From: Todd J. B. Blayone (chorus@bud.peinet.pe.ca)
Date: Tue Dec 05 1995 - 09:37:56 EST
Hi,
> 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.)
Your careful warning reminded me of a a tidbit written by my former
mentor Schuyler Brown (See "Philology" in _The New Testament and Its
Modern Interpreters_ Atlanta: Scholars, 1989, p. 132).
"Just as stylistic analysis of the NT Greek is best done in terms of
individual authors, so too the comparision of these authors, whether
among themselves or with other Hellenisitic writers, should be
carried out on a one-to-one basis. *Since the nonliterary papyri
exhibit as much stylistic diversity as the books of the NT,* general
statements about the relationship of NT Greek to the rest of Koine
are suspect as long as they fail to provide the necessary
statistical data."
Best,
Todd
______________________________________________________________
Todd J. B. Blayone (chorus@peinet.pe.ca; MIME OK!)
Project Coordinator, Chorus / Ph.D. candidate, McGill
Address: 2480 Brock Rd. N., Pickering, ON, Canada, L1V 2P8
http://www.peinet.pe.ca:2080/Chorus/People/Todd_B/toddhome.html
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