אבנימ

Biblical Hermeneutics Part First Chapter 6

Concluding his overview of the Biblical languages, the author presents us with Greek, the language of the New Testament. We learn of its history, the development of dialects, and how it came to be the lingua franca of the Roman world. He shows further the distinct characteristics of Biblical Greek, including its Hebraistic qualities.

The primitive Greek tongue diverged into dialects according to the migrations of different tribes, e.g. the Ionians, the Dorians, the Aeolians, etc. from their common ancestors. The Greeks, more properly Hellenes, can be traced back to Javan the son of Japheth. The varied terrain of their land, with its valleys, coastal regions, rugged mountains, and islands favored linguistic localization. The stunning beauty of this region also produced a most beautiful and expressive language, which in time would be especially suited to communicating the glories of the Gospel. Of all the varied dialects, eventually the Ionian of the region of Attica around the city-state of Athens became dominant.

A simplified version of this Attic Greek, known as κοινή was to become the universal language of the civilized world. In the providence of God, the Macedonian prince Alexander, educated in Athens, conquered the world and his Greek thus became the common tongue of commerce and learning.

This Greek is the language of the New Testament, though it has many distinctives relative to other Hellenistic writings, which are due to the direct relationship of its content to the Hebrew Scriptures, and to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Hence it was, that whereas the revelation of God of old was given primarily to the Jews in their own Hebrew tongue, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, intended for every nation under heaven, was given in the worldwide language of Greek.