The Language of the New Testament: 
A Brief Survey of Languages 
•	Lecture Thirteen

The Indo-European Languages
•	Languages of mankind may be divided into _________________
•	and the families into __________________and
•	the branches into ______________________
The Greek Language
•	belongs to the family know as the -______________________ Family
•	It is called by some
•	Indo-_______________________ or
•	the Aryan
•	the most descriptive is Indo-European
Indo-European Language
•	was the original tongue of those tribes living in east-central Asia or _______________Europe.
•	The earliest historical evidences of them is found in western Europe
•	though a large remnant of the race moved southward and settled in ____________and _______________
•	thus the name is given, Indo-European
The Branches Highlighted
•	the oldest branch seems to be the Indian dialect called, _____________
•	some describe this as the elder ________________to Greek
•	It is used in the literature of the _________________
Greek
•	is the ___________________oldest branch of the Indo-European languages
•	Its dialects are quite ancient
•	It is the most ________________of the ancient languages as it produced a string of literature beginning with _________________in 900 BC
Other Branches
•	The_____________, which suggests, Italian and Italy
•	The _________________Branch which is part of our own English dialect along with the Dutch and Germanic dialects
•	The ________________branch is in eastern and southern Europe, especially in Russia and Poland and the Balkans
More Branches
•	________________touched the area of western Europe of the Gauls and Britons, the Irish, Scotts, and Welch
•	The ______________branch mainly developed around the areas of Persia
History of the Greek Language
•	The earliest records of written Greek are inscribed on _____________________
•	found at the beginning of the last century 
•	in the ruins of the palace of Knossos on _______________and, later, 
•	at sites on the Greek mainland. 
•	It extends back to about __________________BC
The Development of the Greek Language
•	may be divided into five periods
•	1. The _______________Period - up to the time of Homer (ca. 900 BC)
•	2. The _______________Period - Homer to the Alexanderian Conquests (ca 900 - 330 BC)
•	3. The _______________Period - 330 BC - AD 330 
•	4. The _______________Period (AD 330 - 1453)
•	5. The _______________Period (AD 1453 - present)
1. The Formative Period ( ? To 900 BC)
•	up to the time of Homer
•	it appears that a group of the Aryan family ________________to the area of Greece
•	Because of the mountainous areas these peoples were somewhat isolated from other peoples and hence a number of dialects arose
•	Two are the ___________and the _______________
•	The Ionic proved the most vigorous and attractive
2. The Classical Period (900 BC - 330 BC)
•	from Homer to ________________
•	the ___________________dialect, based on the old Ionic, 
•	along with the best of the Doric and Aeolic, became the standard
•	The ancient Greek literature we have is mainly ___________
•	this Attic Greek constituted the chief basis of _____________Greek
3. The Koine Period (330 BC - AD 330)
•	this is called the period of the “_____________” or “________________” Greek
•	the Greek language was freely used and understood throughout the civilized world
•	it was freely spoken on the streets of_______________, Alexandria, and ________________as well as in Athens
•	Four main causes led to the development of the Koine Greek
Cause 1: Extensive ____________________
•	The Greeks were very aggressive peoples
•	and early on they learned seafaring from the ___________________and
•	vied with them for maritime power
•	As a result Greek ________________appeared on nearly every shore on the Mediterranean
Cause 2: Close ____________and ________________Affiliation Between the Tribes
•	The drive for extensive colonization aided their unity
•	the fear of eastern _________________helped in the unity
•	Perhaps the greatest contribution came with their struggle with the ________________
•	The campaign of ______________brought all the tribes and dialects into one great army, and helped to develop a common tongue.
Cause 3: _____________________Interrelations
•	Each Greek tribe had its own ____________(s) ,
•	there was a sense of religious unity
•	the one common god was _______________and some of the other deities
•	these served to promote the unity of the people
•	This was especially true at the religious centers of ____________and _____________

Inscriptions
•	to the gods were in all the leading _____________
•	so that one tribe would be acquainted with the __________________of another tribe.
•	This may be the one most potent factor in the creation of ______________Greek
Cause 4: The _____________________Conquests
•	the mingling of the various tribes in Alex’s ____________strengthened the drive for one common language
•	Alexander’s direction that the language and culture be spread aided the rise of koine Greek
•	When _________________conquered the Hellenized world, it was conquered by Hellenism
•	Paul was now able to write his great masterpieces in the Greek language even though the official political language was________________.
4. The ____________________Period (AD 330 to 1453)
•	It begins with the division of the __________________Empire and 
•	its fortunes rise and fall with the uncertain fortunes of the throne at __________________
5. The _________________Period (1453 to present)
•	this is the development of the language now spoken in the streets of ___________
•	it still bears a remarkable kinship to the _________Greek more than it does to the writings of________________.
The Greek of the NT
•	One time Greek scholars thought the Greek of the NT was a special _______________________-language
•	When this was discovered as not true, two opposing _________________arose:
The __________________
•	1. The ______________said the LXX (Septuagint) and the NT were written in Biblical Greek
•	and dominated by ____________or __________________modes of expressions
The _______________
•	contended that the LXX and the NT were variations of the classical ____________Greek
•	Deismann in Germany
•	Moulton in England and
•	Robertson in America
•	all concluded that NT Greek was the ______________Greek of the 1st century, I.e.,  koine Greek
•	Thus, the inspired writers wrote in the language of the_______________.
Literary Witnesses to the Koine Greek
•	The language of the NT is that of the common man in the 1st century
•	other ________________witnesses aid the understanding of the Greek language and 
•	especially in the understanding of the Greek _________________in the NT
•	what are these other witnesses?  
•	There are _____________witnesses for our work
1. ______________________Greek
•	this document adds significant data for the student of the NT
•	It exhibits characteristics all its own so that it is a special type of koine Greek
•	They are superior in ___________________quality to the average papyri, and
•	yet they do not show the classical _____________of Atticistic writers
2. _______________________Greek
•	a formal literary effort of considerable extent during the koine period
•	it more nearly approaches the __________________nature of the Attic Greek
•	This class would included the writings of:
•	Plutuarch
•	____________________
•	Strabo
•	____________________
3. ___________________
•	the ancient material was made from the papyrus reed, an Egyptian water plant
•	It was used from ancient times in Egypt to the _____________________Period
•	Papyri discovered in Egypt are important because:
•	of the wide range of their ____________________quality and
•	their exhibition of ___________________koine Greek
The Papyri
•	They represent every kind of general literature, from
•	casual ___________________between friends to the technicalities of a legal _____________
•	There is little formal literature, _________________or treatises, among them
4. ___________________-
•	These are more widespread than the ________________and
•	found in abundance on several sites of importance 
•	They are found “either in their original positions or lying under _____________or rubbish
•	They are usually epigraphs or notices, carved on slabs of stone
•	For______________, civic, or ____________________purposes
•	They have a more formal literal character and 
•	were not only literary, but also _______________________
5. ____________________
•	these were _____________________or 
•	fragments of broken jugs or earthen vessels 
•	used by the poorer people for memoranda, __________________, and the like
•	Perhaps these things reminded Paul of his treasure as he made reference in 2 __________4:7
Types of Koine
•	as any language which develops a literature, Koine Greek presents characteristic differences between the spoken and written language
Type One:
•	A. The _______________Koine 
•	is represented by the extra-Biblical literature, by most of the_________________, and by a few papyri.
Type Two:
•	B. The ___________________Koine
•	is represented by most of the papyri and ostraca, and nearly all the Biblical Greek.
•	___________________and the author of Hebrews are close to the literary Koine
Other Elements in the New Testament Greek
•	The life out of which the NT came was affected by a variety of _________________currents
•	The greatest current was the rise of the _____________________culture
•	This is not the only factor
•	Others include:
1. The use of native _____________________by the Jewish authors 
•	(Luke may have been the only non-Jewish writer)
•	Thus, it would be natural to expect traces from the ___________________language 
2. The influence of the ____________________world
•	the official language of Rome was Latin
•	it is only natural to expect some hints of _______________among the NT writings
1. _____________________
•	these are references to the __________________idioms in the NT
•	These come especially from the LXX and the Hebrew OT
•	Since ___________________is the native vernacular of Palestine, it probable that the NT was to some affected by it.
•	There are a few of these:
Hebraisms
•	Matthew 19:5
•	Luke 1:34
•	Luke 1:42
•	Luke 20:12
____________________
•	 These are from the Roman influence, 
•	being chiefly ______________of persons,  _____________, institutions etc.
•	The number is ________________even in comparison with the Hebraisms
The Greek ________________
•	Written in a syllabic script known as Linear B in which 
•	each symbol represents a _________________plus vowel combination, 
•	they can be dated to the period immediately before the demise of the _____________[1] civilization of Knossos which occurred in about 1450 B.C. 
Their decipherment 
•	has not revealed any great works of early literature; 
•	most of the ________________are inventories of property or 
•	deal with agricultural production and produce. 
•	However they represent the ________________records of any European language.
 The dating of the Knossos tablets 
•	does not of course tell us anything of when Greek was first spoken in the ________________-Peninsula and in the lands around the Aegean Sea. 
•	Archaeological evidence and the development of _________________-would indicate this predated the Knossos tablets by at least ____________hundred years.

The earliest inscriptions 
•	in the forerunner of today's Greek alphabet date from about ____________B.C., 
•	long after the Mycenaeans, heroes of the _______________wars,
•	 had declined in influence and at about the time the poet _____________is said to have lived.
Homer, 
•	together with _____________the earliest of the famous writers of ancient Greece, 
•	is the subject of a vast scholarly literature. 
•	Some deny the existence of an individual poet and 
•	see the man as a personification of a long tradition of _____________poetry 
•	while others[2] have identified him with the "_____________" of the Greek alphabet 
•	using his innovation to record the oral poetry of a long bygone age. 
Whatever the truth
•	may be it is generally held that parts of the ____________use language that long predates the eighth century B.C. and 
•	that some of the descriptions of weapons and 
•	fighting techniques are consistent with the archaeological evidence from Mycenaean sites contemporary with the fall of Troy in about __________B.C. (according to archaeological evidence; 1184 B.C. according to the scholar Eratosthenes[3]).
When considering ancient Greece
•	 it is important to be aware of the cultural and 
•	_______________-background which was very different to that of a modern nation state. 
•	For much of this period Greece was fragmented into city states with their satellite colonies, each with its own political system and _________________values; 
•	these may, at various times, have traded with each other, fought each other or 
•	formed military alliances. 
•	In many cases they did all three. 
This separateness 
•	was reinforced by the Greek language which had evolved as a number of regional dialects through successive southern movements of Greek speaking peoples. 
•	The distribution of these dialects followed patterns of _______________and _______________and it did not follow that geographical closeness led to similarities in dialect. 
For example 
•	the Greek of Arcadia, the harsh mountainous interior of the Peloponnese, was closer to the Cypriot dialect 
•	than the Doric dialect used in the neighbouring southern_____________________. 
This is usually explained 
•	in terms of colonization of _____________by Mycenaean Greeks from the Peloponnese in the late bronze age while 
•	the _______________Greeks who moved into the Peloponnese after the Mycenaeans, never penetrated the inhospitable heartland of Arcadia. 
A further twist 
•	to dialect in ancient Greece is the practice of using a particular dialect for a particular _______________form irrespective of the native speech of the author. 
•	Thus ___________poetry is usually written in Doric even if written by a Boeotian such as Pindar or when used in __________________tragedy.

Bearing in mind 
•	that while ______________flourished in the 8th century B.C. (and some of his language was archaic even for that period) and _________________did not die until 322 B.C., 
•	not only do the ________________popularly associated with ancient[4] Greek writing span a considerable period of time (at least equal to the period between the present day and Shakespeare) but are composed in a number of distinct_________________. 
There is thus no such thing 
•	as standard ____________Greek - or maybe there is. 
•	During the classical period ________________acquired such political and cultural dominance among the Greek city states that the Attic dialect of the ________century B.C. began to be accepted as the standard, at least for Greek________________.
However _______________
•	were soon to bring about further and more radical change to the Greek language, perhaps the most dramatic in its tortuous history. 
•	Philip ____of __________________(382 - 336 B.C.) followed by his yet more ambitious son,
 ____________________the Great (356 - 323 B.C.), 
•	a man whose modest ambition was to conquer all the known world[5] , 
•	swept away the traditional city states, uniting Greece and the near and middle east 
•	into a massive empire extending south to __________and east into__________. 
Philip of Macedon
•	 seems to have been a man of ______________and used his wealth to import the best 
•	(among his imports was the philosopher ________________as tutor for the young Alexander) 
•	and adopted the __________dialect as the language of his empire. 
•	The far reaching effect of this was, for the first time, 
•	to replace the dialects with a standard ____________________language. 
However the extent of the empire 
•	meant many people whose native ________________was not 
•	Greek attempted to express themselves through the medium of the classical Attic dialect 
•	resulting in an _________________and simplification of the language and 
•	changes in __________________that remain until this day. 
This form of Greek 
•	is known as the common language or_______________. 
•	It is the language in which the ________________Gospels were originally composed and 
•	which is still used, unchanged, in the Greek Orthodox liturgy.
It may be supposed 
•	that when the Romans arrived in Greece (Greece became a Roman protectorate in 146 B.C.) and the near east, Greek would have been superseded by_____________. 
•	However if anything the reverse was true, the study of Greek being mandatory for the educated_____________, and the use of Greek was widespread throughout the _________________part of the Empire. 
The Empire itself 
•	was to divide in __________A.D. with the eastern half being ruled from Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), 
•	the capital founded by the Emperor ___________________the Great in 330 A.D. 
•	In the ________Century A.D. Greek became the official language of the Eastern or ________________________Empire.