The Language of the New Testament and Its History: An Introductory Essay

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the content discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. Diachronic linguistic fallacies plagued much biblical language research, especially the analysis associated with the biblical theology movement. The book is divided into three sections, each assessing a different dimension of the language of the New Testament in its historical dimensions: these include its context, history, and development. The chapters on context include discussions of bilingualism, idiolect, Atticism, and imperial social context. The chapters on history contain studies on the history of the Greek language, varieties of Greek, and the Greek grammarians. The development chapters bring together chapters on Greek word order, the developments in one Greek verb and its cognates in the LXX and New Testament, and grammatical and literary developments in the papyri, among others. Keywords:biblical language; biblical theology movement; bilingualism; Greek language; New Testament