4 koine greek
DESCRIPTION
Christophe Rico in UA&PCATALYST Conference on Language of FaithTRANSCRIPT
Table of contents
1) Space-Time Context
2) ○ NT Greek and its linguistic context
○ Translator’ tools: concordances,
ancient versions and commentaries
3) Word order
4) Verbal aspect and tense
I) What is Koine Greek?Space-Time Context
Main dictionaries: Liddell and Scott, Bailly
○ Over 2,200 pages ○ 1,300 years from Homer to the end of
Antiquity○ At least 6 different dialects: Attic, Ionian, Aeolic, Doric, Epic dialect
and Koine
Topolect and chronolect
Topolect: specific kind of language that is only spoken in a particular region
Chronolect: specific kind of language that is only spoken in a particular period
Space-Time Context:New Testament Greek
Near-Eastern Greek topolect,
under the influence of Semitic languages
(Semiticized Koine )
Middle Koine chronolect
(1st-3rd centuries AD)
Koine language chronolects
Early Koine (3rd –1st centuries BC)
Middle Koine (1st-3rd centuries AD)
Late Koine (4th –5th centuries AD)
II) NT Greek and its linguistic context
Modern French translator: major task Transposing the text
Ancient Greek translator: major taskUnderstanding the text
Difference Modern / Koine Greek
Two languages that have become
quite different from each other
Compare the difference
between modern English
and the language of a tenth century poem
like Beowulf.
The translator’s tools.1. Concordances
Same topolect and chronolect:
Greek Bible (LXX and New Testament)
Writings from the Near East
(Justin Martyr, the Didachè, Theodotion’s translation, etc.)
Papyri texts
The translator’s tools.2. Ancient versions
Proto-bohairic > Bohairic version
Vetus Latina:
African edition > First Italian edition
> 2nd Italian edition > Vulgate
Diatessaron > Vetus Syra
Diatessaron > Peshitta
Jn 8,26 : Ancient versions
ταῦτα λαλῶ εἰς τòν κόσμον
Haec loquor in mundo (Vg)
b‘lm’ (Syriac versions)
Consensus of all the Syriac,
Latin and Bohairic versions
Construction of the verb lalw/
+ Dative : Rom 3 :19 lalw/ tini
Pro,j + Accusative : Lk 1,19 lalw/ pro,j tina
Meta, + Genitive : John 4,27 lalw/ meta, tinoj
Jn 8,26 : Modern versions
Virtually all English versions understand :
“and I speak to the world those things” (KJV)
Exceptions:
Douay-Rheims Am. Ed. (1899), from the Vg
Tyndale’s NT (1534), a translation that sometimes took into account the Vg
Jn 3,3.7 : Ancient versions
Different reception according to the linguistic community
a;nwqen (Jn 3,3.7) ‘again’ : Latin versions (denuo) Coptic versions (nkesop) Peshitta and Sinaiticus (mn drš ) ‘from above’ : Curetonian, Harkleian, Palestinian Syriac lect. (mn l‘l) Greek fathers of the Church
The translator’s tools.3. Ancient commentaries
St. John Chrysostom, Galatians Commentary
Paul went up to Jerusalem “not only to see him but also to ἱστορῆσαι him. This is the very word used by people who stare at huge and magnificent cities. This is why Paul thought it worth while going up to Jerusalem for the unique purpose of seeing this man.”
III) Word Order
Usual (or neutral) word order:
No particular stress on any word
Unusual word order:
Stress on the part of the clause
affected by the change
John 1,6 and 1,1
1 ἐγένετο: past tense copular verb
2 ἄνθρωπος: subject
3 ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ Θεοῦ: predicate/ app.
1 καὶ Θεός: predicate
2 ἦν: past tense copular verb
3 ὁ Λόγος: subject
Some English translations of John 1,6
There came a man NA Standard Bible
New International version
A man came New Jerusalem Bible
There was a man King James Bible
Jerome, Epistles 57.5
[in] Scripturis Sanctis (…)
et verborum ordo mysterium est
“In Sacred Scripture, even word order
encompasses a mystery”
Verbal aspect and tense
Tense: refers to the time in which the verbal
event takes place
Reference point : the time of speech
Verbal aspect:
refers to the dynamic of the verbal event,
either to its unfolding or to its performance.
Non limiting aspect
Unfolding action
λαλεῖν, act of “speaking”
as an event in progress, without taking into account its beginning or end
│——————···>········>·······>····
UNFOLDED UNFOLDING
Some examples
Mat 12:22 : καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτόν, ὥστε τὸν κωφὸν λαλεῖν:
“And he healed him, so that the dumb man spoke”
Acts 4:20 : οὐ δυνάμεθα γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἃ εἴδαμεν καὶ ἠκούσαμεν μὴ λαλεῖν:
“For we cannot but speak [on and on] of what we have seen and heard.”
Limiting aspect
The defining boundaries of an action have been
crossed
>│—>—│>
Beginning End
Then λαλῆσαι will express
the simple fact of “talking” or “having talked”,
without considering the unfolding of the action
By way of example
Lk 1,20
kai. ivdou. e;sh| siwpw/n kai. mh. duna,menoj lalh/sai a;cri h-j h`me,raj ge,nhtai tau/ta
And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass
Lc 11,3 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion
di,dou h`mi/n to. kaqV h`me,ran « Give us every day this bread of ours which is epiousios » Mt 6,11 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n
evpiou,sion do.j h`mi/n sh,meron « Give us today this bread of ours which is epiousios »
The Our Father
First etymology of evpiou,sioj
[ἡ] ἐπιοῦσα [ἡμέρα] : “[the day] coming after”.
ἐπιοῦσα : pres. part. of ἔπειμι: “to come after.”
“give us enough bread
to be able to get to the day after”
“give us the bread for everyday, the daily bread”
Second etymology of evpiou,sioj
ἐπὶ οὐσίαν, which means both
“[living] on means of subsistence”.
and “[what is] above the substance”
a) “give us the bread for our subsistence”
b) “give us the transcendent (or sublime)
Bread.”
Ancient versions
Lc 11,3 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion
di,dou h`mi/n to. kaqV h`me,ran Vg cotidianum Bohairic ethneou « coming » Mt 6,11 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n
evpiou,sion do.j h`mi/n sh,meron Vg supersubstantialem Bohairic nte rast « of tomorrow »
Epiousios bread: other traditions
Constancy Ancient syriac trad. ’amina’ (Sinaiticus, Curetonian)
Necessity Recent syriac trad. desunqonān, sunqonyān (Pesh., Harcl.)
Abundance Syropalestinian d‘tryn ou d‘wtr’ (cf. periousias)
Useful Bibliography: dictionaries
Liddell, H. G. and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1940 (9th edition, frequently reprinted)
J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament illustrated from the papyri and other non-literary sources, Hodder ad Stoughton, London 1914-1929.