Saturday, April 28, 2018

Hogeterp and Denaux, Semitisms in Luke's Greek

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Albert Hogeterp / Adelbert Denaux. Semitisms in Luke's Greek. A Descriptive Analysis of Lexical and Syntactical Domains of Semitic Language Influence in Luke's Gospel. [Semitismen im Griechisch des Lukasevangeliums. Eine deskriptive Analyse lexikalischer und syntaktischer Felder des Einflusses semitischer Sprachen im Lukasevangelium.] 2018. XXVIII, 656 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 401
Published in English.
The Gospel of Luke has long been known for its variation between good, educated Greek and Semitic influences. In the last century, five theories have attempted to explain the Semitic influence: Semitic sources; imitation of the Greek Bible; the Greek of the ancient synagogue; literary code-switching between standard Greek and semitized Greek; and the social background of bilingualism. Albert Hogeterp and Adelbert Denaux revisit Luke's Greek and evaluate which alleged Semitisms of vocabulary and syntax are tenable in light of comparative investigation across corpora of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, literary as well as documentary, texts. They contend that Semitisms in Luke's Greek are only fully understood in light of a complementarity of linguistic backgrounds, and evaluate them in diachronic respect of Synoptic comparison and in synchronic respect of their place in Luke's narrative style and communicative strategy.

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