[B-Greek] Septuagint Vocabulary
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Thu May 6 10:59:09 EDT 2004
On May 5, 2004, at 11:39 PM, PAProphet at aol.com wrote:
> Hello,
> At Dr. Bill Mounce's site he gives a breakdown concerning
> vocabulary.
> According to Dr. Mounce if you know 320 or so key words you will be
> able to
> read like 79% of the Greek New Testament.
> This summer I plan on really picking back up on my Greek. I have
> had
> Greek I and II at seminary. But I also wanted to include studying the
> Septuagint.
> Does anyone know of a similar vocabulary breakdown for the
> Septuagint?
There may be such a breakdown but I am not aware of one.
>
> I just wanted to get an idea of what I am up against. Also, I just
> took it
> for granted that the Septuagint was written in Koine Greek. Is this
> so?
Correct, but it should be borne in mind that the Septuagint is a
translation rather a composition in Greek. Thus one should expect
grammatical differences in distribution as well as in intensity. In
other words, certain phenomena used in composition Greek are overused
used in the LXX because they have been paired with high frequency
Hebrew phenomena. As arbitrary examples, one might cite Hebrew HNH =
Greek IDOU, and Hebrew B + infinitive = Greek EN TWi + infinitive. Such
items can be labeled 'positive transfer'. There are also items of
'negative transfer', i.e. items that violate Greek usage. Again a
couple of examples. )NKY + finite vb = EGW EIMI + finite vb, )SR . . .
BW = e.g. hOS . . . EN AUTW.
On the lexical side too one will find instances of odd usage due to
pairing with a given Hebrew lexeme.
In short, though LXX Greek is Koine Greek one should not expect
straightforward linguistic performance.
Yes, grammars like Thackeray and Conybeare & Stock will alert the
reader to many oddities.
Al
are there major grammatical differences between the Greek NT and the
Septuagint?
> A few years ago, before I took Greek, I saw a grammar for the
> Septuagint. Maybe I should get it.
> Thank you.
>
> Mark Thompson
> wesley at pa-wordoffaith.org
> paprophet at aol.com
> ---
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>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm
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