LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
1. In the _character of the original languages of the Bible_, as in
every thing else pertaining to the plan of redemption, God's hand is to
be reverently acknowledged. It was not by chance, but through the
provident care of Him who sees the end from the beginning, that the
writers of the Old Testament found the Hebrew, and those of the New
Testament the Greek language ready at hand, each of them so singularly
adapted to the high office assigned to it. The stately majesty, the
noble simplicity, and the graphic vividness of the Hebrew fitted it
admirably for the _historical_ portions of the Old Testament, in which,
under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the direct intuition of God's
purposes and of the deep springs of human action superseded the
necessity of philosophical argument and deduction. The historians of the
Old Testament did not pause to argue concerning their statements of
men's motives and God's designs. They saw both with wonderful clearness
of vision; and they found in the simplicity and directness of the Hebrew
syntax, so far removed from all that is involved and complex, a suitable
vehicle for their simple and direct statements of truth. How congenial
the Hebrew language is to _poetic_ composition, as well in its rugged
and sublime forms as in its tender and pathetic strains, every reader of
the Old Testament in the original understands. The soul is not more at
home in the body than is sacred poetry in the language of the covenant
people. As the living spirit of the cherubim animated and directed the
wheels of the chariot in Ezekiel's vision, so does the spirit of
inspired poesy animate and direct the words and sentences of the Hebrew
language: "When the cherubim went, the wheels went by them; and when the
cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same
wheels also turned not from beside them. When they stood, these stood;
and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the
spirit of the living creatures was in them." Ezek. 10:16, 17. The same
characteristics fitted the Hebrew language most perfectly for
_prophetic_ vision, in which the poetic element so largely prevails.
2. Turning now from the Hebrew of the Old Testament to the Greek of the
New, we have a language very different in its structure; elaborate in
its inflections and syntax, delicate and subtle in its distinctions,
rich in its vocabulary, highly cultivated in every department of
writing, and flexible in an eminent degree; being thus equally adapted
to every variety of style--plain unadorned narrative, impassioned
oratory, poetry of every form, philosophical discussion, and severe
logical reasoning: in a word, a language every way fitted to the wants
of the gospel, which is given not for the infancy of the world but for
its mature age, and which deals not so much with the details of
particulars as with great principles, which require for their full
comprehension the capacity of abstraction and generalization. In the
historical records of the Old Testament, and in its poetic and prophetic
parts, the Hebrew language was altogether at home. But for such
compositions as the epistle to the Romans the Greek offered a more
perfect medium; and here, as everywhere else God's providence took care
that the founders of the Christian church should be furnished in the
most complete manner.
3. We find, accordingly, that centuries before our Lord's advent,
preparation began to be made in the providence of God for this change in
the language of the inspired writings. One result of the Babylonish
captivity was that Hebrew ceased to be the vernacular of the masses of
the people, and a form of Aramaean took its place. Chap. 14, No. 4.
After the return of the Jews from this same captivity and their
reëstablishment in their own land, the spirit of prophecy was also
withdrawn, and the canon of the Old Testament brought to a close. Thus
the cessation of Hebrew as the spoken language of the people, and the
withdrawal of the spirit of prophecy were contemporaneous events. The
canon was locked up in the sacred language, and the _interpreter_ took
the place of the _prophet_. "The providential change of language
suggested a general limit within which the voice of inspiration might be
heard, as the fearful chastisements of the captivity turned men's minds
to the old Scriptures with a devotion unknown before." Westcott's
Introduc. to the Study of the Gospels, chap. 1.
4. But the conquests of Alexander the Great (B.C. 334-323) brought the
Greek language and the Greek civilization into Asia and Egypt, as a sure
leaven destined to leaven the whole mass. To this influence the Jews
could not remain insensible. It reached even Palestine, where they
naturally clung most tenaciously to the Aramaean language and to the
customs of their fathers. But out of Palestine, where the Jews were
dispersed in immense numbers, it operated more immediately; especially
in Egypt, whose metropolis Alexandria was, after the age of Alexander
its founder, one of the chief seats of Grecian learning. To the Jews of
Alexandria the Greek language was vernacular. By them was executed, as
we have seen, under the patronage of the Egyptian king, the first
version ever made of the Hebrew Scriptures, namely, that called the
Septuagint (Chap. 16, Nos. 1-7), which was begun, if not completed, in
the latter part of the third century before Christ. Though this version
encountered bitter opposition on the part of the unbelieving Jews
_after_ the establishment of the Christian church, in consequence of the
effective use made of it against them by Christian writers, it was
received from its first appearance and onward with general favor. The
Hellenistic Jews--those using the Greek language and conforming
themselves to Grecian civilization--made constant use of it, and the
knowledge of it was very widely diffused beyond the boundaries of Egypt.
In our Saviour's day it was in very general use, as the abundant
quotations from it in the New Testament show; and it must have
contributed largely to the spread of the knowledge of the Greek language
among the Jewish people in and out of Palestine. Though the Roman empire
succeeded to that of the Greeks, the Roman could not supplant the more
polished Greek tongue, with its immense and varied literature. On the
contrary, the Greek language penetrated into Italy, and especially into
Rome, the metropolis of the civilized world, where, in our Saviour's
day, Greek literature was in high repute, and the Greek language was
very generally understood. Thus, in the good providence of God, the
writers of the New Testament, also, found ready at hand a language
singularly adapted to their service.
Biblical scholars have noticed the significant fact that of the
long list of names in the sixteenth chapter of Romans, the
greater number belongs to the Greek language, not to the Latin.
"The flexibility of the Greek language gained for it in ancient
time a general currency similar to that which French enjoys in
modern Europe; but with this important difference, that Greek
was not only the language of educated men, but also the language
of the masses in the great centres of commerce." Westcott in
Smith's Bible Dict., Art. Hellenist.
5. Respecting the _character_ of the New Testament Greek there was in
former times much controversy, often accompanied with unnecessary heat
and bitterness. One class of writers seemed to think that the honor of
the New Testament was involved in their ability to show the classic
purity and elegance of its style; as if, forsooth, the Spirit of
inspiration could only address men through the medium of language
conformed to the classic standard of propriety. Another class went to
the opposite extreme, speaking in exaggerated terms of the Hebraisms and
solecisms of the New Testament writers. The truth lies between these
extremes. The style of the New Testament is neither classical nor
barbarous. Its characteristics are strictly conformable to the history
of its origin. (1.) Its basis is not the Greek of Plato and Xenophon,
but the so-called Hellenic or common dialect which arose in the age of
Alexander the Great, when "the previously distinct dialects, spoken by
the various sections of the Hellenic nation, were blended into a popular
spoken language." Winer, Gram, of the New Test., sec. 2. The Alexandrine
Jews doubtless learned it not so much from books as from the daily
intercourse of life, and it probably had its provincial peculiarities in
Alexandria and the adjacent region. (2.) In Jewish usage this common
Greek dialect received an Hebraic coloring from the constant use of the
Septuagint version, which is a literal rendering of the Hebrew
Scriptures into Greek, of course with the retention of many Hebrew
idioms. Only such thorough Greek scholars as Josephus and Philo could
rise above this influence. The New Testament writers manifest its power
in different degrees; for, as it respects Hebraisms, they do not by any
means stand on a common level. (3.) As the Aramaic--the so-called
Syro-Chaldaic--was the language of the mass of the people, the style of
the New Testament writers received a tinge from this also. (4.) More
than all, the style of the New Testament receives a peculiar impress
from the fact that the authors were Jews writing under the full
influence of a Jewish education and a Jewish faith, with the superadded
element of Christianity. It is the phenomenon of the spirit and thoughts
of Jewish Christians embodied in the language of Greece; and this at
once separates the writings of the New Testament by a wide interval from
all purely classic compositions. The apostolic writers imposed on the
Greek language an arduous task, that of expressing ideas foreign to the
conceptions of the most cultivated among the pagan authors; ideas partly
common to the old Jewish and the Christian religions, partly peculiar to
Christianity. This could only be done by giving to existing terms a new
and higher meaning, whereby they assumed a technical character wholly
unknown to the classic writers.
"Compare particularly the words: _works_ (_to work_, Rom. 4:4),
_faith_, _to believe in Christ_, or _to believe_ absolutely,
_confession_, _righteousness_, _to be justified_, _to be
chosen_, _the called_, _the chosen_, _the saints_ (for
Christians), _edification_ and _to edify_ in a figurative sense,
_apostle_, _to publish the good tidings_ and to _publish_
absolutely for Christian preaching, the adoption of _baptisma_,
_baptism_, for _Christian baptism_, perhaps _to break bread_ for
the _holy repast_ (the _Agape_ with the communion), _the world_,
_the flesh_, _fleshly_, in the known theological sense," etc.
Winer's Gram, of the New Test., sec. 3.
6. From all the abovenamed causes the language of the New Testament
received a form differing widely from the classic style, but admirably
adapted to the high office assigned to it. To those who study the New
Testament in the original, the peculiarities of its language offer a
wide and interesting field of inquiry. But for the common reader the
above hints will be sufficient.