messages.

The "connection" is not so much unreal or "tenuous" as it is difficult to
state with any real precision. You might do well to look at Geoffrey
Horrocks' book, _Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers_;
Horrocks emphasizes recurrently as he describes successive phases in the
history of the language that there is regularly a difference between the
official language of administrators and schooled literary authors and the
"demotic" language used by commoners and merchants in the streets, what in
more recent history has been called the difference between the
"Katharevousa" and the "Dimotiki." Of course one of your best sources for
the "official" language of the Flavian period will be the works of Flavius
Josephus, as I'm sure you realize; but with respect to the New Testament
there are many levels of the Koine ranging from the simpler language of
John's gospel and letters on up through the language used by the clearly
"schooled" author Luke and rather polished style of the author of Hebrews.
Look especially at Horrocks, chapters 4, "Greek in the Hellenistic World,"
5, "Greek in the Roman Empire," and 6, "Spoken Koine in the Roman Period."
It is particularly important for your purposes to appreciate the impact of
the "Atticizing" movement that begins to become dominant precisely in the
Flavian period and under the influence of which educated writers of Greek
came to emulate the vocabulary and grammatical forms and syntax of 5th and
4th century Attic and to shun the comparable usage of the spoken language.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list