Reading and Pronouncing Biblical Greek

Historical Pronunciation versus Erasmian

Philemon Zachariou

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781725254480, 9781725254497
• eBook ISBN: 9781725254503
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Reference

This book invites you to see not only how Hellenistic Koine ought to be pronounced but also why. Rigorously investigating the history of Greek orthography and sounds from classical times to the present, the author places linguistic findings on one side of the scale and related events on the other. The result is a balance between the evidence of the historical Greek sounds in Koine and pre-Koine times, and the political events that derailed those sounds as they were being transported through Europe's Renaissance academia and replaced them with Erasmian.This book argues for a return to the historical Greek sounds now preserved in Neohellenic (Modern Greek) as a step toward mending the Erasmian dichotomy that rendered post-Koine Greek irrelevant to New Testament Greek studies. The goal is a holistic and diachronic application of the Hellenic language and literature to illume exegetically the Greek text, as the New Testament contains numerous features that have close affinity with Neohellenic and should not be left unexplored.

Part One

Authentic Greek Sounds

Chapter 1

The Development of Κοινή

1.1 The First Hellenes (Greeks)

Several waves of Hellenic-speaking peoples are traditionally known to have migrated southward in the Greek peninsula between 2000 and 1000 BC, the most significant being the Achaeans (οἱ Ἀχαιοί), the Ionians (οἱ Ἴωνες), the Dorians (οἱ Δωριεῖς), and the Aeolians (οἱ Αἰολεῖς).

The Achaeans descended on the mainland of Greece and the islands after 2000 BC. Over time, they subjugated and mingled with the Pelasgians, an indigenous people of uncertain origin—though probably of Hellenic stock. Around 1450 BC the Achaeans invaded also the island of Crete and occupied Knossos, the center of the brilliant Minoan civilization whose origins are traced to the third millennium BC. Subsequently, a fusion of the Achaean and Minoan cultures gave rise to the Mycenaean civilization with its center in Mycenae, a city south of Corinth. The Mycenaeans are as well the Achaeans of the Trojan War (around 1200 BC) as recounted in Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Around 1100 BC the Ionians likewise descended and occupied east and central Greece, many Aegean islands, and the central portion of the western coast of Asia Minor, which was named Ionia. Thereafter, the Achaeans and the Ionians became victims of a third and harsher invasion by a Hellenic-speaking people known as the Dorians—e.g., the Spartans were Dorians. The Dorians spread down the mainland of Greece and conquered nearly all of Greece, save Attica and Euboea. This forced many Achaeans to flee to the islands, Attica, Euboea, and to Asia Minor where they became known as Ionians. The Dorian invasion, which presumably submerged the Mycenaean civilization, contributed to the “Dark Age” of Greece that lasted for four hundred years,1 after which classical Greece began to emerge.

1.2 Periods of the Hellenic Language

Hellenic is the oldest recorded living language and has been spoken in the Greek peninsula and surrounding islands for well over four thousand years. Based on the written record, Hellenic, an Indo-European language,2 may be divided into two broad periods: ancient, 1500 BC–AD 600; and modern, AD 600–2000. Ancient period: Mycenaean, 1500–1200 BC; Dark Age, 1200–800 BC; Archaic or Epic, 800–500 BC; Classical (Attic), 500–300 BC; and post-Classical, 300 BC–AD 600, comprising Hellenistic period Koine, 300 BC–AD 300, and Proto-Byzantine Koine, AD 300–600. Modern period: Early Neohellenic/Byzantine, AD 600–1000; Middle Neohellenic/Late Byzantine (Medieval), AD 1000–1500; and Late Neohellenic, AD 1500–2000.3

Today’s Hellenic is Κοινή Νεοελληνική [kiní neoelinikí] (Neohellenic Koine) “Common New Hellenic” (officially as of 1976). The name for Greece is Ἑλλάς Ellas (Hellas), and Greek is Ἑλληνική Elliniki (Hellenic). The English adaptation of Greek is derived from the Latin Graecus, which originates from Γραικός Graikos, the name of a Boeotian tribe in Greece that emigrated to Italy in the 8th c. BC. It is by that name the Hellenes were known in the West. Hellenic here refers particularly to Classical Greek, and Hellenistic4 to the six-hundred-year period of Greek following Alexander the Great. Thus, New Testament Greek, widely known simply as Koine Κοινή [kiní] “common,” is Hellenistic Greek.

Note: Henceforth the name Greek, rather than Hellenic, is used—except in certain cases. Similarly, the name Neohellenic Greek, or simply Neohellenic, ra...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Why This Book
• Pronunciation Matters
• Questions
• Part One: Authentic Greek Sounds
• Part Two: The Erasmian Influence
• Appendix 1: Decrees of Classical Athens and Their Historical Sounds
• Appendix 2: Changes in the Attic Alphabet and Their Significance
• Appendix 3: Greek Dimorphia
• Appendix 4: Formal/Informal Pronunciation
• Appendix 5: Chronological Table of the Changes in the Attic Alphabet11
• Bibliography