Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

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DARKastheRAIN
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Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by DARKastheRAIN »

Can I safely refer to the Greek of the New Testament as Hellenistic Greek in a college paper?

Markos
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by Markos »

Yes.
οὐ μανθάνω γράφειν, ἀλλὰ γράφω τοῦ μαθεῖν.

DARKastheRAIN
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by DARKastheRAIN »

Thank you! :D

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jaihare
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by jaihare »

But remember that even in English, religious people tend to speak with a different jargon than non-religious people. So it is that the vocabulary stock and jargon of the NT is often specific to the religious group that produced it. It doesn't represent the full range of the language at that period of its development.

DARKastheRAIN
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by DARKastheRAIN »

^But if I'm just speaking in reference to grammatical gender (and also specifying that I'm referring to forms found in the New Testament anyway), it should be okay, shouldn't it?

spiphany
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by spiphany »

Biblical Greek is sometimes called Koine. You would be safe using that term to refer to NT Greek. I'm not sure whether "Hellenistic Greek" is used as a linguistic term to refer to a specific form of the language -- I've mostly seen "Hellenistic" used as a description of a specific literary and cultural/political period.
IPHIGENIE: Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?
ARKAS: Und dir ist fremd das Vaterland geworden.
IPHIGENIE: Das ist's, warum mein blutend Herz nicht heilt.
(Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris)

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jaihare
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Re: Is Biblical Greek Hellenistic Greek

Post by jaihare »

DARKastheRAIN wrote:^But if I'm just speaking in reference to grammatical gender (and also specifying that I'm referring to forms found in the New Testament anyway), it should be okay, shouldn't it?
Yes, the Koine was part of Hellenistic society. I don't know about the term "Hellenistic Greek" either, but I guess it would be fine. It's representative of the type of Greek that existed at the time -- and it represents a wide variety of literary skill. The NT isn't one document. Some of the Greek there is superb; some of it is translational and weak. It depends on the work.

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