Koine Period

[Phil Tolstead]

I have a mix of questions trying to get at what "mother tongue Greek speakers' did or did not have in common during the Hellenistic age. Any insights are greatly appreciated.

The Koine period seems to be quite multi-layered in terms of language in use. There was an Attic revival, and as well as Apollonius' epic type hexameter written in imitation of Homer. The Cappadocian fathers and Chrysostom seem to have been educated in rhetorical schools which taught the complete canon of Greek classics. It seems that they wrote in a higher register than the New Testament.

From these considerations, I'm curious what "mother tongue" changes there were between Xenophon's mother tongue and/or written language. through to Clement of Alexandria's through to Chrystostom's. Did they essentially speak the same Greek? Did they study the same Greek in rhetorical schools? What would have qualified as "mother tongue Greek' in those 600 years. Also do the 'common-ness' of papyri and NT documents reflect what the Hellenistic age mother tongue speech? Are there noticeable changes in the papyri. At what point do we generally think that the Hellenistic period ended?

[Barry Hofstetter]

Horrocks's Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers is an invaluable text for answering such questions, and well worth the price:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i ... LVGSV4GPPB

[Phil Tolstead]

Thanks Barry, exactly what I was looking for.