Biblical Hebrew Forum

[c stirling bartholomew <cc.constantine AT worldnet.att.net>]

on 11/15/01 4:44 AM, Peter Kirk wrote:

> Contrary to what one might expect, however, the book of Hebrews is written
> in the purest Greek of any book in the New Testament.

Peter,

I assume you are talking about Hebrews minus the extensive OT quotations.

I wonder what sort of criteria one uses to measure "pure Greek." The
discourse structure of the Epistle to the Hebrews includes a lot of deeply
imbedded hyper-ordination which is not typically associated with Hebrew
texts. However, until some presents a full set of rules for producing a
"pure" Hellenistic Greek paragraph, I will continue to protest the notion
that we can postulate a "Hebrew Original" every time we see some author
speaking (writing) Greek with a Hebrew accent.

I live in a multi-lingual community. I hear people speaking "Translation
English" every day of the week. I don't conclude from this that they
composed their sentence first in German or French or Russian and then
translated it before they speak.

greetings,

Clay


--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062