From: Rod Decker (rdecker@inf.net)
Date: Mon Dec 04 1995 - 23:53:56 EST
> Every language community has syntactic constructions which are avoided
>or frowned upon as offensive...If Mark's style is so bad, is it credible that
>he made no grammatical errors, infelicities that would have shown his
>ignorance
>or careless lapses?
I think it is an overstatement to view Mark's style as "so bad" (comparing
it with substandard English) as to contain "ignorance or careless lapses."
There is certainly a wide range of style in the NT. Hebrews is prob. on the
"upper end" and Mark and John on the "lower end." Yet all the NT writers
communicate in relatively clear, idiomatic Greek--not at all like some of
the papyri. The Greek of the NT has been described as conversational Greek
(in contrast to literary and vernacular Greek). I doubt very many on this
list are qualified to judge much beyond that. What may appear to be poor
Greek may as often as not be the judge's problem! (I note that my students
find all sorts of "problems" with what they read--but those problems seem
to disappear as their proficiency increases.)
(Sorry to be tardy in responding; I've been away for several days.)
Rod
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Rodney J. Decker Calvary Theological Seminary
Asst. Prof./NT 15800 Calvary Rd.
rdecker@inf.net Kansas City, Missouri 64147
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