[b-greek] RE: Luke 9:58

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 04 2001 - 21:44:46 EDT


At 12:57 PM -0700 7/4/01, Richard Allan Stauch wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 10:11 AM
>>I've always thought that this construction was a Latinism in Greek. Here's
>>a message I sent five years ago regarding it:
>[Snip]
>>>[I]t's not really a straight indirect question in standard Greek.
>>>Ironically, however, the Latin indirect question does appear to be
>>>constructed on the basis of the deliberative subjunctive: NON HABET UBI
>>>CAPUT DEPONAT. Which raises an interesting (to me, at least) question:
>>>there have, I know, been investigations of Latin vocabulary in the GNT, as
>>>in Mark's gospel; does anyone know whether there's been a study of
>>>_Latinisms_ in Koine Greek?
>
>Dear Prof. Conrad,
>
>Well, that is very interesting. I had always wondered if Mark might not have
>been originally written in Latin (considering what Eusebius has to say about
>its creation). To your knowledge, has anyone ever conclusively determined if
>Mark was:
>1- Written in Latin, then translated into Greek (Latin MS lost)
>2- Written in Greek, but carrying Latinisms into it
>3- Neither of the above?
>That would be very helpful to my work (I have set myself a book project,
>which is stalled for want of deeper study).

I really DON'T think that GMk was composed in Latin; I think it was
probably composed in Greek but relying upon sources the Greek of which was
influenced by Latin words and usage. We find PRAITWRION (Lat. praetorium)
and LEGIWN (Lat. legio) in Mk. Some have relied upon this to argue that GMk
really was written in Rome, but I don't really think Latin influence on
Greek need appear only in Rome.

>Also, how do we answer John's use, which I pasted earlier? Would that also
>be an example of the same kind of Latinism? I always believed John wrote in
>Greek, but I could be wrong about that. Yet, if he didn't, it would be
>easier to believe he originally wrote in Aramaic, and it would have to be
>translated into Greek (again, MS lost). It would be harder to believe that
>John would have written in Latin than to believe the same of Mark.
>
>I suppose that, with the mix of Roman influence over the previous centuries,
>Latinisms may have crept into various localized Greek "schools" where Latin
>had gained stronger footholds. We see this sort of thing in the modern era:
>My sister learned textbook Spanish in high school, earned a scholarship
>abroad, and found herself linguistically lost in Equador. Local
>colloquialisms (from native Indian languages) had crept into the Spanish,
>creating a very funny situation for my sister. It turns out there are many
>forms of Spanish, worldwide, and each one carries these localized
>idiosyncrasies. And look at what has happened to Tagalog, in the
>Philippines: With so many Spanish and English loan-words, it is hard to
>believe they survived until Magellan arrived (said, tongue in cheek).
>Perhaps this same phenomenon was true in the 1st-Century Greek-speaking
>world?
>
>What sort of work has been done on that question? I am particularly
>interested in the Galilean Greek of the 1st Century, of course.

These are questions that I've asked myself and asked others in recent
years, and I'm not satisfied that I yet understand all that's involved. I
do think, however, that Koine Greek readily picked up load words and
grammatical constructions as well in an ecumenical cultural context--just
as does Koine English as a sort of ecumenical language today.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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