The Apocalypse and Semitic Syntax (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, Series Number 52) (Volume 0) - Softcover

Thompson, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521018781 ISBN 13: 9780521018784

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

The Apocalypse and Semitic Syntax presents the results of a close study of features of the Greek syntax of the New Testament Apocalypse which arguably reflect the influence of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. It opens with a discussion of the use of differing manuscript readings of the Apocalypse in weighing Semitic influence, then moves to an examination of selected Greek verbs in the Apocalypse which seem to demand the meaning of their Hebrew/Aramaic counterparts, rather than their conventional Greek meaning. The heart of the study consists of suggested Semitic influence in numerous places where the verbal syntax in the Apocalypse departs, sometimes quite strikingly, from conventional Greek syntax. The study then suggests Hebrew/Aramaic influence on the syntax of several types of clauses in the Apocalypse. The author concludes that cumulative evidence supports the hypothesis that the Apocalypse was composed in a variety of Greek that was intended to evoke biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, providing yet another link between his work and that of the Torah, Prophets and Writings of the Hebrew Bible.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Thompson is supervisor of higher degrees by research at Avondale College of Higher Education in New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include the languages of the Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament, including the debate about the language(s) spoken by Jesus and his earliest followers. The published version of his PhD thesis, The Apocalypse and Semitic Syntax, provides indirect support for the recently-revived argument that Hebrew was one of the languages in regular use in Palestine during the second temple era. Thompson also researches New Testament accounts of the words and work of Jesus, and of his earliest followers. His close study of the original languages of selected biblical narratives enriches the book he co-authored with Borge Schantz titled Biblical Missionaries. For a list of Thompson's other Bible-related publications, see his page on the Avondale College of Higher Education website.   

From the Inside Flap

This book offers a consistent explanation of the peculiarity of the language of the Apocalypse, namely that the rules of Greek grammar are broken because of the influence of Hebrew and Aramaic. In fact, in the Apocalypse, the Greek language was little more than a tightly stretched membrane revealing many essential features of Hebrew and Aramaic underneath.

The study advances previous similar hypotheses (like that produced in 1920 by R. H. Charles in his Short Grammar of the Apocalypse) in three ways. First, it focuses chiefly on the verbal system. Secondly, by methodically citing the ancient Greek translations of the Old Testament to demonstrate Hebrew/Aramaic influence, it serves as a limited survey of the syntax of the Septuagint. Thirdly, it argues that the Apocalypse's grammar was influenced not by later Hebrew/Aramaic dialects in use during the first century A.D. but by Old Testament Hebrew/Aramaic.

The thesis, therefore, suggests a large number of new possibilities for translation and exegesis and a new approach to the Apocalypse that gives greater attention to the influence of Old Testament Hebrew/Aramaic grammar and leads to a fuller awareness of the writer's indebtedness to the Old Testament, not only for his symbols and metaphors but also for his very language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521018781
• ISBN 13: 9780521018784
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168