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Greek as the Vehicle of Early Christianity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

It is a curious fact that very often the official and administrative language of foreign rulers, even where they were seen as oppressors, keeps being used by their former subjects for a long period after these rulers themselves have gone, however unwelcome their rule otherwise may have been. In our own time and age we have witnessed, for instance, how English until 1980 has been India's second official language after Hindi, in accordance with the Official Language Act of 1963, how English was chosen as the official language of the state of Ghana, rather than one of the fifty languages and dialects spoken there, how French was maintained in the same function in Togo, Benin, Cameroon and several other countries, and Portuguese stayed in use in Angola after the factual repatriation of the former colonizers. And all this happens for obvious reasons.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

NOTES

[1] Cross, F. M. Jr., ‘The Discovery of the Samaria Papyri’, in: Campbell, E. F. Jr. – Freedman, D. N. (edd.), The Biblical Archeologist Reader III (Garden City, 1970 repr.), pp. 227–39.Google Scholar

[2] A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (Osnabrück, 1967 repr.), nr. 26 (412 B.C.).

[3] Inscription at Kandahar, first published by G. Levi della Vida, ‘Un editto bilingue Greco Aramaico di Aśoka’, Serie Orientate Roma XXI (1958); Cf. F. Altheim – R. Stiehl, Die aramäische Sprache unter den Achaimeniden (Frankfurt am Main, 1963), I, 21ss.

[4] Altheim – Stiehl o.c. 243ss.; the inscription is at Mchet'a, West of Tiflis.

[5] Quinn, J. D., ‘Alcaeus 48 (B 16) and the Fall of Ascalon’, BASOR 164 (1961), pp. 1920.Google Scholar

[6] Perowne, S., The Life and Times of Herod the Great (London, 2 1957), pp. 115–42.Google Scholar

[7] For the latest over-all survey of the languages in first century Palestine we refer to E. M. Meyers – J. F. Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis & Early Christianity (Abingdon-Nashville, 1981), ch. 4, pp. 6291.Google Scholar

[8] Negev, A., ‘The Nabatean Necropolis at Egra’, RB 83 (1976), pp. 203–36, esp. 223–7.Google Scholar

[9] IEJ 11 (1961), p. 42.Google Scholar

[10] Geraty, L. T., ‘The Khirbet el-Kôm Bilingual Ostracon’, BASOR 220 (1975), pp. 5561Google Scholar; cf. IEJ 28 (1978), pp. 106–8.Google Scholar

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[12] Merker, I. L., ‘A Greek Tariff Inscription in Jerusalem’, IEJ 25 (1975), pp. 238–44.Google Scholar

[13] SEG 26 (19761977), nr. 1665;ZDPY 92 (1976), 168ss;IEJ 20 (1970), 97s.Google Scholar

[14] IEJ 22 (1972), p. 173.Google Scholar

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[17] BASOR 230 (1978), pp. 4556Google Scholar; ZDPV 96 (1980), p. 59.Google Scholar

[18] Cf. Fitzmyei, J. A., ‘The Languages of Palestine in the First Century A.D.’, CBQ 32 (1970), pp. 501–31, esp. 529.Google Scholar

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[20] O.c. p. 73.

[21] O.c. pp. 528; 531.

[22] Rabin, Ch., Hebrew and Aramaic in the First Century, CRJNT II (Assen, 1976), p. 1036.Google Scholar

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[25] O.c. note 34 (p. 187) ad p. 77.

[26] IEJ 11 (1961), p. 50 (Y. Yadin).Google Scholar

[27] Fitzmyer – Harrington o.c. nr. 51;DJD II nr. 103a.

[28] Rabin o.c. p. 1032 note 4; p. 1036.

[29] Levine, L. I., Caesarea under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1975), pp. 36–8.Google Scholar

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[32] Bardy, G., La question des langues dans l'église ancienne (Paris, 1948), I, p. 161Google Scholar; King, A. A., Liturgy of the Roman Church (London, 1957), p. 54.Google Scholar

[33] Siegert, H., Griechisches in der Kirchensprache (Heidelberg, 1950), 234 pp.Google Scholar

[34] King o.c. p. 234.

[35] Coseriu, E., ‘Der griechische Einfluss auf das Vulgärlatein’, in Festschrift H. Meier (München, 1971), 135ss; cf. L. Zgusta, ‘Die Rolle des Griechischen im römischen Kaiserreich’, in: Neumann – Untermann o.c. p. 140s.Google Scholar

[36] Zgusta o.c. p. 138.

[37] Gsell, S., Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1930), 8, pp. 219; 236; 241–4; 252; 261.Google Scholar

[38] King o.c. p. 53.

[39] See Quispel, G., ‘African Christianity before Minucius Felix and TertuUian’, in: Boeft, J. denKessels, A. H. M. (edd.), Actus. Studies in Honour of H. L. W. Nelson (Utrecht, 1982), pp. 257335, esp. 257–77.Google Scholar