PROBLEMS OF NEW TESTAMENT STUDY 593 



England by Petrie, Grenfell, and Hunt, and others, and the discus- 

 sions of Deissman and Moulton, have opened up a wide and most 

 interesting field, at the same time that Cremer's prosecution of his 

 great task and the publication of many notable monographs have 

 pointed the way to a more scientific method of using all available 

 materials. Our problems are of four classes: (a) those that pertain 

 to the general history of later Greek, and the place in that history 

 of the Greek used by various New Testament writers, including in 

 particular the question whether we are to cease to speak of New 

 Testament Greek, and cease to write New Testament grammars and 

 lexicons, merging these simply in the works on later Greek; and spe- 

 cifically (6) those that deal with the forms of words; (c) those that 

 pertain to syntax; (d) those that pertain to the meaning of words, 

 lexicography. 



These problems may be studied from two points of view: first, 

 from that of the nature of the Semitic influence upon New Testament 

 and contemporary Greek writers; and, second, from that of the 

 relation of the language of the New Testament writers to contempo- 

 rary Greek, as exhibited not only in the literature of that period, but 

 in inscriptions and papyri. 



From the first of these two points of view, it is necessary to dis- 

 tinguish more accurately, if possible, than hitherto between the influ- 

 ences which the New Testament writers brought with them to their 

 task those Semitic elements which had already become a part of 

 their natural speech and, on the other hand, those which came 

 through the medium of the sources used by them. Among the influ- 

 ences affecting the current speech, we may distinguish those which 

 came directly from the living Aramaic speech and those which came 

 through the use of the Bible, chiefly from the Septuagint. For 

 however true it is that attention has hitherto been directed too exclu- 

 sively to the Septuagint as an influence affecting the language of the 

 New Testament, it is not less true that the reaction of the Septuagint 

 upon the Greek written by Jews is an element of the problem that 

 cannot be wholly ignored. Among the influences of the second class 

 we may distinguish those which proceed from the fact that Jesus 

 spoke in Aramaic and those which are due to possible Semitic sources 

 of New Testament books. 



On the side of contemporary Greek usage very valuable results 

 may yet be expected both in the study of syntax and in that of lexi- 

 cography. It would be easy to name many scientific problems, in 

 each of these departments, that await the solution of a competent 

 investigator; in some of these as, for example, to mention but a 

 single instance, the study of the use of the article in later Greek the 

 student will have to undertake tasks which might, naturally falling 

 to the share of the classical scholar, have been substantially accom- 



