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* The New Testament is written in Koinē Greek, not Aramaic. * Even if we consider the portions of the Bible written in Aramaic (i.e. parts of the Old Testament
by wl 4y ago
* The New Testament is written in Koinē Greek, not Aramaic.
* Even if we consider the portions of the Bible written in Aramaic (i.e. parts of the Old Testament), speakers 2,000+ years after the fact are speaking a different form of the language whose value to understanding older texts is limited and not straightforward.
* Theologically significant translation difficulties in the New Testament are overblown.
- mbg721 4y agoWhat is the practical difference between Koine and Attic Greek? Is one more academic and the other more colloquial?
- vgel 4y agoAttic Greek was the dialect of Attica (around Athens) before Alexander, c 500 - 300BC. Koine was the vernacular that spread around the Hellenistic world after Alexander's conquests, was used to write the New Testament and in the Eastern Roman Empire / Byzantine Empire. Attic survived as a literary / prestige dialect because important philosophical works and plays and such were written in it, but it was the vernacular of the region when those plays, etc. were written. The general progression of Greek, very simplified, can be said to be Homeric -> Attic / Ionic / other dialects -> Koine (mostly from Attic & Ionic) -> Medieval -> Modern
- kgeist 4y agoHomeric was IIRC a pretty artificial poetic idiom with vocabulary from different dialects, I wouldn't say it's the ancestor of Attic, at least in the form which was written down. Also you forgot Mycenean Greek.
- HideousKojima 4y agoPart of the Old Testament is in Aramaic though (parts of Daniel and Ezra IIRC)
- davidf18 4y ago