[B-Greek] GRONT Score for Dionysius of Halicarnassus (was the Gront Scale)

Margaret Sim margaret_sim at sil.org
Mon Nov 15 10:14:51 EST 2010


Dear Donald, Mark and friends,
I would not venture to give a GRONT reading, but I would support what Donald 
has said and apropos the usefulness for reading the NT, David Mealand has 
written on the correspondence between Dionysius and Luke-Acts in "Luke-Acts 
and the Verbs of Dionysius of Halicarnassus" in JSNT 63 (1996) pp. 63-86. 
Personally I find that Josephus is more of an 'Attciser' while Dionysius has 
'Attic' style. I say this partly because Josephus uses hWS with the 
subjunctive as well as a few other relics.
Yours,
Margaret Sim

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Cobb" <docobb at orange.fr>
To: "Mark Lightman" <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 8:01 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] GRONT Score for Dionysius of Halicarnassus (was the 
Gront Scale)


> Mark,
>
> Of course you realise it's absolutely impossible to line up ones 
> subjective impression of one author with someone else's subjective 
> impressions of other authors. But, since you asked, here's a shot:
>
> DIONISIOS OF HALICARNASSOS       Close to NT   6     Easy 5    Good  8 
> TOTAL 19
> I haven't read too much from Josephus, but from what I have, I would 
> venture to say that Dionisios's greek, in terms of difficulty, is probably 
> along the same lines, but much more pleasurable to read. Mutatis Mutandis, 
> the level of difficulty is fairly close to Polybius.
>
> I personally find that his fluid style draws the reader into material that 
> wouldn't initially attract me, at any rate, as much as, say, Epictetus. 
> What's especially interesting for this forum is that 1) he's almost 
> contemporary to the NT (the second book of his "History" can be dated to 7 
> BCE) and 2) he's often cited as a reference in BDAG (over 575 times).
>
> He does affect an attic style, but if you're looking to build up what can 
> be considered as NT-era koinè vocabulary and expressions, or wanting to 
> see an example of koinè period literary Greek, he's a good author to read.
>
> The edition I'm reading him in says this about Dionisios's style (sorry 
> for the French): "D'un côté [il y a chez Denys], un souci de purisme 
> grammatical qui s'affirme en particulier dans l'usage plus varié et plus 
> fréquent de l'optatif par comparaison avec Polybe, Diodore et Strabon, 
> ainsi que dans le large emploi des cas d'attraction du pronom relatif ; de 
> l'autre, la permanence de traits typiques de la langue hellenistique, dans 
> l'emploi des temps et des modes, et des particules de liaison, dans la 
> syntaxe de πρίν [PRIN], dans la construction des prépositions. Le 
> vocabulaire surtout porte la double marque de la langue hellénistique : 
> d'une part, il admet des termes de la langue courante, d'autre part, il 
> recherche des mots composés ou dérivés et fait des emprunts à la langue 
> poétique"
>
> Valérie Fromentin in Denys d'Halicarnasse, *Antiquités romaines. 
> Introduction générale*, t 1, Paris, Editions Belles Lettres, 2006, xlvi et 
> f.
>
> Donald Cobb
> Aix-en-Provence, France
>
>
>
> Mark Lightman a écrit :
>> Hi, Donald,
>>
>> I read on another forum
>>
>>
>> http://schole.ning.com/profiles/comment/list?attachedToType=User&attachedTo=26einx98pfzto&commentId=3482468%3AComment%3A2415&xg_source=activity
>>
>>  that you are reading Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
>>
>> Please provide us with a GRONT score for same.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>  Mark L
>> Φωσφορος
>>
>> FWSFOROS MARKOS
>>
>>
>>
>>
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