[B-Greek] Greek "style"

Kenneth Litwak javajedi2 at yahoo.com
Thu Oct 21 16:04:20 EDT 2004


  As I'm teaching a course on NT SUrvey, and going
through the textbook, I see the usual discussions
about did so-and-so write such-and-such a letter.  I'm
not introducing that topic here, as it would be
inappropriate, but I got to thinkng about Greek
"style."  Obviously, Hebrews and 1 Peter are much more
complex than 1 John.  However, when I ventured outside
the NT in grad school, alomst everything (except the
LXX) was significantly harder.  Even Ignatious, whom
one might have expected to have "NT" style was harder.
 Josephus was significnatly harder.  And nothing I
read in the NT even begins to rise to the level of
complexity of THucydides or Lucian (Pseudo-Eupolemos
yes, Lucian, no).  It seems to me in thinking about
the Greek Iv'e read, even not being a classicist, that
the gulf between a Thucydides and any NT author is so
great that to make pronouncements about the stark
differences in style/level of sophistication between
NT authors is, by analogy, quibbling over the
differences between prose from thrid- and
fourth-graders, while ignoring how both compare to the
prose of an educated adult.  In other other words,
saying that 1 Peter is much better than John
stylistically may be true, but neither begins to rise
to the level of well-known classical authors, so the
differences within the NT are straining at gnats and
swallowing camels (ignoring how all NT swritings are
much less sophisticated than secular Greek texts).  Am
I overstating the differecnes between NT Greek texts
and non-biblical Greek texts?  

Ken Litwak

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