[B-Greek] Paul writing in Latin or Hebrew/Aramaic?
jgibson000 at comcast.net
jgibson000 at comcast.net
Sun Aug 22 23:52:35 EDT 2010
On 8/22/2010 10:36 PM, jgibson000 at comcast.net wrote:
> On 8/22/2010 10:29 PM, David McKay wrote:
>> I've just read this assertion on another list and am interested in your
>> comments, please:
>>
>> "And no, Greek was not the language of the Romans. They spoke
>> Latin. Paul
>> would have written to Rome either in one of his better languages
>> (Hebrew/Aramaic) or theirs (Latin), but there's little logic behind
>> the idea
>> he would have written to them in Greek."
> If memory serves, there is a very good discussion of this claim in the
> old Sandy & Headlam ICC Commentary on Romans.
Looked it up. Here's a relevant passage:
> It will seem at first sight to the uninitiated reader a rather strange
> paradox that a letter addressed to the capital of the Western or Latin
> world should be written in Greek. Yet there is no paradox, either to
> the classical scholar who is acquainted with the history of the Early
> Empire, or to the ecclesiastical historian who follows the fortunes of
> the Early Church. Both are aware that for fully two centuries and a
> half Greek was the predominant language if not of the city of Rome as
> a whole yet of large sections of its inhabitants, and in particular of
> those sections among which was to be sought the main body of the
> readers of the Epistle.
> Sanday, W. ; Headlam, Arthur C.: /A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
> on the Epistle of the Romans/. 3d ed. New York : C. Scribner's sons,
> 1897, lii
They also note, among much else on the topic, that:
> The question of the use of Greek at Rome has been often discussed and
> the evidence for it set forth, but the classical treatment of the
> subject is by the late Dr. C. P. Caspari, Professor at Christiania, in
> an Excursus of 200 pages to vol. iii. of his work /Quellen zur
> Geschichte des Taufsymbols/(Christiania, 1875).
>
Obviously much more contemporary sources which deal with the question
could be found with a little searching.
Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net
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