[B-Greek] Greek "style"

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Oct 22 15:50:23 EDT 2004


At 1:04 PM -0700 10/21/04, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
>  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?

Well, I think we've had this discussion--or others like it--before. I do,
of course, think that Ken's overstating the differences between NT Greek
texts and non-Biblical Greek texts. Certainly I think that it's erroneous
to postulate the sort of gulf between the best NT Greek writers--and I'd
probably put the author of 1 Peter and the author of Hebrews decidedly into
that category and I'd put the letters generally attributed without dispute
to Paul there also, and yes, Luke--and the average (if there were any such
thing) extra-biblical Greek writer. I think that the terms of comparison
are wrongly drawn; we ought to draw them between those writers who have had
a formal rhetorical-grammatical Greek education and those who have not. I
think that the only reason Ken's assertion may SEEM to have merit is that
the extra-biblical Greek one is likely to read is literary Greek produced
by well-educated writers, while much of the NT corpus has been composed by
writers with little of what can be called a rhetorical-grammatical Greek
education. But if the reader has an adequate vocabulary, it seems to me
that works like pseudo-Lucian's ONOS and De Dea Syria are comparable prose
to that of Luke, and among classical Attic writers Lysias and Xenophon are
not really difficult. The trick is that you DO have to learn the
distinctive vocabulary and accustom yourself to the writer's style.

I don't suppose there's likely to be any consensus on this matter, but I
personally think that parts of Ephesians and of chapter 5 of 1 John are
pretty difficult because their syntax seems tortured and relationships
between clauses haven't been clearly indicated. That may be a matter of
want of rhetorical-grammatical education. I think Perry Stepp's point about
poorly-written papers handed in by students is a very good one. Writing
both clearly and eloquently is not a talent (although it does require
talent) but an acquisition that is gotten with considerable effort, and
unless a writer has acquired BOTH clarity and eloquence of expression, the
eloquence may be a hindrance to understanding what the writer has written.

I think it's a mistake to attempt resolving a question like this one in
simple generalizations.
-- 

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/



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