BIBLE STUDIES.
PRINTED BY
MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED,
FOR
T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND co. LIMITS*.
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'8 ONS.
BIBLE STUDIES
CONTRIBUTIONS
CHIEFLY FROM PAPYRI AND INSCRIPTIONS
TO THE HISTORY OF
THE LANGUAGE, THE LITERATURE, AND THE RELIGION
OF HELLENISTIC JUDAISM AND PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY
BY
DR. G. ADOLF DEISSMANN
V
PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
WITH AN- ILLUSTRATION IN THE TEXT
Hutborteefc translation
INCORPORATING DR. DEISSMANN'S MOST BECENT CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
BY
ALEXANDEE GEIEVE, M.A. (EDIN.), D.PHIL. (Lips.)
GLASGOW
SECOND EDITION
EDINBURGH
T. & T. CLAEK, 38 GEORGE STREET
1909
ei Sc 17 SiaKorio. TOV Oavdrov ev ypa/x/xacriv IvTeTVTrwfjifvrj \iOois
yevr)6r) kv 80^17, wcrrc yn>) Swao-^at drevtcrat TOV? viovs 'I(rpar)\ ets TO
M(oi)o-(i)s 8ta T^I/ So^av TOV Trpoo-coTrov avTOv T^V
t /AaXXov ^ StaKovta TOV Trvev/xaTOS ecrTat ei/
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION . . . . . . . vii
EXTBACT FROM THE PREFACE TO Bibelstudien ix
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE . . xiii
ABBREVIATIONS xv
I. PROLEGOMENA TO THE BIBLICAL LETTERS AND EPISTLES . . 1
II. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK
BIBLE 61
III. FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE OF
THE GREEK BIBLE 171
Introductory Remarks 173
(i.) Notes on the Orthography 181
1. Variation of Vowels 181
2. Variation of Consonants 183
(ii.) Notes on the Morphology 186
1. Declension 186
2. Proper Names 187
3. Verb 189
(iii.) Notes on the Vocabulary and the Syntax .... 194
1. So-called Hebraisms 194
2. So-called Jewish-Greek "Biblical" or "New Testament"
Words and Constructions 198
3. Supposed Special "Biblical" or "New Testament" Mean-
ings and Constructions 223
4. Technical Terms 228
5. Phrases and Formulae 248
6. Rarer Words, Meanings and Constructions .... 256
IV. AN EPIGRAPHIC MEMORIAL OF THE SEPTUAGINT .... 269
V. NOTES ON SOME BIBLICAL PERSONS AND NAMES .... 301
1. Heliodorus 303
2. Barnabas 307
3. Manaen 310
4. Saulus Paulus 313
(v)
238961
VI CONTENTS.
PAGE
VI. GREEK TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE TETRAGRAMMATON , . . 319
VII. SPICILEGIUM 337
1. The Chronological Statement in the Prologue to Jesus
Sirach 339
2. The Supposed Edict of Ptolemy IV. Philopator against the
Egyptian Jews 341
3. The " Large Letters " and the " Marks of Jesus " in
Galatians 6 346
4. A Note to the Literary History of Second Peter . . .360
5. White Bobes and Palms . . . , . , *. 368
INDEXES ...,,, 371
AUTHOK'S PEEFACE TO THE ENGLISH
EDITION.
Having been honoured by a request to sanction
an English translation of my Bibelstudien and Neue
Bibelstudien, I have felt it my duty to accede to the
proposal. It seems to me that investigations based
upon Papyri and Inscriptions are specially calculated
to be received with interest by English readers.
For one thing, the richest treasures from the
domain of Papyri and Inscriptions are deposited in
English museums and libraries ; for another, English
investigators take premier rank among the discoverers
and editors of Inscriptions, but particularly of Papyri ;
while, again, it was English scholarship which took
the lead in utilising the Inscriptions in the sphere
of biblical research. Further, in regard to the Greek
Old Testament in particular, for the investigation
of which the Inscriptions and Papyri yield valuable
material (of which only the most inconsiderable part
has been utilised in the following pages), English
theologians have of late done exceedingly valuable
and memorable work. In confirmation of all this I
need only recall the names of F. Field, B. P. Grenf ell,
E. Hatch, E. L. Hicks, A. S. Hunt, F. G. Kenyon,
J. P. Mahaffy, W. R Paton, W. M. Eamsay, H. A.
Eedpath, H. B. Swete, and others hardly less notable.
Since the years 1895 and 1897, in which respec-
(vii)
viii AUTHOB'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
tively the German Bibelstudien and Neue Bibelstudien
were published, there has been a vast increase of
available material, which, again, has been much more
accessible to me as a Professor in the University
of Heidelberg than it was during my residence at
Herborn. I have so far availed myself of portions
of the more recent discoveries in this English edition ;
but what remains for scholars interested in such
investigations is hardly less than enormous, and is
being augmented year by year. I shall be greatly
pleased if yet more students set themselves seriously
to labour in this field of biblical research.
In the English edition not a few additional
changes have been made ; I must, however, reserve
further items for future Studies. With regard to the
entries KvpiaiKos (p. 217 ff.), and especially iXaa-TTjpiov
(p. 124 fF.), I should like to make express reference
to the articles Lord's Day and Mercy Seat to be
contributed by me to the Encyclopaedia Biblica.
Finally, I must record my heartiest thanks to
my translator, Rev. Alexander Grieve, M.A., D. Phil.,
Forfar, for his work. With his name I gratefully
associate the words which once on a time the trans-
lator of the Wisdom of Jesus Sirach applied with
ingenuous complacency to himself : TroXXyv aypvirvCav
KOL eTTLCTTTJiJirjv TTpocrei'ey/ca/Aez'OS.
ADOLF DEISSMANN.
HEIDELBERG,
Vlth December, 1900.
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE GERMAN
EDITION.
Bible Studies is the name I have chosen for the
following investigations, since all of them are more
or less concerned with the historical questions which
the Bible, and specially the Greek version, raises for
scientific treatment. I am not, of course, of the
opinion that there is a special biblical science.
Science is method : the special sciences are distin-
guished from each other as methods. What is
designated " Biblical Science " were more fitly
named " Biblical Research ". The science in ques-
tion here is the same whether it is engaged with
Plato, or with the Seventy Interpreters and the
Gospels. Thus much should be self-evident.
A well-disposed friend who understands some-
thing of literary matters tells me that it is hardly
fitting that a younger man should publish a volume
of " Studies " : that is rather the part of the ex-
perienced scholar in the sunny autumn of life. To
this advice I have given serious consideration, but I
am still of the opinion that the hewing of stones is
very properly the work of the journeyman. And in
the department where I have laboured, many a block
must yet be trimmed before the erection of the edifice
can be thought of. But how much still remains to
do, before the language of the Septuagint, the relation
(ix)
X FEOM THE PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION.
to it of the so-called New Testament Greek, the
history of the religious and ethical conceptions of
Hellenic Judaism, have become clear even in outline
only ; or before it has been made manifest that the
religious movement by which we date our era origin-
ated and was developed in history that is, in con-
nection with, or, it may be, in opposition to, an already-
existent high state of culture ! If the following pages
speak much about the Septuagint, let it be remem-
bered that in general that book is elsewhere much
too little spoken of, certainly much less than was the
case a hundred years ago. We inveigh against the
Rationalists often in a manner that raises the sus-
picion that we have a mistrust of Reason. Yet these
men, inveighed against as they are, in many respects
set wider bounds to their work than do their critics.
During my three years' work in the Seminarium
Philippinum at Marburg, I have often enough been
forced to think of the plan of study in accordance
with which the bursars used to work about the
middle of last century. Listen to a report of the
matter such as the following : *
" With regard to Greek the legislator has laid
particular stress upon the relation in which this
language stands to a true understanding of the N.T.
How reasonable, therefore, will those who can judge
find the recommendation that the Septuagint (which,
1 Cf. the programme (of the superintendent) Dr. Carl Wilhelm Kobert :
. . . announces that the Literary Association . . . shall be duly opened . . .
on the 27th inst. . . . [Marburg] Miiller's Erben und Weldige, 1772, p. 13.
That the superintendent had still an eye for the requirements of practical
life is shown by his remarks elsewhere. For example, on page 7 f., he good-
naturedly asserts that he has carried out " in the most conscientious manner "
the order that "the bursars shall be supplied with sufficient well-prepared
food and wholesome and unadulterated beer ". The programme affords a fine
glimpse into the academic life of the Marburg of a past time.
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION. XI
on the authority of an Ernesti and a Michaelis, is of
the first importance as a means towards the proper
understanding of the N.T.), has been fixed upon as
a manual upon which these lectures must be given !
And how much is it to be wished that the bursars,
during the year of their study of this book, should go
through such a considerable part of the same as may
be necessary to realise the purposes of the legislator ! "
I am not bold enough to specify the time when
academical lectures and exercises upon the Septua-
gint will again be given in Germany. 1 But the coming
century is long, and the mechanical conception of
science is but the humour of a day! . . .
I wrote the book, not as a clergyman, but as a
Privatdocent at Marburg, but I rejoice that I am
able, as a clergyman, to publish it.
G. ADOLF DEISSMANN.
HEBBOBN: DEPARTMENT OF WIESBADEN,
7th March, 1895.
1 1. Additional note, 1899 : Professor Dr. Johannes Weiss of Marburg
has announced a course upon the Greek Psalter for the Summer Session, 1899 ;
the author lectured on the Language of the Greek Bible in Heidelberg in the
Winter Session of 1897-98.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
In addition to the supplementary matter specially
contributed to the present edition by the Author,
the translation shows considerable alterations in other
respects. Not only has the smaller and later volume,
Neue Bibelstudien, 1897, found a place in the body
of the book, but the order of the Articles has been all
but completely changed. It has not been thought
necessary to furnish the translation with an index
of Papyri, etc., more especially as the larger Bibel-
studien had none ; but there has been added an index
of Scripture texts, which seemed on the whole more
likely to be of service to English readers in general.
The translator has inserted a very few notes, mainly
concerned with matters of translation.
For the convenience of those who may wish to
consult the original on any point, the paging of the
German edition has been given in square brackets,
the page-numbers of the Neue Bibelstudien being
distinguished by an N. In explanation of the fact
that some of the works cited are more fully described
towards the end of the book, and more briefly in the
earlier pages, it should perhaps be said that a large
portion of the translation was in type, and had been
revised, before the alteration in the order of the
Articles had been decided upon.
The translator would take this opportunity of
(xiii)
xiv TBANSLATOK'S NOTE.
expressing his most cordial thanks to Professor
Deissmann, who has taken the most active interest
in the preparation of the translation, and whose
painstaking revision of the proofs has been of the
highest service. A word of thanks is also due to the
printers, The Aberdeen University Press Limited,
for the remarkable accuracy and skill which they
have uniformly shown in the manipulation of what
was often complicated and intricate material.
ALEXANDER GRIEVE.
FOBFAB,
21st January, 1901.
THE PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS.
AAB. = Abhandlungen der Konig-
lichen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften zu Berlin.
Benndorf u. Niemann, see p. 157,
note 1.
B U. = Aegyptische Urkunden aus den
Koeniglichen Museen zu Berlin,
Berlin, 1892 if.
CIA. = Corpus Inscriptionum Atti-
carum.
GIG. = Corpus Inscriptionum Grae-
carum.
CIL. = Corpus Inscriptionum Latin-
arum.
Clavis 3 , see p. 88, note 5.
Cremer, see p. 290, note 2.
DAW. = Denkschriften der K. K.
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu
Wien.
Dieterich (A.), see p. 322, note 8.
Dittenberger, see p. 93, note 2.
DLZ. = Deutsche Literaturzeitung.
Fick-Bechtel, see p. 310, note 4.
Field, see p. 284, note 2.
Fleck. Jbb. = Fleckeisen's Jab.rbucb.er.
Frankel, see p. 84, note 2.
GGA. = Gottingische gelehrte An-
zeigen.
HApAT. = Kurzgefasstes exegetisches
Handbuch zu den Apocrypben des
A.T., 6 Bde., Leipzig, 1851-60.
Hamburger, see p. 271, note.
HC. = Hand-Commentar zum N.T.
Hercber, see p. 4, note 1.
Humann u. Pucbstein, see p. 309,
note 1.
IGrSL, see p. 200, note 1.
IMAe., see p. 178, note 5.
Kennedy, see p. 213, note 1.
Kenyon, see p. 323, note 1.
Lebas, see Waddington.
Leemans, see p. 322, note 6.
Letronne, Recherches, see p. 98, note 3.
Recueil, see p. 101, note 6.
Lumbroso, Rechercbes, see p. 98, note 2.
Mahaffy, see p. 336, note 1.
Meisterhans, see p. 124, note 1.
Meyer = H. A. W. Meyer, Kritiscb
exegetiscber Kommentar iiber das
N.T.
Notices, xviii. 2, see p. 283, note 3.
Parthey, see p. 322, note 5.
Paton and Hicks, see p. 131, note 1.
PER., see p. 179, note 2.
Perg., see p. 178, note 4.
Peyron (A.), see p. 88, note 1.
E-E 2 = Real-Encyclopadie fur protest.
Theologie und Kirche von Herzog,
2. Aufl., Leipzig, 1877 ff.
Scbleusner = J. F., Novus Thesaurus
philologico-criticus sive lexicon in
LXX et reliquos interpretes grae-
cos ac scrip tores apocryphos V. T.,
5 voll., Lipsiae, 1820-21.
Schmid (W.), see p. 64, note 2.
Schmidt (Guil.), see p. 291, note 1.
Schurer, see p. 335, note 2.
Swete = The Old Testament in Greek
according to the Septuagint, edited
by H. B. Swete, 3 voll., Cambridge,
1887-94.
Thesaurus = H. Stephanus, Thesaurus
Graecae Linguae, edd. Hase, etc.,
Paris, 1831-65.
Thayer, see p. 176, note 3.
ThLZ. = Theologische Literaturzei-
tung.
Tromm. = Abrahami Trommii concor-
dantiae graecae versionis vulgo
dictae LXX interpretum . . ., 2
tomi, Amstelodami et Trajecti ad
Rhenum, 1718.
TU. = Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen
Literatur.
Waddington, see p. 93, note 1.
Wessely, see p. 322, note 7.
Wetstein, see p. 350, note 1.
Winer 7 , or Winer-Lunemann = G. B.
Winer, Grammatik des neutesta-
mentlichen Sprachidioms, 7 Aufl.
von G. Lunemann, Leipzig, 1867.
[9th English edition, by W. F.
Moulton, Edinburgh, 1882 = 6th
German edition.]
Winer-Schmiedel = the same work,
8th Aufl. neu bearbeitet von P. W.
Schmiedel, Gottingen, 1894 ff.
ZAW. = Zeitschrift fur die alttesta-
mentliche Wissenschaft.
ZKG. = Zeitschrift fur Kirchenge-
schichte.
(XV)
PKOLEGOMENA TO THE BIBLICAL LETTEES
AND EPISTLES.
SOKI/AOI
PROLEGOMENA TO THE BIBLICAL LETTERS AND
EPISTLES.
I.
1. Men have written letters ever since they could write
at all. Who the first letter-writer was we know not. 1 But
this is quite as it should be : the writerjp^ a letter accom- J
mo dates himself to the need of the moment ; Hsl^jm'liala
personal one and concerns none but himself, least of all
the curiosity of posterity. We fortunately know quite as
little who was the first to experience repentance or to offer
prayer. The writer of a letter does not sit in the market-
place. A letter is a secret and the writer wishes his secret
to be preserved ; under cover and seal he entrusts it to the
reticence of the messenger. The letter, in inessential idea,
does not differ in any way from a private conversation ; like
the latter, it is a personal and intimate communication, and
the more faithfully it catches the tone of the private con-
versation, the more of a letter, that is, the better a letter, it
is_^ The~only difference is the means of communication.
We avail ourselves of far-travelling handwriting, because
1 It appears sufficiently naive that Tatian (Or. ad Graec., p. list.,
Schwartz) and Clement of Alexandria (Strom, i. 16, p. 364, Potter) should
say, following the historian Hellanikos, that the Persian queen Atossa
(6th-5th cent. B.C.) was the discoverer of letter-writing. For it is in this
sense that we should understand the expression that occurs in both, viz.,
eVto-roA&s ffvvrdffffeiv, and not as collecting letters together and publishing them,
which B. Bentley (Dr. Rich. Bentley's Dissertation on the Epistles of
Phalaris, London, 1699, p. 535 f., German edition by W. Eibbeck, Leipzig,
1857, p. 532) considers to be also possible ; cf. M. Kremmer, De catalogis
heurematum, Leipzig, 1890, p. 15.
4 BIBLE STUDIES. [190, 191
our voice cannot carry to our friend : the pen is employed
because the separation by distance does not permit a tete-a-
tdte. 1 A letter is destined for the receiver only, not for the
public eye, and even when it is intended for more than one,
yet with the public it will have nothing to do : letters to
parents and brothers and sisters, to comrades in joy or
sorrow or sentiment these, too, are private letters, true
letters. As little as the words of the dying father to his
children are a speech should they be a speech it would be
better for the dying to keep silent just as little is the letter
of a sage to his confidential pupils an essay, a literary produc-
tion ; and, if the pupils have learned wisdom, they will not
place it among their books, but lay it devoutly beside the
picture and the other treasured relics of their master. jThe
form and external appearance of the letter are matters of
indifference in the determination pf its essential character.
Whether it be written on stone or clay, on papyrus or parch-
ment, on wax or palm-leaf, on rose paper or a foreign post-
card, is quite as immaterial 2 as whether it clothes itself in
the set phrases of the age ; whether it be written skilfully
or unskilfully, by a prophet or by a beggar, does not alter
special characteristics in the least. Nor do the particular
u\~ ^ . yycontents~ belo'n^_lo_the ..essence of it. .What is alone
\essential is the purpose which it serves : confidential per-
/ (sonal conversation between persons separated by dis-
pance. The one wishes to ask something of the other,
wishes to praise or warn or wound the other, to thank
him or assure him of sympathy in joy it is ever something
personal that forces the pen into the hand of the letter-
/ writer. 3 He who writes a letter under the impression that
J..1 / C ^ J
V,
1 [Pseudo-] Diogenes, ep. 3 (Epistolographi Oraeci, rec. B. Hercher,
Parisiis, 1873, p. 235). Demetr., de elocut., 223 f. (Hercher, p. 13). [Pseudo-]
Proclus, de forma epistolari (Hercher, p. 6).
2 Cf. Th. Birt, Das antike Buchwesen in seinem Verhaltniss zur Lit-
teratur, Berlin, 1882, top of p. 2. It is most singular that Pliny (Hist. Nat.,
xiii. 13), and, after him, Bentley (p. 538 f. ; German edition by Eibbeck, p.
532 f.), deny that the letters on wax-tablets mentioned by Homer are letters.
3 Demetr., de elocut., 231 (Hercher, p. 14).
191, 192]
LETTERS AND EPISTLES.
his lines ___may__be_xead by strangers, will either coquet with
this possibility, or be frightened by it ; in the former case
he will be vain, in the latter, reserved ; } in both cases un-
natural no true letter-writer. With the personal aim of
the letter there must necessarily be joined the naturalness
of the writer's mood ; one owes it not only to himself
and to the other, but still more to the letter as such,
that he yield himself freely to it. So must the letter.
even the shortest and *>><a pnnrAqf, pr^a^f, p fragment
1 Cic., Fam. 15,214, aliter enim scribimus quod eos solos quibus mittimus,
aliter quod multos lecturos putamus. Cic., Phil. 2,7, quam multa ioca solent
esse in epistulis quae prolata si sint inepta videantur ! quam multa seria neque
tamen ullo modo divolganda ! Johann Kepler wrote a letter to Reimarus
Ursus, of which the latter then made a great parade in a manner painful
to Kepler and Tycho Brahe. Having got a warning by this, Kepler de-
termined that for the future: " scribam caute, retinebo exemplaria ".
(Joannis Kepleri astronomi opera omnia, ed. Ch. Frisch, i. [Frankfurt and
Erlangen, 1858], p. 234 ; cf. C. Anschiitz, Ungedruckte wissenschaftliche Cor-
respondenz zwisclien Johann Kepler und Herwart von Hohenburg, 1599,
Prague, 1886, p. 91 f.-^The Palatinate physician-in-ordinary Helisaus Eos-
linus (t 1616) says about one of his letters which had been printed without
his knowledge : "I wrote it the day immediately following that on which I
first beheld with astonishment the new star on the evening of Tuesday, the
2/12 October ; I communicated the same at once in haste to a good friend in
Strassburg This letter (6 paginarum) was subsequently printed without
my knowledge or desire, which in itself did not concern me only had I
known beforehand, I should have arranged it somewhat better and ex-
pressed myself more distinctly than I did while engaged in the writing of
it " ) Joannis Kepleri opp. omn., i., p. 666). Moltke to his wife, 3rd July,
1864 : " I have in the above given you a portrayal of the seizure of Alsen,
which embodies no official report, but simply the observations of an eye-
witness, which always add freshness to description. If you think it would
be of interest to others as well, I have no objection to copies being taken
of it in which certain personal matters will be left out, and myself not
mentioned : Auer will put the matter right for you " (Gesammelte Schriften
und Denkwiirdigkeiten des General- Feldmarschalls Grafen Helmuth von
Moltke, vi. [Berlin, 1892], p. 408 f.). One notices, however, in this "letter,"
that it was written under the impression that copies of it might be
made. Compare also the similar sentiment (in the matter of diary-notes,
which are essentially akin to letters) of K. von Hase, of the year 1877:
" It may be that my knowledge that these soliloquies will soon fall into
other hands detracts from their naturalness. Still they will be the
hands of kind and cherished persons, and so may the thought of it
be but a quickly passing shadow ! " (Annalen meines Lebens, Leipzig, 1891,
p. 271).
6 BIBLE STUDIES. [192, 193
J of human naivete beautiful or trivial. but T in an VL case.
2. Thejetter is older than literature. As conversation
between two persons is older than the dialogue, the song
older than the poem, so also does the history of the letter
reach back to that Golden Age when there was neither
author nor publisher, nor any reviewer. Literature is that
species ol writing which is designed for publicity : ihe
maker of literature desires that others will take heed to
his work. He desires to be read. He does not appeal to
his friend, nor does he write to his mother; he entrusts
his sheets to the winds, and knows not whither they will
be borne ; he only knows that they will be picked up and ex-
amined by some one or other unknown to him and unabashed
^ before him. Literature, in the truest essence of it, differsjn
no way from a public speech ; equally with the latter_it
falls short in the matter of intimacy, and the more it attains
to the character of universality, the more literary, that is
to say, the more interesting it is. All the difference between
them is in the mode of delivery. Should one desire to address,
not the assembled clan or congregation, but the great foolish
public, then he takes care that what he has to say may be
carried home in writing by any one who wishes to have it
so : the book is substituted for oral communication. And
even if the book be dedicated to a friend or friends, still its
dedication does not divest it of its literary character, it
does not thereby become a private piece of writing. The
form and external appearance of the book are immaterial
for the true understanding of its special character as a
book : even its contents, whatever they be, do not matter.
Whether the author sends forth poems, tragedies or his-
tories, sermons or wearisome scientific lucubrations, politi-
cal matter or anything else in the world ; whether his book
is multiplied by the slaves of an Alexandrian bookseller, by
patient monk or impatient compositor; whether it is pre-
served in libraries as sheet, or roll, or folio : all these are as
1 Demetr., de elocut., 227 (Hercher, p. 13). Greg. Naz., ad Nicobulum
(Hercher, p. 16).
193, 194] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 7
much matter of indifference as whether it is good or bad, or
whether it finds purchasers or not. Book, literature, in the
widest sense, is every written work designed by its author
for the public. 1
3. The book is younger than the letter. Even were the
oldest letters that have come down to us younger than the
earliest extant works of literature, that statement would still
be true. For it is one which does not need the confirmation
of historical facts nay, it would be foolish to attempt to give
such. The letter is perishable in its very nature necessarily
so ; it is perishable, like the hand that wrote it, like the eyes
fha.t wprp fn j-f.a.A it. The letter-writer works as little for
posterity as for the public of his own time ; 2 just as the
true letter cannot be written over again, it exists in but a
single copy. It is only the book that is multiplied and
thus rendered accessible to the public, accessible, possibly,
to posterity. Fortunately we possess letters that are old,
extremely old, but we shall never gain a sight of the oldest
of them all ; it was a letter, and was able to guard itself and
its secret. Among all nations, before the age of literature,
there were the days when people wrote, indeed, but did not
yet write books. 3 In the same way people prayed, of course,
and probably prayed better, long before there were any
service-books ; and they had come near to God before they
wrote down the proofs of His existence. The letter, should
we ask about the essential character of it, carries us into
the sacred solitude of simple, unaffected humanity; when we
ask about its history, it directs us to the childhood's years of
the pre-literary man, when there was no book to trouble him.
1 Birt, Buchwesen, p. 2 : " Similarly the point of separation between a
private writing and a literary work was the moment when [in antiquity] an
author delivered his manuscript to his own slaves or to those of a contractor
in order that copies of it might be produced ".
2 A. Stahr, Aristotelia, i., Halle, 1830, p. 192 f.
3 Wellhausen, Israelitische und Jiidische Geschichte, p. 58 : " Already
in early times writing was practised, but in documents and contracts only ;
also letters when the contents of the message were not for the light of day
or when, for other reasons, they required to be kept secret ". Hebrew litera-
ture blossomed forth only later.
8 BIBLE STUDIES. [194, 159
4. When the friend has for ever parted from his comrades,
the master from his disciples, then the bereaved bethink
themselves, with sorrowful reverence, of all that the de-
parted one was to them. The old pages, which the beloved
one delivered to them in some blessed hour, speak to them
with a more than persuasive force ; they are read and re-
read, they are exchanged one for another, copies are taken
of letters in the possession of friends, the precious fragments
are collected : perhaps it is decided that the collection be
multiplied among the great unknown public there may
be some unknown one who is longing for the same
stimulus which the bereaved themselves have received.
And thus it happens now and then that, from motives of
reverent love, the letters of the great are divested of. their
confidential character : they are formed into literature, the
letters subsequently become a book. When, by the
Euphrates or the Nile, preserved in the ruins of some
fallen civilisation, we find letters the age of which can
only be computed by centuries and millenniums, the science
of our fortunate day rejoices ; she hands over the vener-
able relics to a grateful public in a new garb, and so, in our
own books and in our own languages, we read the reports
which the Palestinian vassals had to make to Pharaoh upon
their tablets of clay, long before there was any Old Testa-
ment or any People of Israel ; we learn the sufferings and
the longings of Egyptian monks from shreds of papyrus
which are as old as the book of the Seventy Interpreters.-
Thus it is the science of to-day that has stripped these
private communications of a hoary past of their most
peculiar characteristic, and which has at length transformed
letters, true letters, into literature. As little, however, as
some unknown man, living in the times of Imperial Rome,
put the toy into the grave of his child in order that it should
sometime be discovered and placed in a museum, just as
little are the private letters which have at length been trans-
formed into literature by publication, to be, on that account,
t thought of as literature. Letters remain letters whether
' oblivion hides them with its protecting veil, or whether now
195, 196] LETTERS AND EPISTLES.
reverence, now science, or, again, reverence and science in
friendly conspiracy, think it well to withhold the secret no
longer from the reverent or the eager seeker after truth.
What the editor^ in, publishing .such., letters, takes from
them, the readers, if they can do anything more than spell,
must restore by recognising, in true historical perspective,
their simple and unaffected beauty.
5. When for the first time a book was compiled from
letters, it would be reverential love, rather than science,
that made the beginning here the age of literature had, of!
course, dawned long ago, and had long ago constructed \
the various literary forms with which it worked. That \
book, the first to be compiled from real letters, added
another to the already existent forms. One would, of
course, hardly venture to say that it forthwith added-.. the
literary letter, the epistle? to the__fornis of published liter a-
ture ; the saidHBodk only gave, against its will, so to speak,
the impetus to the development of this new literary eidos. 2
The present writer cannot imagine that the composition
and publication of literary treatises in the form of letters
was anterior to the compilation of a book from actual
letters. So soon,_however,_as such a book existed, the
charming novelty of it invited to imitation. Had the in-
vitation been rightly understood, the only inducement that
should have been felt was to publish the letters of other
venerable men, and, in point of fact, the invitation was not
seldom understood in this its true sense. From almost
every age we have received such collections of "genuine,"
"real" letters priceless jewels for the historian of the
human spirit. But the literary man is frequently more
of a [literary mfl.p.T^nft^f.Tmn a^t-r^fi man^anfl thus, when the
1 In the iJiiowing pages the literary letifer [Litteraturbrief] will
continue to be so named: the author considers that the borrowed word
appropriately expresses the technical sense.
2 F. Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexan-
drinerzeit, ii., Leipzig, 1892, p. 579: "It may wjall_ba that, the first impulse
to this branch of authorship was given by the early collggt.ing f-ngflthpr, in
the individual schools of philosophy, such as the Epicurean, of the genuine
correspondence of their founders and oldest members "it r ~ ^\^. (\ xn \ f
10 BIBLE STUDIES. [196, 197
first collection of letters appeared, it was the literary, rather^
than the human, interest of it which impressed him; the
accidental and external, rather than the inscrutably strange
/inmost essence of it. Instead of rejoicing that his purr,
blind eye might here catch a glimpse of a great human
soul, he resolved to write a volume of letters on his own
part. He knew not what he did, and had no feeling that
he was attempting anything unusual ; 1 he did not see that,
by his literary purpose, he was himself destroying the very_
possibility of its realisation ; for letters are experiences,
experiences cannot be manufactured. The father of
the epistle was no great pioneer spirit, but a mere para-
graphist, a mere mechanic. But perhaps he had once
heard a pastoral song among the hills, and afterwards at
home set himself down to make another of the same : the
wondering applause of his crowd of admirers confirmed him
in the idea that he had succeeded. If then he had achieved
his aim in the matter of a song, why should he not do the
same with letters ? And so he set himself down and made
them. But the prototype, thus degraded to a mere pattern,
mistrustfully refusecHx) jhow its true face, not to speak of
its heart, to this pale and suspicious-looking companion,
and the result was that the epistle could learn no more
from the letter than a little of its external form. If the
true letter might be compared to a prayer, the epistle which
* ^^ '^/mimicked it was only a babbling ; if there beamed forth
r, in the letter the wondrous face of a child, the epistle grinned
stiffly and stupidly, like a puppet
Butjhejpuppet pleased ; its makers knew how to bring
it to perfection, and to give it more of a human appearance.
Indeed, it happened now and then that a real artist occupied
an idle hour in the fashioning of such an object. This, of
course, turned out better than most others of a similar kind,
1 Cf. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aristoteles und Athen, ii., Berlin,
1893, p. 392: "He [Isocrates] did not understand that the letter, as a con-
fidential and spontaneous utterance, is well written only when it is written
for reading, not hearing, when it is distinguished from the set oration nar
eI5os". This judgment applies also to real, genuine letters by Isocrates.
197, 198] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 11
and was more pleasant to look at than an ugly child for
ihatance fliranyim5e~it' could not disturb one by its noise.
A good epistle, in fact, gives one more pleajmrethan a
worthless letter, and in no literature is thprpTlmv lack of
good epistles. They often resemble_lettp,ra scL.much that a
reader permits himself for the moment to be willingly deceived
as to their actual character. But letters they are not, and
the more strenuously they try to be letters, the more vividly
do they reveal that they are not. 1 Even the grapes of
Zeuxis could deceive only the sparrows ; one even suspects
that they were no true sparrows, but cage-birds rather, which
had lost their real nature along with their freedom and
pertness ; our Khine-land sparrows would not have left their
vineyards for anything of the kind. TVin^ of fhp.
writers who were artists were themselves most fully aware
that in their epistles they worked at best artificially,
and, in fact, had to do so. " The editor requests that the
readers of this book will not forget the title of it : it is only
a book of letters, letters merely relating to the study of
theology. In^ letters one does not look for treatises, still less\y
for treatises in rigid uniformity and proportion of parts. ,
As material otters itsell and varies, as conversation comes ^ j J \
and goes, often as personal inclinations or incidental occuiv vv-^
rences determine and direct, so do the letters wind about (
and flow on; and I am greatly in error if it be not this ^ WJ
thread of living continuity, this capriciousness of origin and
circumstances, that realises the result which we desiderate
on the written page, but which, of course, subsequently dis-
appears in the printing. Nor can I conceal the fact that
these letters, as now printed, are wanting just in what
is perhaps most instructive, viz., the more exact criticism of
particular works. There was, however, no other way of
doing it, and I am still uncertain whether the following
letters, in which the materials grow always the more special,
Wilamowitz-Moellendorfi, Antigonos von Karystos (Philologische
Untersiichungen, iv.), Berlin, 1881, p. 151, says, " Such letters as are actually
written with a view to publication are essentially different in char-f ^ *
private correspondence".^
12 BIBLE STUDIES. [198, 199
the more important, the more personal, are fit for printing at
all. The public voice of the market-place and the confidential
one of private correspondence are, and always continue to
be, very different." Herder, 1 in these words, which are a
classical description of the true idea of a letter, claims that
his boot has, in fact, the character of actual letters, but ^is
nevertheless quite well aware that a printed (that is, accord-
ing to the context, a literary) letter is essentially different
from a letter that is actually such.
It is easy to understand how the epistle became a
favourite form of published literature in almost all literary
nations. There could hardly be a more convenient form.
The extraordinary convenience of it lay in the fact that
it was, properly speaking, so altogether "unliterary," that,
in fact, it did not deserve to be called a "form" at all.
One needed but to label an address on any piece of tittle-
tattle, and lo ! one had achieved what else could have been
accomplished only by a conscientious adherence to the strict
rules of artistic form. Neither as to expression nor contents
does the epistle make any higher pretensions. The writer
could, in the matter of style, write as he pleased, and the
address on the letter became a protective mark for thoughts
that would have been too silly for a poem, and too paltry
for an essay. The epistle, if we disregard the affixed
address, need be no more than, say a feuilleton or a causerie.
The zenith of epistolography may always be looked upon as
assuredly indicating the decline of literature ; literature be-
comes decadent Alexandrian, so to speak and although
epistles may have been composed and published by great
creative spirits, still the derivative character of the move-
ment cannot be questioned : even the great will want to
gossip, to lounge, to take it easy for once. Their epistles
may be good, but the epistle in general, as a literary pheno-
menon, is light ware indeed.
6. Of collections of letters, bearing the name of well-
known poets and philosophers, we have, indeed, a great
1 Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend, Third Part, Frankfurt
and Leipzig, 1790, Preface to the first edition, pp. i.-iii.
199, 200] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 13
profusion. Many of them are not "genuine"; they were
composed and given to the world by others under the pro-
tection of a great name. 1 A timid ignorance, having no
true notion of literary usages, inconsiderately stigmatises
one and all of these with the ethical term forgery ; it fondly
imagines that everything in the world can be brought be-
tween the two poles moral and immoral, and overlooks the
fact that the endless being and becoming of things is
generally realised according to non-ethical laws, and needs
to be judged as an ethical adiaphoron. He who tremulously
supposes that questions of genuineness in the history of
literature are, as such, problems of the struggle between
truth and falsehood, ought also to have the brutal courage
to describe all literature as forgery. The literary man^^as^
compared with the non-literary^, is always a person under
constraint; he does not draw from the sphere of prosaic
circumstance about him, but places himself under the
dominion of the ideal, about which no one knows better than
himself that it never was, and never will be, real. The
literary man, with every stroke of his pen, removes himself
farther from trivial actuality, just because he wishes to alter
it, to ennoble or annihilate it, just because he can never
acknowledge it as it is. As a man he feels indeed that he
is sold under the domain of the wretched " object ". He
knows that when he writes upon the laws of the cosmos,
he is naught but a foolish boy gathering shells by the
shore of the ocean ; he enriches the literature of his nation
1 The origin of spurious collections of letters among the Greeks is
traced back to "the exercises in style of the Athenian schools of rhetoric in
the earlier and earliest Hellenistic period," Susemihl, ii., pp. 448, 579. If
some callow rhetorician succeeded in performing an exercise of this kind
specially well, he might feel tempted to publish it. But it is not impossible
that actual forgeries were committed for purposes of gain by trading with the
great libraries, cf. Susemihl, ii., pp. 449 f. ; Bentley, p. 9 f., in Eibbeck's
German edition, p. 81 ff. ; A. M. Zumetikos, De Alexandra Olympiadisque
epistularum fontibus et reliquiis, Berlin, 1894, p. 1. As late as 1551, Joachim
Camerarius ventured on the harmless jest of fabricating, " ad institutionem
puerilem," a correspondence in Greek between Paul and the Presbytery of
Ephesus (Th. Zahn, Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons, ii., 2,
"Erlangen and Leipzig, 1892, p. 365).
14 BIBLE STUDIES. [200, 201
by a Faust, meanwhile sighing for a revelation; or he is
driven about by the thought that something must be done
for his unbelief yet he writes Discourses upon Religion.
And thus he realises that he is entangled in the contradic-
tion between the Infinite and the Finite, 1 while the small
prosperous folks, whose sleepy souls reck not of his pain,
are lulled by him into the delightful dream that we only
need to build altars to truth, beauty, and eternity in order
to possess these things ; when they have awaked, they can
but reproach him for having deceived them. They discover
that he is one of themselves ; they whisper to each other
that the sage, the poet, the prophet, is but a man after all
wiser, it may be, but not more clever, or better, than
others. He who might have been their guide not in-
deed to his own poor hovel but to the city upon the hill,
not built by human hands is compensated with some
polite-sounding phrase. The foolish ingrates ! Literature
presents us with the unreal, just because it subserves the
truth; the literary man abandons himself, just because he
strives for the ends of humanity ; he is unnatural, just be-
cause he would give to others something better than him-
self. What holds good of literature in general must also
be taken into account in regard to each of its characteristic
phenomena. Just as little as Plato's Socrates and Schiller's
Wallenstein are "forgeries," so little dare we so name the
whole "pseudonymous" 2 literature. We may grant at
once, indeed, that some, at least, of the writings which go
under false names were intentionally forged by the writers
1 Cf. the confession made by U. von Wilamowitz-MoellendorfE, Aristoteles
und Athen, i., Berlin, 1893, Preface, p. vi. : " The task of authorship demands
an end attained in irreconcilable antithesis to the investigations of science.
The Phaedrus has taught us that the book in general is a pitiful thing as
compared with living investigation, and it is to be hoped that we are wiser in
our class-rooms than in our books. But Plato, too, wrote books ; he spoke
forth freely each time what he knew as well as he knew it, assured that he
would contradict himself, and hopeful that he would correct himself, next
time he wrote."
2 The term pseudonymous of itself certainly implies blame, but it has
become so much worn in the using, that it is also applied in quite an in-
nocent sense.
201, 202] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 15
of them ; pseudonymity in political or ecclesiastical works
is in every case suspicious, for no one knows better how to
use sacred and sanctifying ends than does the undisciplined
instinct of monarchs and hierarchs, and the followers of
them. But there is also a pseudonymity which is innocent,
sincere, and honest, 1 and if a literary product permits of any
inferences being drawn from it respecting the character of
the writer, then, in such a case of pseudonymity, one may
not think of malice or cowardice, but rather of modesty and
natural timidity. Between the genuine 2 and the pseudony-
mous epistle there does not exist the same profound and
essential difference as between the epistle and the letter. ^
The epistle is never genuine in the sense in which the letter ^ <U -a
is~Tit never can be so, because it can adopt the form of the K\( wW.*.
letter only by surrendering the essence. An epistle of
Herder, however like a letter it may look, is yet not a. Iftt.ter ^ f _js~
of"Herder : 1L was not Merder the man, but Herder the ^Y ^
theological thinker and author, that wrote it : it is genuine KV****'^
in an ungenume sense like an apple-tree which, flourishing H^)-*? ^
in September, certainly has genuine apple blossoms, but
which must surely be altogether ashamed of such in the
presence of its own ripening fruits. Literary " genuine-
ness" is not to be confounded with genuine naturalness.
Questions of genuineness in literature may cause us to rack
our brains : but what is humanly genuine is never a problem
1 Cf. on this point specially Julicher, Einleitung in das N. T., p. 32 ff.
2 The discussion which occupies the remainder of this paragraph is one
which may, indeed, be translated, but can hardly be transferred, into English.
It turns partly on the ambiguity of the German word echt, and partly on
a distinction corresponding to that which English critics have tried to
establish between the words " genuine " and " authentic " a long- vexed
question which now practice rather than theory is beginning to settle. Echt
means authentic, as applied, for instance, to a book written by the author
whose name it bears ; it also means genuine both as applied to a true record
of experience, whether facts or feelings, and as implying the truth (that is
the naturalness, spontaneity or reality) of the experience itself. The trans-
lator felt that, in justice to the author, he must render echt throughout
the passage in question by a single word, and has therefore chosen genuine.,
as representing, more adequately than any other, the somewhat wide con-
notation of the German adjective. Tr.
16 BIBLE STUDIES. [202, 203
to the genuine man. From the epistle that was genuine in
a mere literary sense there was but a step to the fictitious
epistle ; while the genuine letter could at best be mimicked,
the genuine epistle was bound to be imitated, and, indeed,
invited to imitation. The collections of genuine letters
indirectly occasioned the writing of epistles : the collections
of genuine epistles were immediately followed by the litera-
ture of the fictitious epistle.
n.
7. In the foregoing remarks on questions of prin-
ciple, the author has in general tacitly presupposed the
literary conditions into which we are carried by the Graeco-
Koman civilisation, and by the modern, of which that is
the basis. 1 These inquiries seem to him to demand that we
should not summarily include all that has been handed down
to us bearing the wide, indefinite name of letter, under
the equally indefinite term Literature of letters (Brief-
litteratur), but that each separate fragment of these in-
teresting but neglected compositions be set in its proper
^/place in the line of development, which is as follows real
letter, letter that has subsequently become literature, epistle, ficti-
tious epistle. Should it be demanded that the author fill
^ up the various stages of this development with historical
' references, he would be at a loss. It has been already in-
dicated that the first member of the series, viz., the letter^
belongs to pre-literary times : it is not only impossible to
give an exampleTof ~this, Trnt also unreasonable to demand
one. With more plausibility one might expect that some-
thing certain ought to be procured in connection with the
other stages, which belong in a manner to literary times,
1 The history of the literature of " letters " among the Italian Humanists
is, from the point of view of method, specially instructive. Stahr, Aristotelia,
ii., p. 187 f., has already drawn attention to it. The best information on
the subject is to be found in G. Voigt's Die Wiederbelebung des classischen
Alterihums oder das erste JaHrhundert des Humanismus, ii. 3 , Berlin, 1893,
pp. 417-436.
203, 204] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 17
and, as such, can be historically checked. But even if the
broad field of ancient "letters" were more extensively
cultivated than has hitherto been the case, still we could
establish at best no more than the first known instance of
a subsequent collection of real letters, of an epistle or of a
fictitious epistle, but would not reach the beginnings of the
literary movement itself. The line in question can only be
drawn on the ground of general considerations, nor does the
author see how else it could be drawn. No one will ques-
tion that the real letter was the first, the fictitious epistle
the last, link in the development ; as little will any one
doubt that the epistle must have been one of the intervening
links between the two. 1 The only uncertainty is as to the
origin of the epistle itself; it, of course, presupposes the
real letter, being an imitation of it ; but that it presupposes
as well the collection of real letters, as we think pro-
bable in regard to Greek literature, cannot be established
with certainty for the history of literature in general. As a
matter of fact, the epistle, as a form of literature, is found
among the Egyptians at a very early period, and the author
does not know how it originated there. The Archduke
Earner's collection of Papyri at Vienna contains a poetical
description of the town of Pi-Ramses, dating from the 12th
century B.C., which is written in the form of a letter, and
is in part identical with Papyrus Anastasi III. in the British
Museum. This MS. " shows that in such letters we have,
not private correspondence, but literary compositions,
which must have enjoyed a wide circulation in ancient
Egypt ; it thus affords us valuable materials towards the
characterisation of the literature of ancient Egypt ". 2 If,
1 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Antigonos von Karystos, p. 151 : " I
cannot imagine that fictitious correspondence, as a species of literature, was
anterior in time to genuine ".
2 J. Karabacek, Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog
Rainer, i., Vienna, 1887, p. 51 ; cf. J. Krall, Guide-book of the Exhibition
[of the Pap. Erzh. Rainer}, Vienna, 1894, p. 32. The author doubts whether
the term literature should really be applied to the letters in cuneiform
character which were published by Fried. Delitzsch (Beitrage zur Assyriologie,
1893 and 1894) under the title of " Babylonisch-Assyrische BnetUttertaur ".
2
18 BIBLE STUDIES. [204, 205
therefore, we can hardly say that the epistle first originated
among the Greeks, yet, notwithstanding the above facts, we
may assume that it might arise quite independently under
the special conditions of Greek Literature, and that, in fact,
it did so arise.
8. Now whatever theory one may have about the origin
of the epistle among the Greeks, that question is of no
great importance for the problem of the historian of literary
phenomena in general, viz., the analysis into their con-
stituent parts of the writings which have been transmitted
to us as a whole under the ambiguous name of " letters ".
What is important in this respect are the various categories
to which those constituent parts must be assigned in order
that they may be clearly distinguished from each other.
We may, therefore, ignore the question as to the origin of
these categories like all questions about the origin of such
products of the mind, it is to a large extent incapable of any
final solution ; let it suffice that all these categories are
represented among the "letters " that have been transmitted
from the past. The usage of scientific language is, indeed,
not so uniform as to render a definition of terms super-
fluous. The following preliminary remarks may therefore
be made ; they may serve at the same time to justify the
terms hitherto used in this book.
Above all, it is misleading merely to talk of letters,
without having defined the term more particularly. The
perception of this fact has influenced many to speak of the
private letter in contradistinction to the literary letter, and
this distinction may express the actual observed fact that
the true letter is something private, a personal and con-
fidential matter. But the expression is none the less in-
adequate, for it may mislead. Thus B. Weiss, 1 for instance,
uses it as the antithesis of the pastoral letter (G-emeindebrief) ;
a terminology which does not issue from the essence of
the letter, but from the fact of a possible distinction among
those to whom it may be addressed. We might in the same
way distinguish between the private letter and the family
1 Meyer, xiv. 8 (1888), p. 187.
205, 206] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 19
letter, i.e., the letter which a son, for instance, might send
from abroad to those at home. But it is plain that, in the
circumstances, such a distinction would be meaningless, for
that letter also is a private one. Or, take the case of a
clergyman, acting as army chaplain in the enemy's country,
who writes a letter * to his distant congregation at home ;
such would be a congregational letter perhaps it is even read
in church by the locum tenens ; but it would manifestly not
differ in the slightest from a private letter, provided, that is,
that the writer's heart was in the right place. The more pri-
vate, the more personal, the more special it is, all the better
a congregational letter will it be ; a right sort of congrega-
tion would not welcome paragraphs of pastoral theology
they get such things from the locum tenens, for he is not
long from college. The mere fact that the receivers of a -V
letter are a plurality, doesnot constitute a public in the
literary sense, and, again7 an epistle directed to a single
private individual is not on that account a private letter
it is literature. It is absurd, then, to define the specific
character _of a piece of writing which looks like a letter
merely according to whether the writer addresses the re-
ceivers In the second person singular or plural ;* the dis"-
tinguishing feature cannot be anythingmerely formal (formal,
moreover, in a Superficial sense* of that word), but can only be
the inner special purpose of the writer. It is thus advisable,
if ^we are to speak scientifically, to avoid the use of such
merely external categories as congregational letter, and also to
substitute for private letter a more accurate expression. As
such we are at once confronted by the simple designation
letter, but this homely term, in consideration of the in-
definiteness which it has acquired in the course of centuries,
will hardly suffice by itself ; we must find an adjunct for it.
1 Cf. for instance the letter of K. Ninck to his congregation at Friicht,
of the 1st September, 1870 from Corny ; partly printed in F. Cuntz's Karl
With. Theodor Ninck. Ein Lebensbild. 2nd edn., Herborn, 1891, p. 94 ff.
2 This difference does not, of course, hold in modern English ; we can
hardly imagine a letter-writer employing the singular forms thou, thee. But
the distinction does not necessarily hold in German either. Tr.
20 BIBLE STUDIES. [206, 207
The term true letter is therefore used here, after the example
of writers 1 who are well able to teach us what a letter is.
y When a true letter beconLeaJLLterature by means of its
publication, we manifestly obtain no new species thereby.
To the historian of literature, it still remains what it was
to the original receiver of it a true letter : even when given
to the public, it makes a continual protest against its being
deemed a thing of publicity. We must so far favour it as
to respect its protest ; were we to separate it in any way
from other true letters which were fortunate enough never
to have their obscurity disturbed, we should but add to the
injustice already done to it by its being published.
A new species is reached only when we come to the
letter published professedly as literature, which as such is
altogether different from the first class. Here also we meet
with various designations in scientific language. But the
adoption of a uniform terminology is not nearly so im-
portant in regard to this class as in regard to the true
letter. One may call it literary letter, 2 or, as has been done
above for the sake of simplicity, epistle no importance need
be attached to the designation, provided the thing itself be
clear. The subdivisions, again, which may be inferred from
the conditions of origin of the epistle, are of course unessen-
tial; they are not the logical divisions of the concept epistle, but
simply classifications of extant epistles according to their
historical character, i.e., we distinguish between authentic
and unauthentic epistles, and again, in regard to the latter,
1 E. Reuss, Die Geschichte der h. Schriften N. T. 6 74, p. 70, uses the
expression true letters, addressed to definite and particular readers. Von
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aristoteles und Athen, ii., p. 393; cf. p. 394: real
letters ; ibid., p. 392, letters, eiriffroXai in the full sense of the word. The same
author in Ein Weihgeschenk des Eratosthenes, in Nachrichten der Kgl. Gesell-
schaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, 1894, p. 5 : true private letter. Birt
also uses besides the designations private writing (Buchwesen, pp. 2, 20, 61,
277, 443) and incidental letter (pp. 61, 325) the expression true correspondence
(wirkliche Correspondenzen, p. 326). Similarly A. Westermann, De epi-
stolarum scriptoribus graecis 8 progrr., i., Leipzig, 1851, p. 13, calls them
tl veras epistolas, h. e. tales, quae ab auctoribus ad ipsos, quibus inscribuntur,
homines revera datae sunt".
2 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorfi, Ein Weihgeschenk des Eratosthenes, p. 3.
207, 208] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 21
between innocent fabrications and forgeries with a " ten-
dency ".
Furnished with these definitions, we approach the im-
mense quantity of written material which has been be-
queathed to us by Graeco-Eoman antiquity under the
ambiguous term eTTLardkaL, epistulae. The sheets which we
have inherited from the bountiful past, and which have been
brought into confusion by legacy-hunters and legal advisers,
so to speak, perhaps even by the palsied but venerable hand
of their aged proprietrix herself, must first of all be duly
arranged before we can congratulate ourselves on their
possession. In point of fact, the work of arrangement is
by no means so far advanced as the value of the inheritance
deserves to have it. 1 But what has already been done
affords, even to the outsider, at least the superficial impres-
sion that we possess characteristic representatives, from
ancient times, of all the categories of eVto-roXat which have
been established in the foregoing pages.
m.
9. We can be said to possess true letters from ancient
times in the full sense of the word possess only when we
have the originals. And, in fact, the Papyrus discoveries
of the last decade have placed us in the favourable position
of being able to think of as our very own an enormous
number of true letters in the original, extending from the
Ptolemaic period till far on in mediaeval times. The author
is forced to confess that, previous to his acquaintance with
ancient Papyrus letters (such as it was only in facsimiles),
he had never rightly known, or, at least, never rightly
realised within his own mind, what a letter was. Com-
paring a Papyrus letter of the Ptolemaic period with a
fragment from a tragedy, written also on Papyrus, and of
1 Among philologists one hears often enough the complaint about
the neglect of the study of ancient "letters". The classical preparatory
labour of Bentley has waited long in vain for the successor of which both it
and its subject were worthy. It is only recently that there appears to have
sprung up a more general interest in the matter.
22 BIBLE STUDIES.
about the same age, no one perceives any external dif-
ference ; the same written characters, the same writing
material, the same place of discovery. And yet the two
are as different in their essential character as are reality
and art : the one, a leaf with writing on it, which has served
some perfectly definite and never-to-be-repeated purpose in
human intercourse ; the other, the derelict leaf of a book, a
fragment of literature.
These letters will of themselves reveal what they are,
better than the author could, and in evidence of this, there
follows a brief selection of letters from the Egyptian town of
Oxyrhynchus, the English translation of which (from Greek)
all but verbally corresponds to that given by Messrs. Gren-
fell and Hunt in their edition of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. 1
The author has selected such letters as date from the century
in which our Saviour walked about in the Holy Land, in
which Paul wrote his letters, and the beginnings of the New
Testament collection were made. 2
I.
Letter from Chaireas to Tyrannos. 3 A,D, 25-26,
" Chaireas to his dearest Tyrannos, many greetings.
Write out immediately the list of arrears both of corn
and money for the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar
Augustus, as Severus has given me instructions for demand-
ing their payment. I have already written to you to be firm
and demand payment until I come in peace. Do not there- -
fore neglect this, but prepare the statements of corn and
money from the ... year to the eleventh for the presenta-
tion of the demands. Good-bye."
Address : " To Tyrannos, dioiketes ".
1 The Oxyrhynchw Papyri, edited ... by Bernard P. Grenfell and
Arthur S. Hunt, Part I., London, 1898 ; Part II., London, 1899. For those
who feel themselves more specially interested in the subject, a comparison
with the original Greek texts will, of course, be necessary.
2 The German edition of this work contains a Greek transcription, with
annotations, of ten Papyrus letters (distinct from those given here) from
Egypt, of dates varying from 255 B.C. to the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D.
3 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, No. 291, ii., p. 291. Chaireas was strategus
of the Oxyrhynchite nome. Tyrannos was
LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 23
II.
Letter of Recommendation from Theon to Tyrannos. 1
About A,D. 25,
" Theon to his esteemed Tyrannos, many greetings.
Herakleides, the bearer of this letter, is my brother. I
therefore entreat you with all my power to treat him as
your protege. I have also written to your brother Hermias,
asking him to communicate with you about him. You will
confer upon me a very great favour if Herakleides gains your
notice. Before all else you have my good wishes for un-
broken health and prosperity. Good-bye."
Address : " To Tyrannos, dioiketes ".
III.
Letter from Dionysios to his Sister Didyme, 2 A,D. 27.
" Dionysios to his sister Didyme, many greetings, and
good wishes for continued health. You have sent me no
word about the clothes either by letter or by message, and
they are still waiting until you send me word. Provide the
bearer of this letter, Theonas, with any assistance that he
wishes for. . . . Take care of yourself and all your house-
hold. Good-bye. The 14th year of Tiberius Caesar Augus-
tus, Athyr 18."
Address : " Deliver from Dionysios to his sister Didyme ".
IV.
Letter from Thaeisus to her mother Syras, 3 About A.D. 35,
" Thaeisus to her mother Syras. I must tell you
that Seleukos came here and has fled. Don't trouble to
explain (?). Let Lucia wait until the year. Let me know
the day. Salute Ammonas my brother and . . . and my
sister . . . and my father Theonas."
V.
Letter from Ammonios to his father Ammonios. 4 A,D. 54.
" Ammonios to his father Ammonios, greeting. Kindly
write me in a note the record of the sheep, how many more
1 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, No. 292, ii., p. 292.
2 Ibid., No. 293, ii., p. 293. 3 Ibid~ No. 295, ii., p. 296.
4 Ibid., No. 297, ii., p. 298.
24 BIBLE STUDIES.
you have by the lambing beyond those included in the first
return. . . . Good-bye. The 14th year of Tiberius Claudius
Caesar Augustus, Epeiph 29."
Address : " To my father Ammonios ".
VI.
Letter from Indike to Thaeisus. 1 Late First Century.
" Indike to Thaeisus, greeting. I sent you the bread-
basket by Taurinus the camel-man ; please send me an
answer that you have received it. Salute my friend Theon
and Nikobulos and Dioskoros and Theon and Hermokles,
who have my best wishes. Longinus salutes you. Good-
bye. Month Germanikos 2."
Address : " To Theon, 2 son of Nikobulos, elaiochristes
at the Gymnasion".
VII.
Letter of Consolation from Eirene to Taonnophris and
Philon, 3 Second Century.
"Eirene to Taonnophris and Philon, good cheer. I
was as much grieved and shed as many tears over Eumoiros
as I shed for Didymas, and I did everything that was fitting,
and so did my whole family, 4 Epaphrodeitos and Thermuthion
and Philion and Apollonios and Plantas. But still there is
nothing one can do in the face of such trouble. So I leave
you to comfort yourselves. Good-bye. Athyr 1."
Address : " To Taonnophris and Philon".
VIII.
Letter from Korbolon to Herakleides. 5 Second Century.
"Korbolon to Herakleides, greeting. I send you the
key by Horion, and the piece of the lock by Onnophris, the
camel-driver of Apollonios. I enclosed in the former packet
a pattern of white-violet colour. I beg you to be good
enough to match it, and buy me two drachmas' weight, and
send it to me at once by any messenger you can find, for
1 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, No. 300, ii., p. 301.
2 Theon is probably the husband of Thaeisus.
3 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, No. 115, i., p. 181.
4 irdvTfs ol e'yuo/. Grenfell and Hunt : all my friends.
6 The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, No. 113, i., p. 178 f.
216, 217] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 25
the tunic is to be woven immediately. I received everything
you told me to expect by Onnophris safely. I send you by
the same Onnophris six quarts of good apples. I thank all
the gods to think that I came upon Plution in the Oxy-
rhynchite nome. Do not think that I took no trouble about
the key. The reason is that the smith is a long way from
us. I wonder that you did not see your way to let me have
what I asked you to send by Korbolon, especially when I
wanted it for a festival. I beg you to buy me a silver seal,
and to send it me with all speed. Take care that Onnophris
buys me what Eirene's mother told him. I told him that
Syntrophos said that nothing more should be given to
Amarantos on my account. Let me know what you have
given him that I may settle accounts with him. Otherwise
I and my son will come for this purpose. [On the verso] I
had the large cheeses from Korbolon. I did not, however,
want large ones, but small. Let me know of anything that
you want, and I will gladly do it. Farewell. Payni 1st.
(P.S.) Send me an obol's worth of cake for my nephew."
Address : " To Herakleides, son of Ammonias."
10. But we must not think that the heritage of true
letters which we have received from the past is wholly com-
prised in the Papyrus letters which have been thus finely
preserved as autographs. In books and booklets which have
been transmitted to us as consisting of eVto-roXat, and in
others as well, there is contained a goodly number of true
letters, for the preservation of which we are indebted to the
circumstance that some one, at some time subsequent to
their being written, treated them as literature. Just as at
some future time posterity will be grateful to our learned
men of to-day for their having published the Papyrus letters,
i.e., treated them as literature, so we ourselves have every
cause for gratitude to those individuals, for the most part
unknown, who long ago committed the indiscretion of
making books out of letters. The great men whose letters,
fortunately for us, were overtaken by this fate, were not on
that account epistolographers ; they were letter- writers
like the strange saints of the Serapeum and the obscure
men and women of the Fayyum. No doubt, by reason of
their letters having been preserved as literature, they have
26 BIBLE STUDIES. [217, 218
often been considered as epistolographers, and the misunder-
standing may have been abetted by the vulgar notion that
those celebrated men had the consciousness of their cele-
brity even when they laughed and yawned, and that they
could not speak or write a single word without imagining
that amazed mankind was standing by to hear and read. We
have not as yet, in every case, identified those whom we
have to thank for real letters. But it will be sufficient for
our purpose if we restrict ourselves to a few likely instances.
The letters of Aristotle (f 322 B.C.) were published at a
very early period : their publication gave the lie, in a very
effective manner, to a fictitious collection which came out
shortly after his death. 1 These letters were " true letters,
occasioned by the requirements of private correspondence,
not products of art, i.e., treatises in the form of letters ". 2
This collection is usually considered to be the first instance
of private letters being subsequently published. 3 It is there-
fore necessary to mention them here, though, indeed, it is
uncertain whether anything really authentic has been pre-
served among the fragments which have come down to us ; 4
by far the greater number of these were certainly products
of the fictitious literary composition of the Alexandrian
period. 5 The case stands more favourably with regard to
the nine letters transmitted to us under the name of Isocrates
(f 338 B.C.). 6 The most recent editor 7 of them comes to
the following conclusions. The first letter, to Dionysips, is
authentic. The two letters of introduction, Nos. 7 and 8, to-
Timotheos of Heracleia and the inhabitants of Mitylene
respectively, bear the same mark of authenticity : " so much
1 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Antigonos von Karystos, p. 151.
2 Stahr, Aristoteliq, i., p. 195.
3 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Antigonos von Karystos, p. 151 ; Suse-
mihl, ii., 580.
4 Hercher, pp. 172-174. 6 Susemihl, ii., 580 f .
6 Hercher, pp. 319-336.
7 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aristoteles und Athen, ii., pp. 391-399.
It is unfortunate that some of the most recent critics of Paul's Letters had
not those few pages before them. They might then have seen, perhaps,
both what a letter is, and what method is.
218, 219] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 27
detail, which, wherever we can test it, we recognise to be
historically accurate, and which, to a much greater extent,
we are not at all in a position to judge, is not found in
forgeries, unless they are meant to serve other than their
ostensible purposes. There can be no talk of that in the
case before us. In these letters some forms of expression
occur more than once (7, 11 = 8, 10), but there is nothing
extraordinary in that. If Isocrates wrote these we must
credit him with having issued many such compositions." 1
These genuine letters of Isocrates are of interest also in
rega^dTto their form, as they show " that Isocrates applied
his rhetdrTcarityle also" to his letters. . . . Considered from
the point of view ot style, they are not letters at all." 2 The
author considers this fact to be very instructive in regard to
method ; it confirms the thesis expressed above, viz., that in
answering the question as to what constitutes a true letter,
it is never the form which is decisive, but ultimately only
the intention of the writer; there ought not to be, but as a
matter of fact there are, letters which read like pamphlets ;
there are epistles, again, which chatter so insinuatingly that
we forget that their daintiness is nothing but a suspicious
mask. Nor need one doubt, again, the genuineness of the
second letter to King Philip : "its contents are most un-
doubtedly personal". 3 Letter 5, to Alexander, is likewise
genuine, " truly a fine piece of Isocratic finesse: it is genuine
just because it is more profound than it seems, and because
it covertly refers to circumstances notoriously true ". 4 The
evidence for and against the genuineness of letter 6 is
evenly balanced. 5 On the other hand, letters 3, 4 and 9 are
not genuine ; are partly, in fact, forgeries with a purpose. 6
This general result of the criticism is likewise of great value
in regard to method : we must abandon the mechanical idea
of a collection of letters, which would lead us to inquire as to
the genuineness of the collection as a whole, instead of
inquiring as to the genuineness of its component parts. Un-
discerning tradition may quite well have joined together one
1 P. 391 f . 2 P. 392. 3 P. 397.
4 P. 399. 6 P. 395. 8 Pp. 393-397.
28 BIBLE STUDIES. [219, 220
or two unauthentic letters with a dozen of genuine ones ;
and, again, a whole book of forged ''letters " may be, so to
speak, the chaff in which good grains of wheat may hide
themselves from the eyes of the servants : when the son of
the house comes to the threshing-floor, he will discover them,
for he cannot suffer that anything be lost. The letters of
the much-misunderstood Epicurus (f 270 B.C.) were collected
with great care by the Epicureans, and joined together with
those of his most distinguished pupils, Metrodorus, Polysenus,
and Herinarchus, with additions from among the letters
which these had received from other friends, 1 and have in
part come down to us. The author cannot refrain from
giving here 2 the fragment of a letter of the philosopher to
his child (made known to us by the rolls of Herculaneum) ,
not, indeed, as being a monument of his philosophy, but be-
cause it is part of a letter which is as simple and affectionate,
as much a true letter, as that of Luther to his little son
Hans :
. . . [d](f)eiyfjLeOa eh Ad^a/cov v^iaivovres eyo* KOI TIvOo-
K\TI<$ Ka\l"EpfJb\ap'Xps /cal K[T^]o-t7T7ro5, /cal efcel /ca,Ti\,r)<f>ajjLv
v<y\_i\aivovTas SefJbLcrTav /cal TOU9 \OITTOVS [</>t]Xo[u]?. ev Be
7TOte[t]? Kal crv e[l liY/ialveis /cal rj //{a]//-//,?? [cr]ov /cal irdira
KOI M.drpw[y]i Trdvra 7re[t]^[t, &cnr\ep Kal e[//,]7r/3oo-0ez>. ev
<yap icrQi, f] alria, OTL /cal eya) /cal o[t] \onrol Trdvre? ere fieya
(friXovfJiev, on TOVTOIS TreLdrj irdpra. . . .
Again in Latin literature we find a considerable num-
ber of real letters. " Letters, official 3 as well as private-,
make their appearance in the literature 4 of Rome at an
early period, both by themselves and in historical works, 5
1 Susemihl, i., p. 96 f. ; H. Usener, Epicurea, Leipzig, 1887, p. liv. ff.
2 From Usener's edition, p. 154.
3 Of course, official letters, too, are primarily " true letters," not litera-
ture, even when they are addressed to a number of persons. (This note and
the two following do not belong to the quotation from Teuffel-Schwabe.)
4 Hence in themselves they are manifestly not literature.
5 The insertion of letters in historical works was a very common literary
custom among the Greeks and Bomans. It is to be classed ajong with the
insertion of public papers and longer or shorter speeches in a historical report.
If it holds good that such speeches are, speaking generally, to be regarded as
220, 221] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 29
and, soon thereafter, those of distinguished men in collec-
tions." * We may refer to a single example certainly a very
instructive one. Of Cicero (f 43 B.C.) we possess four collec-
tions of letters ; in all 864, if we include the 90 addressed
to him. The earliest belongs to the year 68, the latest is
of the date 28th July, 43. 2 " Their contents are both per-
sonal and political, and they form an inexhaustible source
for a knowledge of the period, 3 though partly, indeed, of
such a kind that the publication of them was not to Cicero's
advantage. For the correspondence of such a man as Cicero,
who was accustomed to think so quickly and feel so strongly,
to whom it was a necessity that he should express his thoughts
and feelings as they came, either in words or in letters to
some confidential friend like Atticus, often affords a too
searching, frequently even an illusory, 4 glance into his inmost
soul. Hence the accusers of Cicero gathered the greatest
part of their material from these letters." 5 The letters show
a noteworthy variation of language : " in the letters to Atti-
cus or other well known friends Cicero abandons restraint,
while those to less intimate persons show marks of care and
elaboration ". 6 The history of the gathering together of
Cicero's letters is of great importance for a right understand-
the compositions of the historian, yet, in regard to letters and public papers,
the hypothesis of their authenticity should not be always summarily rejected.
In regard to this question, important as it also is for the criticism of. the
biblical writings, see especially H. Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Uber die Reden und
Briefe bei Sallust, Leipzig, 1888, p. 1 ff., and the literature given in Schiirer, i.,
p. 66, note 14 [Eng. Trans. I., I., p. 90]; also Teuffel-Schwabe, i., p. 84,
pos. 3, and Westermann, i. (1851), p. 4.
1 W. S. Teuffel's Geschichte der rdmischen Literatur, revised by L.
Schwabe 5 , i., Leipzig, 1890, p. 83.
2 Teuffel-Schwabe, i., p. 356 ff.
3 This point is also a very valuable one for the critic of the biblical
" letters" in the matter of method. For an estimation of the historical im-
portance of Cicero's letters, the author refers, further, to J. Bernays, Edward
Gibbon's Geschichtswerk in the Gesammelte Abhh. von J. B., edited by H.
Usener, ii., Berlin, 1885, p. 243, and E. E-uete, Die Correspondenz Ciceros in
den Jahren 44 und 43, Marburg, 1883, p. 1.
4 The present writer would question this.
5 Teufiel-Schwabe, i., p. 356 f. 8 Ibid., i., p. 357.
30 BIBLE STUDIES. [221, 222
ing of similar literary transactions. " Cicero did not himself
collect the letters he had written, still less publish them, but
even during his lifetime his intimate friends were already
harbouring such intentions." 1 "After Cicero's death the
collecting and publishing of his letters was zealously pro-
moted ; in the first place, undoubtedly, by Tiro, who, while
Cicero was still living, had resolved to collect his letters." 2
Cornelius Nepos, according to a note in that part of his
biography of Atticus which was written before 34 B.C., had,
even by that date, a knowledge, from private sources, of the
letters to Atticus ; 3 " they were not as yet published, indeed,
as he expressly says, but, it would appear, already collected
with a view to publication. The first known mention of a
letter from Cicero's correspondence being published is found
at the earliest " in Seneca. 4 The following details of the
work of collection may be taken as established. 4 Atticus
negotiated the issue of the letters addressed to him, while
the others appear to have been published gradually by Tiro ;
both editors suppressed their own letters to Cicero. Tiro
arranged the letters according to the individuals who had
received them, and published the special correspondence of
each in one or more volumes, according to the material he
had. Such special materials, again, as did not suffice for a
complete volume, as also isolated letters, were bound up in
miscellanea (embracing letters to two or more individuals),
while previously published collections were supplemented in
later issues by letters which had only been written subse-
quently, or subsequently rendered accessible. The majority
of these letters of Cicero are " truly confidential outpourings
of the feelings of the moment," 5 particularly those addressed
to Atticus " confidential letters, in which the writer ex-
1 Teuffel-Schwabe, i., p. 357, quotes in connection with this Cic. ad
Attic., 16, 5s (44 B.C.) mearum epistularum nulla est a way cay $, sed habet Tiro
instar LXX, et quidem sunt a te quaedam sumendae ; eas ego oportet perspiciam,
corrigam ; turn denique edentur, and to Tiro, Fam., 16, 17i (46 B.C.) tuas quo-
que epistulas vis referri in volundna.
2 Teufiel-Schwabe, i., p. 357. 3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., p. 358. Ibid., p. 88.
222, 223] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 31
presses himself without a particle of constraint, and which
often contain allusions intelligible to the receiver alone. In
some parts they read like soliloquies." l The authenticity
of the letters to Brutus, for instance, has been disputed by
many, but these assailants " have been worsted on all points,
and the authenticity is now more certain than ever. The
objections that have been urged against this collection, and
those, in particular, which relate to the contradictions be-
tween Cicero's confidential judgments upon individuals and
those he made publicly or in utterances of other times, are
of but little weight." 2
11. The fact that we know of a relatively large number
of literary letters, i.e., epistles, of ancient times, and that,
further, we possess many such, is a simple consequence of
their being literary productions. Literature is designed not
merely for the public of the time being ; it is also lor the
future, It has not been ascertained with certainty which
was the first instance of the literary letter in Greek litera-
ture. Susemihl 3 is inclined to think that the epidictic
triflings of Lysias (f 379 B.C.) occupy this position that is,
if they be authentic 'but he certainly considers it possible
that they originated in the later Attic period. Aristotle em-
ployed the " imaginary letter " (ftctiver Brief) for his Protrep-
tikos. 4 We have " didactic epistles " of Epicurus, as also of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and we may add to these such
writings of Plutarch as De Conjugalibus Praeceptis, De Tran-
quillitate Animi, De Animae Procreatione 5 literary productions
to which one may well apply the words of an ancient expert
in such things, 6 ov pa rr)v a\r]6eiav eTTio-rokal XeyoivTo av,
aX\a (TvyvpdfjLijLaTa TO 'xaipeiv e%ovTa Trpoa-yeypa/jifjLevov, and
el yap TLS ev eVtcrroX^ ao^icr/JLaTa ypdfai, Kal <j)V(rio\oyia<;,
1 Teuffel-Schwabe, i., p. 362.
2 Ibid., p. 364. This is another poinfc highly important in regard to
method, for the criticism of the Pauline Letters in particular.
5 ii., p. 600.
4 Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aristoteles und Athen, ii., p. 393.
6 Westermann, i. (1851), p. 13. See Susemihl, ii., p. 601, for many
other examples in Greek literature.
6 Demetr. de elocut., 228 (Hercher, p. 13), and 231 (H., p. 14).
32 BIBLE STUDIES. [223, 224
jpd(f>ec fjuev, ov (JLTJV 7rta-ro\r)v ypdfai. 1 Among the Romans,
M. Porcius Cato (f 149 B.C.) should probably be named as one
of the first writers of epistles ; 2 the best known, doubtless,
are Seneca and Pliny. L. Annaeus Seneca 3 (f 65 A.D.) began
about the year 57 at a time when Paul was writing his
" great " letters to write the Epistulae Morales to his friend
Lucilius, intending from the first that they should be pub-
lished ; most probably the first three books were issued by
himself. Then in the time of Trajan, C. Plinius Caecilius
Secundus 4 (f ca. 113 A.D.) wrote and published nine books
of " letters " ; the issue of the collection was already com-
plete by the time Pliny went to Bithynia. Then came his
correspondence with Trajan, belonging chiefly to the period of
his governorship in Bithynia (ca. September 111 to January
113). The letters of Pliny were likewise intended from the
first for publication, " and hence are far from giving the
same impression of freshness and directness as those of
Cicero " ; 5 " with studied variety they enlarge upon a multi-
tude of topics, but are mainly designed to exhibit their author
in the most favourable light " ; 6 " they exhibit him as an
affectionate husband, a faithful friend, a generous slaveholder,
a noble-minded citizen, a liberal promoter of all good causes,
an honoured orator and author " ; 7 "on the other hand,
the correspondence with Trajan incidentally raises a sharp
contrast between the patience and quiet prudence of the
emperor and the struggling perplexity and self-importance
of his vicegerent". 8 "All possible care has likewise been
bestowed upon the form of these letters." 9
There are several other facts illustrative of the extremely
1 A saying of the Bhetor Aristides (2nd cent. B.C.) shows how well an
ancient epistolographer was able to estimate the literary character of his
compositions. In his works we find an tirl 'A\e!-<ii/8pv tirirdQios dedicated rfj
&ov\r} Kal TV 5-fj/j.c}} T KorvaeW, of which he himself says (i., p. 148, Dindorf),
ovep ye Kal *v apxfi TTJS firiffroXris flirov ^OTL Po6\<r0e KaXelv rb RifiXiov.
Hence Westermann, iii. (1852), p. 4, applies to this and to another " letter "
of Aristides the name dedamationes epistolarum sub specie latentes.
2 Teuffel-Schwabe, i., pp. 84, 197 f. s Ibid., ii., p. 700.
4 Ibid., ii., pp. 849, 851 ff. 6 Ibid., ii., p. 852.
6 Ibid., ii., p. 849. 7 Ibid., ii., p. 852.
8 Ibid. Ibid.
224, 225] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 33
wide dissemination of the practice of epistle-writing among
the Greeks and Eomans. The epistle, having once gained a
position as a literary eidos, became differentiated into a
whole series of almost independent forms of composition.
We should, in the first place, recall the poetical epistle l
(especially of Lucilius, Horace, Ovid) ; but there were also
juristic epistles a literary form which probably originated
in the written responsa to questions on legal subjects ; 2
further, there were epistulce medicinales? gastronomic "letters," 4
etc. In this connection it were well to direct particular
attention to the great popularity of the epistle as the special
form of magical and religious literature. "All the Magic
Papyri are of this letter-form, and in all the ceremonial and
mystic literature to say nothing of other kinds it was the
customary form. At that time the pioneers of new religions
clothed their message in this form, and even when they
furnish their writings with a stereotype title of such a kind,
and with particularly sacred names, it would yet be doing
them an injustice simply to call them forgers." 5
12. A very brief reference to the pseudonymous epis-
tolography of antiquity is all that is required here. It will
be sufficient for us to realise the great vogue it enjoyed, after
the Alexandrian period, among the Greeks and subsequently
among the Romans. It is decidedly one of the most char-
acteristic features of post-classical literature. We already
find a number of the last-mentioned epistles bearing the
names of pretended authors ; it is, indeed, difficult to draw
a line between the " genuine" and the fictitious epistles
when the two are set in contrast to letters really such. 6 As
may be easily understood, pseudonymous epistolography
specially affected the celebrated names of the past, and not
least the names of those great men the real letters of whom
were extant in collections. The literary practice of using
1 Teuffel-Schwabe, i., p. 39 f. 2 Ibid., i., p. 84.
3 Ibid., i., p. 85. 4 Susemihl, ii., p. 601.
5 A. Dietericb, Abraxas, p. 161 f. Particular references will be found
tliere and specially in Fleck, Jbb. Suppl. xvi. (1888), p. 757.
6 Cf. pp. 15 and 20 atove.
3
34 BIBLE STUDIES. [225, 226
assumed or protective names was found highly convenient by
such obscure people as felt that they must make a contribu-
tion to literature of a page or two ; they did not place their own
names upon their books, for they had the true enough pre-
sentiment that these would be a matter of indifference to their
contemporaries and to posterity, nor did they substitute for
them some unknown Gains or Timon : what they did was to
write "letters" of Plato or Demosthenes, of Aristotle or
his royal pupil, of Cicero, Brutus or Horace. It would be
superfluous in the meantime to go into particulars about any
specially characteristic examples, the more so as the present
position of the investigation still makes it difficult for us to
assign to each its special historical place, but at all events
the pseudonymous epistolography of antiquity stands out
quite clearly as a distinct aggregate of literary phenomena.
Suffice it only to refer further to what may be very well
gleaned from a recent work, 1 viz., that the early imperial
period was the classical age of this most unclassical manu-
facturing of books.
IV.
13. The author's purpose was to write Prolegomena to
the biblical letters and epistles : it may seem now to be high
time that he came to the subject. But he feels that he
might now break off, and still confidently believe that he has
not neglected his task. What remains to be said is really
implied in the foregoing pages. It was a problem in the
method of literary history which urged itself upon him ; he
has solved it, for himself at least, in laying bare the roots by
which it adheres to the soil on which flourished aforetime
the spacious garden of God Holy Scripture.
To the investigator the Bible offers a large number of
writings bearing a name which appears to be simple, but
which nevertheless conceals within itself that same problem
a name which every child seems to understand, but upon
which, nevertheless, the learned man must ponder deeply
1 J. F. Marcks, Symbola critica ad Epistolographos Graecos, Bonn, 1883.
226, 227 LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 35
if ever he will see into the heart of the things called by it.
"Letters " ! How long did the author work with this term
without having ever once reflected on what it meant ; how
long did it accompany him through his daily task in science
without his observing the enigma that was inscribed on its
work-a-day face! Others may have been more knowing:
the author's experiences were like those of a man who
plants a vineyard without being able to distinguish the
true vine-shoots from the suckers of the wild grape. That
was, of course, a sorry plight as bad as if one were to
labour upon Attic tragedies without knowing what an Attic
tragedy is. One may, indeed, write a letter without
necessarily knowing what a letter is. The best letter-
writers have certainly not cherished any doctrinaire opinions
on the subject. The ancient Greek and Latin " guides to
letter- wri ting "* appeared long after Cicero: neither did the
Apostles, for that matter, know anything of Halieutics.
But if one is to understand those literary memorials in the
Bible which have come to us under the name of " letters,''
and to make them intelligible to others, the first condition
is, of course, that one must have an historical comprehen-
sion of his purpose, must have previously divested the
problematic term of its problematic character : ov yap e-TraS^
eTTio-ro'Xr) TTpoo-ayopeverai eviicw ovofjian, rjSij /cat iraa-cov r&v
Kara TOV ftlov (frepofjuevcov eVto-roXwi/ efc rt? ecm ^apa/crrjp /cal
fjuia Trpoo-r/yopia, a\\a Sidfopoi, /caOcos efyrjv? If we rightly
infer, from an investigation of ancient literature, that the
familiar term " letter " must be broken up above all, into the
two chief categories real letter and epistle, then the biblical
" letters " likewise must be investigated from this point of
1 Cf. on this Westermann, i. (1851), p. 9 f. For Greek theorists in
letter-writing, see Hercher, pp. 1-16 ; for the Latin, the Rhetores Latini
minores, em., 0. Halm, fasc. ii., Leipzig, 1863, pp. 447 f. and 589.
2 [Pseudo-]Procl. De Forma Epistolari (Hercher, p. 6 f.). This quota-
tion, it is true, refers not to the various logical divisions of the concept
"letter," but to the 41 [!] various sub-classes of true letters. The process of
distinguishing these various classes ([Pseudo-JDemetr. [Hercher, p. 1 ft]
similarly enumerates 21 categories) is, in its details, sometimes very extra-
ordinary.
36 BIBLE STUDIES.
view. Just as the language of the Bible ought to be studied
in its actual historical context of contemporary language ; 1
just as its religious and ethical contents must be studied in
their actual historical context of contemporary religion and
civilisation 2 so the biblical writings, too, in the literary in-
vestigation of them, ought not to be placed in an isolated posi-
tion. The author speaks of the biblical writings, not of the bibli-
cal literature, To apply the designation literature to certain
portions of the biblical writings would be an illegitimate
procedure. Not all that we find printed in books at the pre-
sent day was literature from the first. A comparison of the
biblical writings, in their own proper character, with the
other writings of antiquity, will show us that in each case
there is a sharp distinction between works which were
literature from the first and writings which only acquired
that character later on, or will show, at least, that we must
so distinguish them from each other. This is nowhere more
evident than in the case under discussion. When we make
the demand that the biblical " letters " are to be set in their
proper relation to ancient letter-writing as a whole, we
do not thereby imply that they are products of ancient
epistolography, but rather that they shall be investigated
simply with regard to the question, how far the categories
implied in the problematic term letter are to be employed
in the criticism of them. We may designate our question
regarding the biblical letters and epistles as a question
regarding the literary character of the writings transmitted
by the Bible under the name letters* but the question re-
garding their literary character must be so framed that the
answer will affirm the ^reliterary character, probably of
some, possibly of all.
1 Cf. p. 63 ff.
2 The author has already briefly expressed these ideas about the history
of biblical religion in the essay Zur Methode der Biblischen Theologie des
Neuen Testamentes, Zeitschrift fiir Theologie und Kirche, iii. (1893), pp. 126-139,
3 E. P. Gould, in an article entitled " The Literary Character of St.
Paul's Letters " in The Old and New Testament Student, vol. xi. (1890), pp.
71 ff. and 134 ff., seems to apply the same question to some at least of the
biblical " letters," but in reality his essay has an altogether different purpose.
229] LETTERS A^D EPISTLES. 37
The latter has been maintained by F. Overbeck, 1 at
least in regard to the " letters " in the New Testament. He
thinks that the Apostolic letters belong to a class of writings
which we ought not to place in the province of literature at
all; 2 the writer of a letter has, as such, no concern with
literature whatever, "because for every product of litera-
ture it is essential that its contents have an appropriate
literary form ". 3 The written words of a letter are nothing
but the wholly inartificial and incidental substitute for
spoken words. As^ the letter has a^quite distinct and
transitory motive, so has it also a quite distinct and_re-
stricted public not necessarily merely one individual, but^Vi
sometimes, according to circumstances, a smaller or larger
company of persons : in any case, a circle ot readers wnich
can be readily brought before the writer's. mind and dis-
tinctly located in the field of inward vision. A work of
literature, on the other hand, has the widest possible pub-
licity in view : the literary man's public is, so to speak, an
imaginary one, which it is the part of the literary work to
find.* Though Overbeck thus indicates with proper precision
the fundamental difference between the letter and literature,
1 Uber die Anfange der patristischen Litteratur in the Historische Zeit-
schrift, 48, Neue Folge 12 (1882), p. 429 ff. The present writer cannot but
emphasise how much profitable stimulation in regard to method he has
received from this essay, even though he differs from the essayist on im-
portant points.
2 P. 429, and foot of p. 428.
3 P. 429. Overbeck would seem sometimes not to be quite clear with
regard to the term form, which he frequently uses. The author understands
the word in the above quotation in the same way as in the fundamental pro-
position on p. 423: "In the forms of literature is found its history". Here
form can be understood only as Eidos. The forms of literature are, e.g.,
Epos, Tragedy, History, etc. Overbeck, in his contention that the form is
essential for the contents of a literary work, is undoubtedly correct, if he is
referring to the good old 6^77 of literature. No one, for example, will expect
a comedy to incite <f)6^os KO.\ eAeos. But the contention is not correct when it
refers to such a subordinate literary Eidos as the epistle. The epistle may
treat of all possible subjects and some others as well. And therefore when
all is said, it is literature, a literary form even when only a bad form
(Unform).
4 P. 429.
38 BIBLE STUDIES. [229, 230
yet he has overlooked the necessary task of investigating
whether the Apostolic letters either as a whole or in part
may not be epistles, and this oversight on his part is the
more extraordinary, since he quite clearly recognises the dis-
tinction between the letter and the epistle. He speaks, at
least, of "artificial letters," and contrasts them with "true
letters " ; J in point of fact, he has the right feeling, 2 that
there are some of the New Testament letters, the form of
which is quite obviously not that of a letter at all, viz., the
so-called Catholic Epistles : in some of these the form of
address, being so indefinite and general, does not correspond
to what we expect in a letter, and, in fact, constitutes a
hitherto unsolved problem. Hence he is inclined to class
them along with those New Testament writings " which, in
their own proper and original form, certainly belong to
literature, 3 but which, in consideration of the paucity of
their different forms, must not be thought of as qualifying
the New Testament to be ranked historically as the be-
ginning of that literature ". Easy as it would have been
to characterise the "letters," thus so aptly described, as
epistles, Overbeck has yet refrained from doing this, and
though he seems, at least, to have characterised them as
literature, yet he pointedly disputes 4 the contention that
Christian literature begins with "the New Testament,"
that is, in possible case, with these letters, and he ex-
pressly says that the "artificial letter" remains wholly
outside of the sphere of this discussion. 5
14. The present writer would assert, as against this,
that "in the New Testament," and not only there, but also
in the literature of the Jews as well as of the Christians of
post-New-Testament times, the transmitted " letters " permit
of quite as marked a division into real letters and epistles, as
is the case in ancient literature generally.
14. Most investigators of the New Testament letters
seem to overlook the fact that this same profound difference
1 P. 429 at the top. 2 P. 431 f.
8 Overbeck here means the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles and Kevelation.
* P. 426 ff. 5 P. 429.
231] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 39
already manifests itself clearly in the "letters" found
among the writings of pre-Christian Judaism. Looking
at the writings of early Christianity from the standpoint
of literary history, we perceive that Jewish literature l was
precisely the literary sphere from which the first Christians
could most readily borrow and adopt something in the way
of forms, eiSij, of composition. 2 If, therefore, the existence of
the eZSo? of the epistle can be demonstrated in this possibly
archetypal sphere, our inquiry regarding the early Christian
" letters " manifestly gains a more definite justification.
Should the doubt be raised as to whether it is conceivable
that a line of demarcation, quite unmistakably present in
" prof ane " literature, should have also touched the outlying
province of the New Testament, that doubt will be stilled
when it is shown that this line had actually long intersected
the sphere of Jewish literature, which may have been the
model for the writers of the New Testament. Between the
ancient epistles and what are (possibly) the epistles of .early
Christianity, there subsists a literary, a morphological connec-
tion ; if it be thought necessary to establish a transition-link,
this may quite well be found in the Jewish epistles. The
way by which the epistle entered the sphere of Jewish author-
ship is manifest : Alexandria, the classical soil of the epistle
and the pseudo-epistle, exercised its Hellenising influence
x Not solely, of course, those writings which we now recognise as
canonical.
2 The influence of a Jewish literary form can be clearly seen at its hest
in the Apocalypse of John. But also the Acts of the Apostles (which, along
with the Gospels, the present writer would, contra Overbeck, characterise as
belonging already to Christian literature) has its historical prototype, in the
matter of form, in the Hellenistic writing of annals designed for the edifi-
cation of the people. What in the Acts of the Apostles recalls the literary
method of " profane " historical literature (e.g., insertion of speeches, letters,
and official papers), need not be accounted for by a competent knowledge of
classical authors on the part of the writer of it ; it may quite well be ex-
plained by the influence of its Jewish prototypes. When the Christians
began to make literature, they adopted their literary forms, even those
which have the appearance of being Grseco-Roman, from Greek Judaism, with
the single exception of the Evangelium a literary form which originated
within Christianity itself.
40 BIBLE STUDIES. [232
upon Judaism in this matter as in others. We know not
who the first Jewish epistolographer may have been, but it
is, at least, highly probable that he was an Alexandrian.
The taking over of the epistolary form was facilitated for
him by the circumstance that already in the ancient and
revered writings of his nation there was frequent mention
of " letters," and that, as a matter of fact, he found a number
of " letters " actually given verbatim in the sacred text.
Any one who read the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
with the eyes of an Alexandrian Hellenist, found, in chap.
29 (the prophet's message to the captives in Babylon), 1
something which to his morbid literary taste seemed like an
epistle. As a matter of fact, this message is a real letter,
perhaps indeed the only genuine one we have from Old
Testament times ; a real letter, which only became literature
by its subsequent admission into the book of the Prophet.
As it now stands in the book, it is to be put in exactly the
same class as all other real letters which were subsequently
published. In its origin, in its jmrppse, Jej:_ 29, being a
real letter, is non-literary, and hence, of course, we must not
ask after a literary prototype for it. The wish to discover
the first Israelitic or first Christian letter-writer would be
as foolish as the inquiry regarding the beginnings of Jewish
and, later, of Christian, epistolography is profitable and
necessary ; besides, the doctrinaire inquirer would be cruelly
undeceived when the sublime simplicity of the historical
reality smiled at him from the rediscovered first Christian
letter its pages perhaps infinitely paltry in their contents :
some forgotten cloak may have been the occasion of it
who will say? Jer. 29 is not, of course, a letter _suc]b_as
anybody might dash~off lffli^i3Ie~m7)rne]Qt ; nay, lightnings
quiver between the lines, Jahweh speaks in wrath or in
blessing, still, although a Jeremiah wrote it, although it
be a documentary fragment of the history of the people and
the religion of Israel, it is still a letter, neither less nor more.
The antithesis of it in that respect is not wanting. There
1 It is, of course, possible, in these merely general observations, to avoid
touching on the question of the integrity of this message.
LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 41
has been transmitted to us, among the Old Testament
Apocryphal writings, a little book bearing the name eVto-roX^
( Iep/jLiov. If Jer. 29 is a letter of the prophet Jeremiah,
this is an Epistle of " Jeremiah ". Than the latter, we could
know no more instructive instance for the elucidation of the
distinction between letter and epistle, or for the proper
appreciation of the idea of pseudonymity in ancient litera-
ture. The Greek epistolography of the Alexandrian period
constituted the general literary impulse of the writer of the
Epistle of "Jeremiah," while the actual existence of a real
letter of Jeremiah constituted the particular impulse. He
wrote an epistle, as did the other great men of the day : he
wrote an epistle of " Jeremiah," just as the others may have
fabricated, say, epistles of " Plato ". We can distinctly see,
in yet another passage, how the motive to epistolography
could be found in the then extant sacred writings of
Judaism. The canonical Book of Esther speaks, in two
places, of royal letters, without giving their contents : a
sufficient reason for the Greek reviser to sit down and
manufacture them, just as the two prayers, only mentioned
in the original, are given by him in full ! *
Having once gained a footing, epistolography must
have become very popular in Greek Judaism ; we have still
a wiiole series of Graeco- Jewish "letters," which are un-
questionably epistles. The author is not now thinking of
the multitude of letters, ascribed to historical personages,
which are inserted in historical works 2 ; in so far as these
are unauthentic, they are undoubtedly of an epistolary
1 The following is also instructive : It is reported at the end of the
Greek Book of Esther that the " Priest and Levite " Dositheus and his son
Ptolemaeus, had "brought hither" (i.e., to Egypt) the eVio-ToA^ r>v Qpovpai
(concerning the Feast of Purim) from Esther and Mordecai (LXX Esther
929, c /. 20^ which was translated (into Greek) by Lysimachus, the son of
Ptolemaeus in Jerusalem. It would thus seem that a Greek letter concern-
ing Purim, written by Esther and Mordecai, was known in Alexandria. It
is not improbable that the alleged bearers of the "letter" were really the
authors of it.
2 The Books of Maccabees, Epistle of Aristeas, specially also Eupolemos
(c/. thereon J. Freudenthal, Hellenistische Studien, part i. and ii., Breslau,
1875, p. 106 ff.), Josephus.
BIBLE STUDIES. [234
character, but they belong less to the investigation of
epistolography than to the development of historical style.
We should rather call to mind books and booklets like the
Epistle of Aristeas, the two x epistles at the beginning of the
2nd Book of Maccabees, the Epistle of " Baruch " to the nine and
a half tribes in captivity, attached to the Apocalypse of
Baruch, 2 perhaps the twenty-eighth " Letter of Diogenes," 3 and
certain portions of the collection of " letters " which bears the
name of Heraclitus*
15. Coming, then, to the early Christian "letters " with
our question, letter or epistle ? it will be our first task to de-
termine the character of the "letters" transmitted to us
under the name of Paul. Was Paul a letter-writer or an
epistolographer ? The question is a sufficiently pressing one,
in view of the exceedingly great popularity of epistolography
in the Apostle's time. Nor can we forthwith answer it,
even leaving the Pastoral epistles out of consideration, and
attending in the first place only to those whose genuineness
sts more or less established. The difiiculty_js^ seen in its
most pronounced form when we compare the letter~fo
Philemon with that to the Romans ; here we seem to have
two such heterogeneous compositions that it would appear
questionable whether we should persist in asking the~ above
disjunctive question. May not Paul have written both
letters and epistles ? It would certainly be preposterous to
VassHme, a priori, that jthe " letters "of Paul
/all
^
letters or all epistles. The inquiry must rather be
directed upon eacJL pft^ifi^lgj_^etter j^ajbask the~!uT
filment of which lies outside the scope of the present
1 C. Bruston (Trois lettres des Juifs de Palestine, ZA W. x. [1890], pp.
110-117) has recently tried to show that 2 Mace. 1 1 -2 18 contains not two but
three letters (I 1 - 7 "' 1 76 - 10a - 1 10 *-2 18 ).
2 Unless this be of Christian times, as appears probable to the present
writer. In any case it is an instructive analogy for the literary criticism of
the Epistle of James and the First Epistle of Peter.
3 Cf. J. Bernays, Lucian und die Kyniker, Berlin, 1879, p. 96 ff.
4 J. Bernays, Die heraklitischen Briefe, Berlin, 1869, particularly p,
61 ff.
235]
methodological
here at least indicate his opinion.
It appears to him quite certain that the authentic
writings of the Apostle are true letters, and that to think
of~them as epistles * is to take away what is best in them.
Theyjvere, oi course, collected, and treated as literature in
V_^t some future time the author may perhaps pursue the subject
further. He hopes then to treat also of so-called formal matters (form of
the address, of the beginning and the end, style of letter, etc.), for which he
has already gathered some materials.
2 But seldom has this been more distinctly maintained than quite re-
cently by A. Gercke, who designates the letters of Paul, in plain language,
as "treatises in the form of letters" (GOA., 1894, p. 577). But this great
and widely-prevalent misconception of the matter stretches back in its be-
ginnings to the early years of the Christian Church. Strictly speaking, it
began with the first movements towards the canonisation of the letters.
Canonisation was possible only when the non-literary (and altogether un-
canonical) character of the messages had been forgotten ; when Paul, from
being an Apostle, had become a literary power and an authority of the past.
Those by whom the letters were treated as elements of the developing New
Testament considered the Apostle to be an epistolographer. Further, the
pseudo-Pauline " letters," including the correspondence between Paul and
Seneca, are evidences of the fact that the writers of them no longer under-
stood the true nature of the genuine letters ; the bringing together of the
Apostle and the epistolographer Seneca is in itself a particularly significant
fact. We may also mention here the connecting whether genuine or not
of Paul with the Attic orators (in the Rhetorician Longinus : cf. J. L.
Hug, Einleitung in die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, ii. 3 , Stuttgart and
Tubingen, 1826, p. 334 ff. ; Heinrici, Das zweite Sendschreiben des Ap. P. an
die Korinthier, p. 578). The same position is held very decidedly by A.
Scultetus (f 1624), according to whom the Apostle imitates the "letters" of
Heraclitus (cf. Bernays, Die heraklitischen Briefe, p. 151). How well the
misunderstanding still flourishes, how tightly it shackles both the criticism
of the Letters and the representation of Paulinism, the author will not
further discuss at present ; he would refer to his conclusions regarding
method at the end of this essay. In his opinion, one of the most pertinent
things that have been of late written on the true character of Paul's letters
is 70 of Reuss's Introduction (Die Geschichte der heiligen Schrr. N.T.
p. 70). Mention may also be made reference to living writers being omitted
of A. Ritschl's Die christl. Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versb'hnung, ii. 3 ,
p. 22. Supporters of the correct view were, of course, not wanting even in
earlier times. Compare the anonymous opinion in the Codex Barberinus,
iii., 36 (saec. xi.) : eTrto-ToAai Uav\ov KaXovvrai, eVeiS^ ravras 6 UavXos iSia &n-
(TTeAAei /cal St' avruv otis ywei/ $7817 ea>pa/ce /cal e5t5aei/ inrofji.ifji.v^a'K^i /col eiriSiopdovrat,
o&s 8e /i$? iccpo/ce tnrouSofet KOT7jxe/ Kal SiSdffKeiv, in E. Klostermann's Analecta
zur Septuaginta, Hexapla und Patristik, Leipzig, 1895, p. 95.
44
BIBLE STUDIES.
[236, 237
point of fact, as literature in the highest sense, as canonical
"aTan early period. But that was nothing more than an
after-experience of the letters, for which there were many
precedents in the literary development sketched above.
But this after-experience cannot change their original Char-
acter, and our first task must be to ascertain what._this
/character actually is. Paul had no thought of adding a
few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles,
'* ** stm less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation ;
no," every time he wrote, he had some perfectly definite^
vimpulse in the diversified experiences of the young Christian
churches. He had no presentiment of the place his words
would occupy in universal history ; not so much as that
they would still be in existence in the next generation, far
less that one day the people would look upon them as Holy
Scripture. We now know them as coming down from the
centuries with the literary patina and the nimbus of canoni-
city upon them ; should we desire to attain a historical
estimate of their proper character, we must disregard both.
Just as we should not allow the dogmatic idea of the mass
to influence our historical consideration of the last Supper
of Jesus with His disciples, nor the liturgical notions of a
prayerbook-commission to influence our historical considera-
tion of the Lord's Prayer, so little dare we approach the
letters of Paul with ideas about literature and notions
about the canon. Paul had better work to do than the
writing of books, and he did not flatter himself that he
could write Scripture ; he wrote letters, real letters, as did
Aristotle and Cicero, as did the men and women of the
Fayyurn. They differ from the messages of the homely
Papyrus leaves from Egypt not as letters, but only as the
letters of Paul. No one will hesitate to grant that the
Letter to Philemon has the character of a letter. It must
be to a large extent a mere doctrinaire want of taste that
could make any one describe this gem, the preservation of
which we owe to some fortunate accident, as an essay, say,
"on the attitude of Christianity to slavery ". It is rather a
letter, full of a charming, unconscious naivete, full of kindly
237, 238]
LETTEBS AND EPISTLES.
45
human nature. It is thus that Epicurus writes to his
child, and Moltke to his wife : no doubt Paul talks of other
matters than they do no one letter; deserving the name, has
ever looked like another but the Apostle does exactly what
is done by the Greek philosopher and the German officer.
It is alsoqniite clear that thft note nf int.mdn;p f t f inn ^
contained nTTRowTlB is of the nature of a true letter.
No one, it is to be hoped, will make the objection that
it is directed to a number of persons most likely the
Church at Ephesus ; the author thinks that he has made
it probable that the number of receivers is of no account
in the determination of the nature of a letter. 1 But
the Letter to the Philippians is also as real a letter as
any that was ever written. Here a quite definite situation
of affairs forced the Apostle to take up his pen, and the
letter reflects a quite definite frame of mind, or, at least,
enables us to imagine it. The danger of introducing into
our investigation considerations which, so far as concerns
method, 2 are irrelevant, is, of course, greater in this case.
Some reader will again be found to contend that, in con- . ^
trast to the private letter to Philemon, we have here a
congregational letter : some one, again, who is convinced of v /
the valuelessness of this distinction, will bring forward the
peculiarity of the contents- the letter is of a "doctrinal"
character, and should thus be designated a doctrinal letter.
This peculiarity must not be denied though, indeed, the
author has misgivings about applying the term doctrine to
the Apostle's messages; the "doctrinal" sections of the
letters impress him more as being of the nature of con-
fessions and attestations. But what is added towards the
answering of our question letter or epistle ? by the expression
f. pp. 4 and 18 f.
relative lengthiness of the letter must also be deemed an
irrelevant consideration one not likely, as the author thinks, to be ad-
vanced. The difference between a letter and an epistle cannot be decided
by the tape-line. Most letters are shorter than the Letter to the Philip-
pians, shorter still than the "great" Pauline letters. But there are also
quite diminutive epistles : a large number of examples are to be found in the
collection of Hercher.
46 BIBLE STUDIES. [238, 239
" doctrinal" letter however pertinent a term? If a letter
is intended to instruct the receiver, or a group of receivers,
does it thereby cease to be a letter ? A worthy pastor, let
us say, writes some stirring words to his nephew at the
university, to the effect that he should not let the " faith"
be shaken by professorial wisdom ; and he refutes point by
point the inventions of men. Perhaps, when he himself
was a student, he received some such sincere letters from
his father against the new orthodoxy which was then, in its
turn, beginning to be taught. Do such letters forthwith
become tractates simply because they are "doctrinal"? 1
We must carefully guard against an amalgamation of the
two categories doctrinal letter and epistle. If any one be so
inclined, he may break up the letter into a multitude of
subdivisions : the twenty-one or forty-one TVTTOL of the old
theorists 2 may be increased to whatever extent one wishes.
1 At the present day it would be difficult enough, in many cases, to
determine forthwith the character of such letters. For instance, the so-
called Pastoral Letters of bishops and general superintendents might almost
always be taken as epistles, not, indeed, because they are official, but because
they are designed for a public larger than the address might lead one to
suppose. Further, at the present day they are usually printed from the outset.
An example from the Middle Ages, the "letter" of Gregory VII. to Hermann
of Metz, dated the 15th March, 1081, has been investigated in regard to its
literary character by C. Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalt&r Gregors VII.,
Leipzig, 1894, p. 23. Cf., on p. 4 of the same work, the observations on
literary publicity. The denning lines are more easily drawn in regard to
antiquity. A peculiar hybrid phenomenon is found in the still extant cor-
respondence of Abelard and Heloise. It is quite impossible to say exactly
where the letters end and the epistles begin. Heloise writes more in the
style of the letter, Abelard more in that of the epistle. There had, of course,
been a time when both wrote differently : the glow of feeling which, in the
nun's letters, between biblical and classical quotations, still breaks occa-
sionally into a flame of passion, gives us an idea of how Heloise may once
have written, when it was impossible for her to act against his wish, and
when she felt herself altogether guilty and yet totally innocent. Neither,
certainly, did Abelard, before the great sorrow of his life had deprived him
of both his nature and his naturalness, write in the affected style of the
convert weary of life, whose words like deadly swords pierced the soul of the
woman who now lived upon memories. In his later " letters " he kept, though
perhaps only unconsciously, a furtive eye upon the public into whose hands
they might some day fall and then he was no longer a letter-writer at all.
2 See p. 35.
239, 240] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 47
The author has no objection to any one similarly breaking up
the Pauline letters into several subdivisions, and subsuming
some of them under the species doctrinal letter; only one
should not fondly imagine that by means of the doctrinal
letter he has bridged over the great gulf between letter and
epistle. The pre-literary character even of the doctrinal
letter must be maintained.
This also holds good of the other Letters of Paul, even of
the "great Epistles ". They, too^are partly^osJbdiiali, they
contain, in fact, theological discussions : but even in these, the
ApostleTFacT no desire to make literature. The Letter to the
^ "upon the relation^ Christianity
to Judaism," but a message sent in order to bring back-fee
The letter can only be
understood in the light of its special purpose as such. 1 How
much more distinctly do the Letters to the Corinthians bear the
stamp of the true letter ! The second of them, in particular,
reveals its true character in every line ; in the author's
opinion, it is the most letter-like of all the letters of Paul,
though that to Philemon may appear on the surface to have
a better claim to that position. The great difficulty in the ^
understanding of it is due to the very fact that it is so truly
a letter, so full of allusions and familiar references, so per-
vaded with irony and with a depression which struggles
agamst^itself matters of whicn only tne writer and the
readers of it understood the purport, but which we, for the
most part, can ascertain only approximately. What is
doctrinal jjnjitjsjigt there for its_own sake,_bnt ia-alioratW
subservient to_the_purpQRpi of th P. letter. The nature of the
letters which were brought to the Corinthians by the fellow-
workers of Paul, was thoroughly well understood by the
receivers themselves, else surely they would hardly have
allowed one or two of them to be lost. They agreed, in fact,
with Paul, in thinking that the letters had served their
purpose when once they had been read. We may most
deeply lament that they took no trouble to preserve the
letters, but it only shows lack of judgment to reproach
1 Cf. the observations upon this letter in the Spicileqiwm below.
48 BIBLE STUDIES. [240, 241
them on this account. A letter is something ephemeral,
and must be so by its very nature ; 1 it has as little desire
to be immortal as a tete-a-tete has to be minuted, or an
alms to be entered in a ledger. In particular, the temper
of mind in which Paul and his Churches passed their
days was not such as to awaken in them an interest for
the centuries to come. The Lord was at hand ; His advent
was within the horizon of the times, and such an anticipa-
tion has nothing in common with the enjoyment of the
contemplative book-collector. The one-sided religious temper
of mind has never yet had any affection for such things as
interest the learned. Modern Christians have become more
prosaic. We institute collections of archives, and found
libraries, and, when a prominent man dies, we begin to
speculate upon the destination of his literary remains : all
this needs a hope less bold and a faith less simple than
belonged to the times of Paul. From the point of view
of literature, the preservation even of two letters to the
Corinthians is a secondary and accidental circumstance,
perhaps owing, in part, to their comparative lengthiness,
which saved them from immediate destruction.
The Letter to the Romans is also a real letter. No doubt
' there are sections in it which mignT also stand in an epistle ;
the whole tone of it, generally speaking, stamps it as different
fromTlEe^other Pauline letters. But nevertheless it is not
a book, and the favourite saying that it is^compendium of
Paulinism, that the Apostle has, in it, laid down his Dog-
matics and his Ethics, certainly manifests an extreme lack
of taste. No doubt Paul wanted to give instruction, and
he did it, in part, with the help of contemporary theology, but
he does not think of the literary public of his time, or of
Christians in general, as his readers ; he appeals to a little
company of men, whose very existence, one may say, was
unknown to the public at large, and who occupied a special
position within Christianity. It is unlikely that the Apostle
1 This explains why, of the extant " letters " of celebrated men who
have written both letters and epistles, it is the latter that have, in general,
been preserved in larger numbers than the former. Compare, for instance,
the extant " letters " of Origen,
241, 242] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 49
would send copies of the letter to the brethren in Ephesus,
Antioch or Jerusalem ; it was to Borne that he despatched
it: nor did the bearer of it go to the publishers in the
Imperial City, 1 but rather to some otherwise unknown
brother in the Lord just like many another passenger by the
same ship of Corinth, hastening one to that house, another
to this, there to deliver a message by word of mouth, here
to leave a letter or something else. The fact that the Letter
to the Romans is not so enlivened by personal references as
the other letters of Paul is explained by the conditions under
which if was written : he was addressing a Church which
he did not yet personally know. Considered in the light of
this Tact, the infrequence of personal ref erences^irrTEe^ letter
lends no support to its being taken as a literary epistle ; it is
but the natural result of its non-literary purpose. Moreover,
Paul wrote even the "doctrinal" portions in his heart's
blood. The words TaXaiirwpo^ eyco avQpwTros are no cool
rhetorical expression of an objective ethical condition, but
the impressive indication of a personal ethical experience : it_
is not theological paragraphs which Paul is writing here,
but his confessions.^
Certain as it seems to the author that the authentic
messages of Paul are letters, he is equally sure that we
have also a number of epistles from New Testament times.
They belong, as such, to the beginnings of " Christian litera-
ture ". The__author considers the Letter to the Hebrews as
most iinmistfl.kfl.h1y of all a.n fipjstfJg It professes, in chap.
13 ^"fxTbe a Xoyo? TT}? TrapaKXrjcreu)?, and one would have no
occasion whatever to consider it anything but a literary ora-
tion hence not as an epistle 2 at all if the eVecrretXa and
1 It is a further proof of these " epistles " being letters that we know
the bearers of some of them. The epistle as such needs no bearer, and
should it name one it is only as a matter of form. It is a characteristic cir-
cumstance that the writer of the epistle at the end of the Apocalypse of
Baruch sends his booklet to the receivers by an eagle. Paul uses men as his
messengers : he would not have entrusted a letter to eagles they fly too high.
2 Nor^strictly^ speaking, can W Q nntr. tihfl First Epiitlc of John as an
epistle on the ground, that is, that the address must have disappeared. It
4
50 BIBLE STUDIES. [242, 243
the greetings at the close did not permit of the supposition
that it had at one time opened with something of the nature
of an address as well. Tha^address has beenjgs^t ; it might
all the more easily fall out as it was only a later insertion.
The address is, indeed, of decisive importance for the under-
standing of a letter, but in an epistle it is an unessential
element. In the letter, the address occupies, so to speak,
the all-controlling middle-ground of the picture ; in the
epistle it is only ornamental detail. Any given ^0709 can be
made an epistle by any kind of an address. The Epistle
to the Hebrews stands on the same literary plane as the
Fourth Book of Maccabees, which describes itself as a
^fcXoo-o^coraro? \6yos ; the fact that the latter seems to
avoid the appearance of being an epistle constitutes a purely
external difference between them, and one which is im-
material for the question regarding their literary character.
The author is chiefly concerned about the recognition of the
" Catholic " Epistles, or, to begin with, of some of them at
least, as literary epistles. With a true instinct, the ancient
Church placed these Catholic Epistles as a special group over
against the Pauline. It seems to the author that the idea
of their catholicity, thus assumed, is to be understood from
the form of address in the " letters," and not primarily from
the special character of their contents. 1 They are composi-
is a brochure, trie literary eidos of which cannot be determined just at once.
But the special characterisation of it does not matter, if we only recognise
the literary character of the booklet. That it could be placed among the
"letters" (i.e., in this case, epistles) of the N.T., is partly explained by the
fact that it is allied to them in character : literature associated with litera-
ture. Hence the present writer cannot think that Weiss (Meyer, xiv. 5 [1888],
p. 15) is justified in saying : " It is certainly a useless quarrel about words to
refuse to call such a composition a letter in the sense of the New Testament
letter-literature ". The question letter or epistle ? is in effect the necessary pre-
condition for the understanding of the historical facts of the case. The
' sense " of the New Testament letter-literature, which Weiss seems to assume
as something well known, but which forms our problem, cannot really be
ascertained without first putting that question. The author does not venture
here to give a decision regarding the Second and Third Epistles of John ; the
question " letter or epistle ? " is particularly difficult to answer in these cases.
1 This idea of a catholic writing is implied in the classification of the
Aristotelian writings which is given by the philosopher David the Armenian
243, 244] LETTEBS AND EPISTLES. 51
tions addressed to Christians one might perhaps say the
Church in general. The catholicity of the address implies,
of course, a catholicity in the contents. What the Church
calls catholic, we require only to call epistle, and the un-
solved enigma with which, according to Overbeck, 1 they
present us, is brought nearer to a solution. The special
position of these "letters," which is indicated by their
having the attribute catholic instinctively applied to them,
is due precisely to their literary character; catholic means
in this connection literary. The impossibility of recognising
the " letters " of Peter, James and Jude as real letters fol-
lows directly from the peculiarity in the form of their
address. Any one who writes to the elect who are sojourners
of the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and
Bithynia, or to the twelve tribes which are of the Diaspora, or
even to them which have obtained a like precious faith with us,
or to them that are called, beloved in God the Father and kept
for Jesus Christ, must surely have reflected on the question
as to what means he must employ in order to convey his
message to those so addressed. Quite similarly does that
other early Christian epistle still bear the address to the
Hebrews ; quite similarly does the author of the epistle at
the close of the Apocalypse of Baruch write to the nine-and-a-
half tribes of the Captivity, and Pseudo-Diogenes, ep. 28, 2 to
the so-called Hellenes. The only way by which the letters
could reach such ideal addresses was to have them reproduced
in numbers from the first. But that means that they were
literature. Had the First Epistle of Peter, 9 for instance, been
intended as a real letter, then the writer of it, or a substitute,
would have had to spend many a year of his life ere he could
deliver the letter throughout the enormous circuit of the
(end of the fifth cent. A.D.) in his prolegomena to the categories of Aristotle
(Ed. Ch. A. Brandis, Schol. in Arist., p. 24a, Westermann, iii. [1852], p. 9).
In contrast to fjLepiic6s special, Ka6o\iic6s is used as meaning general ; both
terms refer to the contents of the writings, not to the largeness of the public
for which the author respectively designed them.
1 P. 431. 2 Hercher, p. 241 ff .
3 For tha investigation of the Second Epistle of Peter see the observa-
tions which follow below in the Spicilegium.
52 BIBLE STUDIES. [245
countries mentioned. The epistle, in fact, could only reach
its public as a booklet ; at the present day it would not be
sent as a circular letter in sealed envelope, but as printed
matter by book-post. It is true, indeed, that these Catholic
Epistles are Christian literature : their authors had no desire
to enrich universal literature ; they wrote their books for a
definite circle of people with the same views as themselves,
that is, for Christians ; but books they wrote. Very few
books, indeed, are so arrogant as to aspire to become univer-
sal literature ; most address themselves to a section only of
the immeasurable public they are special literature, or
party literature, or national literature. It is quite admissible
to speak of a literary public, even if the public in question be
but a limited one even if its boundaries be very sharply
drawn. Hence the early Christian epistles were, in the first
instance, special literature ; to the public at large in the
imperial period they were altogether unknown, and, doubt-
^ less, many a Christian of the time thought of them as
esoteric, and handed them on only to those who were
brethren ; but, in spite of all, the epistles were designed
/^? f r some kind of publicity in a literary sense : they were
Tyjhdestined for the brethren. The ideal indefiniteness of this
destination has the result that the contents have an ecumeni-
cal cast. Compare the Epistle of James, for instance, with
the Letters of Paul, in regard to this point. From the
latter we construct the history of the apostolic age ; the
former, so long as it is looked upon as a letter, is the enigma
of the New Testament. Those to whom the "letter" was
addressed have been variously imagined to be Jews, Gentile
Christians, Jewish Christians, or Jewish Christians and
Gentile Christians together ; the map has been scrutinised
in every part without any one having yet ascertained where
we are to seek not to say find the readers. But if Diaspora
be not a definite geographical term, no more is the Epistle
of "James" a letter. Its pages are inspired by no special
motive ; there is nothing whatever to be read between the
lines ; its words are of such general interest that they
might, for the most part, stand in the Book of Wisdom, or the
246] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 53
Imitation of Christ. It is true, indeed, that the epistle reveals
that it is of early Christian times, but nothing more. There
is nothing uniquely distinctive in its motive, and hence no
animating element in its contents. " James " sketches from
models, not from nature. Unfortunately there has always
been occasion, among Christians, to censure contentions and
sins of the tongue, greed and calumny ; indignation at the
unmercifulness of the rich and sympathy with the poor are
common moods of the prophetic or apostolic mind ; the scenes
from the synagogue and the harvest-field are familiar types
fact, is pervaded by the expressions
topics of the aphoristic " wisdom " of the Old Testament
" Even if it could be demonstrated that the
writer was alluding to cases which had actually occurred,
yet we cannot perceive how these cases concern him in any
special way ; there is no particular personal relation between
him and those whom he " addresses ". The picture of the
readers and the figure of the writer are equally colourless
and indistinct. In the_letters of Paul, there speaks to us a'
commanding personality though, indeed, he had no wish
trrgpaak to nH at all ; every HBiiLenuu is Ilia uulse^tnTob of j,
human heart, and, whether charmed or surprised, we feel at
least the " touch of nature "._ But what meets us in the
Epistle of James is a great subject rather than a great man,
Christianity itself rather than a Christian personality. It
has lately become the custom, in some quarters, to designate
the book as a homily. We doubt whether much is gained
by so doing, for the term homily, as applied to any of the
writings of early Christianity, is itself ambiguous and in
need of elucidation ; it probably needs to be broken up in the
same way as "letter". But that designation, at least, gives
expression to the conviction that the book in question is
wholly different in character from a letter. In the same
way, the recognition of the fact that the Catholic Epistles in
general are not real letters, is evinced by the instinctive
judgment passed on them by the Bible-reading community.
The Epistle of James and particularly the First Epistle of
Peter, one may say, are examples of those New Testament
54 BIBLE STUDIES. [246, 247
" letters " which play a most important part in popular
religion, while the Second Letter to the Corinthians, for
instance, must certainly be counted among the least-
known parts of the Bible. And naturally so ; the latter,
properly speaking, was adapted only to the needs of the
Corinthians, while later readers know not what to make of
it. They seek out a few detached sayings, but the connection
is not perceived ; in it, truly, they find some things hard to be
understood. But those epistles were adapted to Christians in
general ; they are ecumenical, and, as such, have a force the
persistence of which is not affected by any vicissitude of
time. Moreover, it also follows from their character as
epistles that the question of authenticity is not nearly so
important for them as for the Pauline letters. It is allowable
that in the epistle the personality of the writer should be
less prominent ; whether it is completely veiled, as, for in-
stance, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, or whether it modestly
hides itself behind some great name of the past, as in
other cases, does not matter; considered in the light of
ancient literary practices, this is not only not strange, but in
reality quite natural. Finally, we may consider the Pastoral
Epistles and the Seven Messages in the Apocalypse in regard to
the question whether they are epistles. Though it seems to
the author not impossible that the former have had worked
into them genuine elements of a letter or letters of Paul,
he would answer the question in the affirmative. The
Seven Epistles of the Book of Revelation, again, differ from'
the rest in the fact that they do not form books by them-
selves, nor constitute one book together, but only a portion
of a book. It is still true, however, that they are not letters.
All seven ara constructed on a single definite plan, while,
taken separately, they are not intelligible, or, at least, not
completely so ; their chief interest lies in their mutual cor-
respondence, which only becomes clear by a comprehensive
comparison of their separate clauses : the censure of one
church is only seen in its full severity when contrasted
with the praise of another.
16. There is now no need, let us hope, of demon-
247, 248] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 55
strating that the distinction between letters and epistles does
not end in mere judgments as to their respective values.
We would be the last to ignore the great value of, say,
the Epistle of James or the Epistles of Peter ; a com-
parison of these writings with the Epistle of Jeremiah, for
example, and many of the Graeco-Roman epistles, would
be sufficient to guard us against that. In regard to the
latter, one must frequently marvel at the patience of a public
which could put up with the sorry stuff occasionally given
to it as epistles. The more definitely we assign to the New
Testament epistles a place in ancient epistolography, the
more clearly will they themselves convince us of their own
special excellence. But our distinction proves itself, as a
principle of method, to be of some importance in other re-
spects, and we may, in conclusion, gather up our methodo-
logical inferences in brief form as follows (some of these
have already been indicated here and there).
(1) The historical criticism of early Christian writings
must guard against conceiving of the New Testament as a
collection of homogeneous compositions, and must give- due
weight to the pre-literary character of certain parts of it.
The literary portions must be investigated in regard to their
formal similarity with Graeco-Latin and Jewish literature ;
further, this line of connection must be prolonged well into
the Patristic literature. The much-discussed question,
whether we should view the whole subject as the History of
Early Christian Literature or as the Introduction to the Neio
Testament, is a misleading one ; the alternatives contain a
similar error, the former implying that some, the latter that
all, of the constituent parts of the New Testament should
be considered from a point of view under which they did not
originally stand : the former, in regarding even the real
letters as literature ; the latter, in seeking its facts in a
historical connection in which they did not take their rise.
The history of the collection and publication of the non-
literary writings of primitive Christianity, and the history of
the canonisation of the writings which subsequently became
56 BIBLE STUDIES. [248, 249
literature, or were literary from the first, constitute, each of
them, a distinct field of study.
(2) The letters of Paul afford a fixed starting-point for
the history of the origin of the early Christian " letters ". "We
must ask ourselves whether it is conceivable that the literary
temperament and the epistles which were its outcome can
be older than the letters of Paul.
V (3) The collection and publication 1 of the letters of
Paul was indirectly influenced by the analogy of other col-
lections of letters 2 made in ancient times. 3 The only pos-
sible motive of such collecting and publishing was reverential
love. Once the letters of Paul had been collected and
treated as literature, they in turn, thus misconceived, pro-
duced a literary impulse. We must, then, carefully weigh
the possibility that their collection and publication may
form a terminus post quern for the composition of the early
Christian epistles.
(4) The sources by means of which we are enabled to
judge of the knowledge of the New Testament letters which
was possessed by Christians of the post-apostolic period, the
so-called testimonia,, and specially the testimonia e silentio, have
an altogether different historiacl value according as they
relate to letters or epistles. 4 The silentium regarding the
1 That is to say, of course, publication within Christianity.
2 Especially those which were made on behalf of a definite circle of
readers.
3 It is not likely that the collection was made all at one time. It may
be assumed that the Letter to Philemon, for instance, was a relatively late
addition. The collection was probably begun not very long after the death
of Paul.
4 Upon this point the author would specially desire to recommend a
perusal of the sketch of the earliest dissemination of the New Testament
letters in B. Weiss's Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Neue Testament, Berlin,
1886, 6, 7, p. 38 ff. Many of the apparently striking facts in the history
of the "evidence" which are indicated there might find a simple enough
explanation if they were regarded from cur point of view.
249, 250] LETTEES AND EPISTLES. 57
letters (most striking of all, externally considered, in the
Book of Acts), is really explained by the nature of the letter
as such, and cannot be employed as an evidence of spurious-
ness. A silentium, on the other hand, regarding epistles is,
on account of their public character, to say the least, sus-
picious. The distinction between letters and epistles has
also perhaps a certain importance for the criticism of the
traditional texts.
(5) The criticism of the Letters of Paul must always l
leave room for the probability that their alleged contradic-
tions and impossibilities, from which reasons against their
authenticity -anxL integrity have been deduced, are really
evidences to the contrary, being but the natural concomitants
of letter-writing. The history of the criticism of Cicero's
letters, 1 for instance, yields an instructive analogy. The
criticism of the early Christian epistles must not leave out
of account the considerations which are to be deduced from
the history of ancient epistolography.
(6) The exe'gesis of the le_tters_jiLJE!aul must take its
special standpoint from the nature of the letter. Its task is
to reproduce in detail the Apostle's sayings as they^ have'
been investigated in regard t.n tlift parti p.n1a.r hisf.nnV.a.1 r>r>pa.-
sions of jheir^origin, asjhenomena of religious psychology.
It must proceed by insight and intuition r "iri hfm^ Q H has
an una.yoid.able subjective cast._The exegesis of the early
Christian epistles must assume a proper historical attitude
with regard to their literary character. Its task is not to
penetrate into the knowledge of creative personalities in the
religious sphere, but to interpret great texts. As the element
of personality is wanting in its object, so must that of sub^~
jectivity disappear from its procedure.
(7) The value of the New Testament "letters," as
sources for the investigation of the Apostolic age, varies
according to their individual character. The classic value of
1 See p. 31.
58 BIBLE STUDIES. [250, 251
the letters of Paul lies in their being actual letters^ .that is to
say, in their being artless and unpremeditated ; in this re-
spect also, they resemble those of Cicero. 1 The value of the
epistles as sources is not to be rated so highly, and, in par-
ticular, not for the special questions regarding the " constitu-
tion " and the external circumstances of Christianity ; many
details are only of typical value, while others, again, are but
literary exercises, or anticipations of conditions not yet fully
realised.
(8) In particular, the New Testament letters and
epistles, considered as sources for the history of the Chris-
tian religion in its early period, are of different respective
values. The letters of Paul are not so much sources for the
theology, or even for the religion, of the period, as simply
for the personal religion of Paul as an individual ; itris only
by a literary misconception that they are looked upon as the
documents of " Paulinism ". The result of their criticism
from the standpoint of the history of religion can be nothing
more than a sketch of the character of Paul the letter- writer,
and not the system of Paul the epistolographer ; what
speaks to us in the letters is his faith, not his dogmatics ;
his morality, not his ethics ; his hopes, not his eschatology
here and there, no doubt, in the faltering speech of theology.
The early Christian epistles are the monuments of a religion
which was gradually accommodating itself to external con-
ditions, which had established itself in the world, which
received its stimulus less in the closet than in the church,
and which was on the way to express itself in liturgy and
as doctrine.
" The Hero who is the centre of all this did not himself
. . . become an author; the only recorded occasion of his
having written at all was when he wrote upon the ground
1 QA P- 29, note 3. One may adduce for comparison other non-literary
sources as well, e.g., the " We " source of the Acts. It, too, became literature
only subsequently only after it had been wrought into the work of Luke.
251, 252] LETTERS AND EPISTLES. 59
with his finger, and the learning of eighteen centuries has
not yet divined what he then wrote." l If Jesus is the gospel,
then it must hold good that the gospel is non-literary. Jesus
had no wish to make a religion ; whoever has such a wish
will but make a Koran. It was only lack of understanding
on the part of those who came after (die Epigoneri) which
could credit the Son of Man with the writing of epistles and
to a king to boot ! The saints are the epistles of Christ. 2
Nor did the Apostle of Jesus Christ advocate the gospel by
literature; in point of fact, the followers of Christ learned
first to pray and then to write like children. The begin-
nings of Christian literature are really the beginnings ojp
the "lecularisation of Christianity : the gospel becomes a
book-religion. The church, as a factor in history which
the gospel made no claim to be required literature, and
hence it made literature, and made books out of letters ; hence
also at length the New Testament came into existence. The
New Testament is an offspring of the Church. The Church
is not founded upon the New Testament ; other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The_gain which accrued to the world by the New Testament
carried with it a danger which Christianity to the detriment
of the Spirit of it has not always been able to avoid, viz.,
thlfTosing of itself as a literary religion in a religion of the
letter
1 Herder, Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend, zweyter Theil,
zweyte verbesserte Auflage, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1790, p. 209.
2 2 Cor. 3 3 .
ffr 0*-L t
CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE HISTOEY OF THE
LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE.
avoiya) ra /nvTy/xara V/JLWV KOL avaoo V/JLOLS c/c TWV fivrj^ariav tyxaiv KOL
t(ra^a> v/xas cts ryv yrjv TOV
CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE HISTOEY OF THE
LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE.
Ever since the language of the Greek Bible became a
subject of consideration, the most astonishing opinions have
been held with regard to the sacred text.
There was a time when the Greek of the New Testament
was looked upon as the genuinely classical ; it was supposed
that the Holy Spirit, using the Apostles merely as a pen,
could not but clothe His thoughts in the most worthy garb.
That time is past : the doctrine of verbal Inspiration, petrified
almost into a dogma, crumbles more and more to pieces
from day to day ; and among the rubbish of the venerable
ruins it is the human labours of the more pious past that
are waiting, all intact, upon the overjoyed spectator. Who-
ever surrenders himself frankly to the impression which is
made by the language of the early Christians, is fully assured
that the historical connecting-points of New Testament
Greek are not found in the period of the Epos and the Attic
classical literature. Paul did not speak the language of the
Homeric poems or of the tragedians and Demosthenes, any
more than Luther that of the Nibelungen-Lied.
But much still remains to be done before the influence
of the idea of Inspiration upon the investigation of early
Christian Greek is got rid of. Though, indeed, the former
exaggerated estimate of its value no longer holds good, it yet
reveals itself in the unobtrusive though widely-spread opinion
that the phrase "the New Testament" represents, in the
matter of language, a unity and a distinct entity : it is thought
that the canonical writings should form a subject of linguistic
investigation by themselves, and that it is possible within
such a sphere to trace out the laws of a special " genius of
64 BIBLE STUDIES. [58
language". Thus, in theological commentaries, even with
regard to expressions which have no special religious signi-
ficance, we may find the observation that so and so are "New
Testament" obraf \eyofieva?- and in a philological discussion
of the linguistic relations of the Atticists we are told, with
reference to some peculiar construction, that the like does
not occur " in the New Testament " a remark liable to mis-
conception. 2 Or again the meaning of a word in Acts is to
be determined : the word occurs also elsewhere in the New
Testament, but with a meaning that does not suit the
passage in question nearly so well as one that is vouched
for say in Galen. Would not the attempt to enrich the
"New Testament" lexicon from Galen stir up the most
vigorous opposition in those who hold that the " New Testa-
ment " language is materially and formally of a uniform and
self-contained character? They would object with the
assertion that in the "New Testament" that word was
used in such and such a sense, and, therefore, also in the
Acts of the Apostles.
In hundreds of similar short observations found in the
literature, the methodological presupposition that " the New
1 The only meaning that can be given to such observations if they are
to have any meaning at all is when it is presumed that " the genius of the
language of the New Testament " is not fond of certain words and construc-
tions. It is of course quite a different matter to speak of the a?ra| \ey6/j.fva
of a single definite writer such as Paul.
2 W. Schmid, Der Atticismus in seinen Hauptvertretern von Dionysiu-s
von Halikarnass bis auf den zweiten PMlostratus, iii., Stuttgart 1893, p. 338.
The Kal which is inserted between preposition and substantive is there dealt
with. The present writer does not suppose that Schmid, whose book is of
the greatest importance for the understanding of the biblical texts, would
advocate the perverse notion above referred to, should he be called upon to
give judgment upon it on principle : especially as the context of the passage
quoted permits one to suppose that he there desires to contrast " the N. T."
as a monument of popular literature with the studied elegance [?] of JElian.
But the subsuming of the varied writings of the Canon under the philological
concept "New Testament" is a mechanical procedure. Who will tell us
that, say, even Paul did not consciously aspire to elegance of expression now
and then ? Why, the very fj.era Kal which, it is alleged, does not belong to
the N. T., seems to the author to occur in Phil. 4 3 (differently Act. Ap. 25 ffl
ah re /ccd) : cf. afjta <ri>v 1 Thess. 4 17 and 5 10 .
59] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 65
Testament " is a philological department by itself, somewhat
like Herodotus or Polybius, reveals itself in the same manner.
The notion of the Canon is transferred to the language, and
so there is fabricated a " sacred Greek " of Primitive Christi-
anity. 1
It is only an extension of this presupposition when the
" New Testament " Greek is placed in the larger connection
of a "Biblical" Greek. "The New Testament" is written
in the language of the Septuagint. In this likewise much-
favoured dictum lies the double theory that the Seventy
used an idiom peculiar to themselves and that the writers
of the New Testament appropriated it. Were the theory
limited to the vocabulary, it would be to some extent justifiable.
But it is extended also to the syntax, and such peculiarities
as the prepositional usage of Paul are unhesitatingly explained
by what is alleged to be similar usage in the LXX.
The theory indicated is a great power in exegesis, and
that it possesses a certain plausibility is not to be denied.
It is edifying and, what is more, it is convenient. But it is
absurd. It mechanises the marvellous variety of the linguistic
elements of the Greek Bible and cannot be established either
by the psychology of language or by history. It increases
the difficulty of understanding the language of biblical texts
in the same degree as the doctrine of verbal Inspiration proved
obstructive to the historic and religious estimate of Holy
Scripture. It takes the literary products which have been
gathered into the Canon, or into the two divisions of the
Canon, and which arose in the most various circumstances,
times and places, as' forming one homogeneous magnitude,
1 It is of course true that the language of the early Christians contained
a series of religious terms peculiar to itself, some of which it formed for the
first time, while others were raised from among expressions already in use
to the status of technical terms. But this phenomenon must not be limited
to Christianity : it manifests itself in all new movements of civilization. The
representatives of any peculiar opinions are constantly enriching the language
with special conceptions. This enrichment, however, does not extend to the
" syntax," the laws of which rather originate and are modified on general
grounds.
5
66 BIBLE STUDIES. [60
and pays no heed to the footprints which bear their silent
testimony to the solemn march of the centuries. The author
will illustrate the capabilities of this method by an analogy.
If any one were to combine the Canon of Muratori, a frag-
ment or two of the Itala, the chief works of Tertullian, the
Confessions of Augustine, the Latin Inscriptions of the
Roman Christians in the Catacombs and an old Latin trans-
lation of Josephus, into one great volume, and assert that
here one had monuments of " the " Latin of the early
Church, he would make the same error as the wanderers
who follow the phantom of " the " biblical Greek. It cannot
be disputed that there would be a certain linguistic unity
in such a volume, but this unity would depend, not upon
the fact that these writings were, each and all, " ecclesi-
astical," but upon the valueless truism that they were, each
and all, written in late-Latin. Similarly we cannot attribute
all the appearances of linguistic unity in the Greek Bible
to the accidental circumstance that the texts to which they
belong stand side by side between the same two boards of
the Canon. The unity rests solely on the historical circum-
stance that all these texts are late-Greek. The linguistic
unity of the Greek Bible appears only against the background
of classical, not of contemporary "profane," Greek.
It is important, therefore, in the investigation of the
Greek Bible, to free oneself first of all from such a methodo-
logical notion as the sacred exclusiveness of its texts. And
in breaking through the principle, now become a dogma,, of
its linguistic seclusion and isolation, we must aspire towards
a knowledge of its separate and heterogeneous elements, and
investigate these upon their own historical bases.
We have to begin with the Greek Old Testament. The
Seventy translated a Semitic text into their own language.
This language was the Egypto-Alexandrian dialect. Our
method of investigation is deduced from these two facts.
If we ignore the fact that the work in question is a
translation, we thereby relinquish an important factor for
the understanding of its linguistic character. The trans-
lation is in method very different from what we nowadays
61, 62] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 67
call such. We see the difference at once when we compare
the Alexandrian theologians' way of working with, say, the
method which Weizsacker applied in his translation of the
Epistles of Paul. Was it mere clumsiness, or was it rever-
ence, which caused them to write as they often did ? Who
shall say ? One thing is certain : in proportion as the idea
of -making the sacred book accessible in another language
was at that time unheard-of, so helpless must the translators
have felt had they been required to give some account of
the correct method of turning Semitic into Greek. They
worked in happy and ingenuous ignorance of the laws of
Hermeneutics, 1 and what they accomplished in spite of all
is amazing. Their chief difficulty lay, not in the lexical,
but in the syntactical, conditions of the subject-matter. They
frequently stumbled at the syntax of the Hebrew text ; over
the Hebrew, with its grave and stately step, they have, so to
speak, thrown their light native garb, without being able to
conceal the alien's peculiar gait beneath its folds. So arose
a written Semitic-Greek 2 which no one ever spoke, far less
used for literary purposes, either before or after. 3 The sup-
position, that they had an easy task because the problem of
1 Some centuries later an important Semitic work was translated into
Greek in a very different manner, viz., the original text of Josephus's Jewish
War. In the preface he states that he had written it first of all in his native
language (i.e., Aramaic). In the work of translation he had recourse to col-
laborateurs for the sake of the Greek style (c. Ap. i. 9), cf. Schiirer, i. (1890),
p. 60 f. [Eng. Trans., i., i., p. 83]. Here then we have the case of a Semitic text
being translated under Greek superintendence with the conscious intention
of attaining Greek elegance. Thus the Jewish War should not, strictly
speaking, be used as an authority for the style of Josephus the Semite. The
case is different with the Antiquities unless they likewise have been redacted
in form. Moreover, it has been shown by Guil. Schmidt, De Flavii losephi
elocutione observationes criticae, Fleck. Jahrbb. SuppL xx. (1894), p. 514 ff.
an essay in the highest degree instructive on the question of the " influences "
of the Semitic feeling for language that at most only one Hebraism is found
in Josephus, and that a lexical one, viz., the use of irpoffrieeaQai = rjD\
2 Cf. the remarks of Winer, adopted by Schmiedel, Winer-Schmiedel,
4, 1 6 (p. 25 f.) [Eng. Trans., p. 28 f.], upon the Greek which was really
spoken by the Jewish common people and was independent of the Greek of
translation. But see the author's remark on p. 74, note 1.
3 See below, p. 295 E.
68 BIBLE STUDIES. [62
the syntax was largely solved for them through a " Judaeo-
Greek " already long in existence, 1 is hardly tenable. We
have a whole series of other Jewish texts from Alexandria, 2
1 In particular, J. Wellhausen formerly advocated this supposition ;
cf. his observations in F. Bleek's Einleitung in das A. I 7 . 4 , Berlin, 1878, p.
578, and, previously, in Der Text der Bilcher Samitelis untersucht, Gottingen,
1871, p. 11. But the very example which he adduces in the latter passage
supports our view. In 1 Sam. 4 2> 3 , the verb TTTOIO) is twice found, the first
time intransitively, the second time transitively, corresponding respectively
to the Niphal and Qal of fp2 Wellhausen rightly considers it to be incred-
ible that the Seventy " were unwilling or unable " to express " the distinction
of Qal and Hiphil, etc.," by the use of two different Greek words. When,
however, he traces back the double TTTOICO, with its distinction of meaning,
to the already existent popular usage of the contemporaries of the LXX (i.e.,
from the context the Alexandrian Jews), he overlooks the fact that the
transitive sense of irraiu is also Greek. The LXX avoided a change of verb
because they desired to represent the same Hebrew root by the same Greek
word, and in this case a Greek could make no objection. Regarding another
peculiarity of the LXX, viz., the standing use "of the Greek aorist as an
inchoative answering to the Hebrew perfect," it is admitted by Wellhausen
himself that "for this, connecting links were afforded by classical Greek."
Wellhausen now no longer advocates the hypothesis of a " Judseo -Greek,"
as he has informed the author by letter.
2 To the literary sources here indicated there have lately been added
certain fragments of reports which refer to the Jewish War of Trajan, and
which were probably drawn up by an Alexandrian Jew: Pap. Par. 68
(Notices, xviii. 2, p. 383 ff.), and Pap. Lond. 1 (Kenyon, p. 229 f.) ; cf. Schiirer,
i., p. 53; further particulars and a new reading in U. Wilcken, Ein Aktens-
tilck zum jildischen Kriege Trojans, Hermes, xxvii. (1892), p. 464 ff. (see also
Hermes, xxii. [1887], p. 487), and on this GGA. 1894, p. 749. Pap. Berol.
8111 (BU. xi., p. 333, No. 341), is also connected with it. I cannot, how-
ever willing, discover the slightest difference in respect of language be-
tween the readable part of the fragments, which unfortunately is not very
large, and the non-Jewish Papyri of the same period. Independently of their
historical value, the fragments afford some interesting phenomena, e.g.,
/coxrrcoSi'a (Matt. 27 65f -, 28 u KovtrruSia, Matt. 27 66 Cod. A K u<rTov5ia ; Cod. D
has KovffTovtila), oxpelbi SovAot (Luke 17 10 , cf. Matt. 25 30 ). The identification
of the '6ffioi 'louSalot with the successors of the 'AcrtScuot of the Maccabean
period, which Wilcken advances, hardly commends itself; the expression
does not refer to a party within Alexandrian Judaism, but is rather a self-
applied general title of honour. Wilcken, further, has in view the publication
of another Papyrus fragment (Hermes, xxvii., p. 474), which contains an
account of the reception of a Jewish embassy by the Emperor Claudius at
Rome. (This publication has now seen the light ; for all further particulars
see the beginning of the author's sketch, " Neuentdeckte Papyrus-Fragmente
zur GescUchte des griechischen Judenthums," ID ThLZ. xxiii. (1898), p. 602 ff.)
63, 64] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 69
but do their idioms bear comparison even in the slightest
with the peculiarities of the LXX, which arose quite inci-
dentally ? x So long as no one can point to the existence of
actual products of an original Judaeo-Greek, we must be per-
mitted to go on advocating the hypothesis, probable enough
in itself, that it was never an actual living language at all.
Thus the fact that the Alexandrian Old Testament is a
translation is of fundamental importance for an all-round
criticism of its syntax. Its " Hebraisms " permit of no con-
clusions being drawn from them in respect to the language
actually spoken by the Hellenistic Jews of the period : they
are no more than evidences of the complete disparity between
Semitic and Greek syntax. It is another question, whether
they may not have exercised an influence upon the speech of
the readers of the next period : it is, of course, possible that
the continually repeated reading of the written Judaeo-Greek
may have operated upon and transformed the " feeling for
language " of the later Jews and of the early Christians. In
respect of certain lexical phenomena, this supposition may of
course be made good without further trouble ; the parts of the
0. T. Apocrypha which were in Greek from the beginning,
Philo, Josephus, Paul, the early Christian Epistle-writers,
move all of them more or less in the range of the ethical and
religious terms furnished by the LXX. It is also quite con-
ceivable that some of the familiar formulae and formulaic
turns of expression found in the Psalms or the Law were
1 The relation which the language of the Prologue to Sirach bears to
the translation of the book is of the utmost importance in this question.
(Cf. the similar relation between the Prologue to Luke and the main con-
stituent parts of the Gospel ; see below, p. 76, note 2.) The Prologue is
sufficiently long to permit of successful comparison : the impression cannot
be avoided that it is an Alexandrian Greek who speaks here ; in the book
itself, a disguised Semite. The translator himself had a correct appre-
hension of how such a rendering of a Semitic text into Greek differed from
Greek the language which he spoke, and used in writing the Prologue.
He begs that allowance should be made for him, if his work in spite of all
his diligence should produce the impression rta-l TU>V \Qewv dSvj/ajueu/ ou 70^
iVoSwa/ie? aura tv tawrois eftpaiffrl \ey6fj.va Kal '6rav peTaxOp els frepau y\uffaav.
Whoever counts the Greek Sirach among the monuments of a " Judseo-Greek,"
thought of as a living language, must show why the translator uses Alex-
andrian Greek when he is not writing as a translator.
70 BIBLE STUDIES. [64, 65
borrowed from the one or the other, or again, that the occa-
sional literary impressiveness is an intentional imitation of
the austere and unfamiliar solemnity of that mode of speech
which was deemed to be biblical. But any fundamental in-
fluence of the LXX upon the syntactic, that is to say, the
logical, sense of a native of Asia Minor, or of the West, is
improbable, and it is in the highest degree precarious to con-
nect certain grammatical phenomena in, say, Paul's Epistles
straightway with casual similarities in the translation of the
0. T. A more exact investigation of Alexandrian Greek will,
as has been already signified, yield the result that far more of
the alleged Hebraisms of the LXX than one usually supposes
are really phenomena of Egyptian, or of popular, Greek. 1
This brings us to the second point : the real language,
spoken and written, of the Seventy Interpreters was the
Egyptian Greek of the period of the Ptolemies. If, as
translators, they had often, in the matter of syntax, to
conceal or disguise this fact, the more spontaneously, in
regard to their lexical work, could they do justice to the
profuse variety of the Bible by drawing from the rich store
of terms furnished by their highly-cultured environment.
Their work is thus one of the most important documents
of Egyptian Greek. 2 Conversely, its specifically Egyptian
character can be rendered intelligible only by means of a
comparison with all that we possess of the literary memorials
of Hellenic Egypt from the time of the Ptolemies till about
the time of Origen. 3 Since E. W. Sturz 4 began his studies
1 References in regard to the truly Greek character of alleged Hebraisms
in Josephus are given by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Guil. Schmidt
in the already-quoted study of the latter, pp. 515 f. and 421. See below, p. 290 f.
2 Cf. the remarks of Buresch, Rhein. Mus. filr Philologic, N. F., xlvi.
(1891), p. 208 ff.
3 In the rich Patristic literature of Egypt there lies much material
for the investigation of Egyptian Greek. One must not overestimate here
the " influence " of the LXX, particularly of its vocabulary. The Egyptian
Fathers doubtless got much from the colloquial language of their time, and
the theory of borrowing from the LXX need not be constantly resorted to.
The Papyri of the second and third centuries may be used as a standard
of comparison.
4 De dialecto Macedonica et Alexandrina liber, Leipzig, 1808.
65, 66] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 71
in this subject there has passed nearly a century, which has
disclosed an infinite number of new sources. Why, if the
Inscriptions in Egyptian Greek, when systematically turned
to account, could put new life into Septuagint research even
then, the Papyrus discoveries have now put us in the position
of being able to check the Egyptian dialect by document so
to speak through hundreds of years. A large part of the
Papyri, for us certainly the most valuable, comes from the
Ptolemaic period itself ; these venerable sheets are in the
original of exactly the same age as the work of the Jewish
translators 1 which has come down to us in late copies.
When we contemplate these sheets, we are seized with a
peculiar sense of their most delightful nearness to us one
might almost say, of historical reality raised from the dead.
In this very way wrote the Seventy the renowned, the un-
approachable on the same material, in the same characters,
and in the same language ! Over their work the history of
twenty crowded centuries has passed: originating in the
self-consciousness of Judaism at a time of such activity as
has never been repeated, it was made to help Christianity to
become a universal religion ; it engaged the acuteness and the
solicitude of early Christian Theology, and was to be found
in libraries in which Homer and Cicero might have been
sought for in vain ; then, apparently, it was forgotten, but it
continued still to control the many-tongued Christianity by
means of its daughter- versions : mutilated, and no longer
possessed of its original true form, it has come to us out of the
past, and now proffers us so many enigmas and problems as
to deter the approach not only of overweening ignorance but
often of the diffidence of the ablest as well. Meanwhile the
Papyrus documents of the same age remained in their tombs
and beneath the rubbish ever being heaped upon them ; but
our inquiring age has raised them up, and the information
concerning the past which they give in return, is also help-
ful towards the understanding of the Greek Old Testament.
They preserve for us glimpses into the highly-developed civi-
1 We have Papyri of the very time of Ptolemy II. Philadelphia, who
plays such an important part in the traditions of the LXX.
72 BIBLE STUDIES. [66, 67
lization of the Ptolemaic period : we come to know the stilted
speech of the court, the technical terms of its industries, its
agriculture and its jurisprudence ; we see into the interior of
the convent of Serapis, and into the family affairs which shrink
from the gaze of history. We hear the talk of the people and
the officials unaffected because they had no thought of making
literature. Petitions and rescripts, letters, accounts and re-
ceipts of such things do the old documents actually consist ;
the historian of national deeds will disappointedly put them
aside; to the investigator of the literature only do they
present some fragments of authors of greater importance.
But in spite of the apparent triviality of their contents at
first sight, the Papyri are of the highest importance for the
understanding of the language of the LXX, 1 simply because
they are direct sources, because they show the same conditions
of life which are recorded in the Bible and which, so to speak,
have been translated into Egyptian Greek. Naturally, the ob-
scure texts of the Papyri will often, in turn, receive illumina-
tion from the LXX ; hence editors of intelligence have already
begun to employ the LXX in this way, and the author is of
opinion that good results may yet be obtained thereby. In
some of the following entries he hopes, conversely, to have
demonstrated the value of the Egyptian Papyri and Inscrip-
tions for Septuagint research. It is really the pre-Christian
sources which have been used ; 2 but those of the early im-
1 A portion at least of the Papyri might be of importance for the LXX
even with respect to matters of form. The author refers to the official de-
cisions, written by trained public functionaries, and approximately contem-
poraneous with the LXX. While the orthography of the letters and other
private documents is in part, as amongst ourselves, very capricious, there
appears to him to be a certain uniformity in those official papers. One may
assume that the LXX, as " educated " people, took pains to learn the official
orthography of their time. The Papyri have been already referred to in
LXX-investigations by H. W. J. Thiersch, DePentateuchiversioneAlexandrina
libri tres, Erlangen, 1841, p. 87 ff. ; recently by B. Jacob, Das Buck Esther
bei den LXX, ZAW. x. (1890), p. 241 ff. The Papyri are likewise of great
value for the criticism of the Epistle of Aristeas ; hints of this are given in
the writings of Giac. Lumbroso.
2 U. Wilcken is preparing a collection of Ptolemaic texts (DLZ. xiv.
[1893], p. 265). Until this appears we are limited to texts which are scattered
throughout the various editions, and of which some can hardly be utilised.
67, 68] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 73
perial period also will yet yield rich results. One fact observa-
tion appears to put beyond question, viz., the preference of
the translators for the technical expressions of their surround-
ings. They, too, understood how to spoil the Egyptians.
They were very ready to represent the technical (frequently
also the general) terms of the Hebrew original by the techni-
cal terms in use in the Ptolemaic period. 1 In this way they
sometimes not only Egyptianised the Bible, but, to speak
from their own standpoint, modernised it. Many peculiarities
from which it might even be inferred that a text different
from our own lay before them, are explained, as the author
thinks, by this striving to make themselves intelligible to the
Egyptians. Such a striving is not of course justifiable from
the modern translator's point of view ; the ancient scholars,
who did not know the concept "historic," worked altogether
naively, and if, on that account, we cannot but pardon their
obliteration of many historical and geographical particulars
in their Bible, we may, as counterbalancing this, admire the
skill which they brought to bear upon their wrongly-con-
ceived task. 2 From such considerations arises the demand
that no future lexicon to the LXX 3 shall content itself with
the bringing forward of mere equations ; in certain cases the
1 It is specially instructive to notice that terms belonging to the lan-
guage of the court were employed to express religious conceptions, just as
conversely the word Grace, for instance, is prostituted by servility or irony
amongst ourselves. Legal phraseology also came to be of great importance
in religious usage.
2 Quite similar modernisings and Germanisings of technical terms are
found also in Luther's translation. Luther, too, while translating apparently
literally, often gives dogmatic shadings to important terms in theology and
ethics ; the author has found it specially instructive to note his translation of
Paul's viol 0ov by Kinder Gottes (children of God), of vlbs Beov by Sohn Gottes
(Son of God). Luther's dogmatic sense strove against an identical rendering
of vi6s in both cases : he was unwilling to call Christians sows of God, or
Jesus Christ the child of God, and in consequence made a distinction in the
word v!6s. We may also remember the translation of v6tip.a in 2 Cor. 10 5 by
Vernunft (reason), whereby biblical authority was found for the doctrine fides
praecedit intellectum.
3 The clamant need of a Lexicon to the LXX is not to be dismissed by
pointing to the miserable condition of the Text. The knowledge of the lexical
conditions is itself a preliminary condition of textual criticism.
74 BIBLE STUDIES. [68, 69
Greek word chosen does not represent the Hebrew original
at all, and it would be a serious mistake to suppose that the
LXX everywhere used each particular word in the sense of
its corresponding Hebrew. Very frequently the LXX did
not translate the original at all, but made a substitution
for it, and the actual meaning of the word substituted is,
of course, to be ascertained only from Egyptian Greek. A
lexicon to the LXX will thus be able to assert a claim to
utility only if it informs us of what can be learned, with
regard to each word, from Egyptian sources. In some places
the original was no longer intelligible to the translators ; we
need only remember the instances in which they merely trans-
cribed the Hebrew words even when these were not proper
names. But, in general, they knew Hebrew well, or had
been well instructed in it. If then, by comparison of their
translation with the original, there should be found a differ-
ence in meaning between any Hebrew word and its corre-
sponding Greek, it should not be forthwith concluded that
they did not understand it : it is exactly such cases that not
seldom reveal to us the thoughtful diligence of these learned
men.
What holds good of the investigation of the LXX in
the narrower sense must also be taken into consideration in
dealing with the other translations of Semitic originals into Greek.
Peculiarities of syntax and of style should not in the first
instance be referred to an alleged Judseo-Greek of the trans-
lators, but rather to the character of the original. We must,
in our linguistic criticism, apply this principle not only to
many of the Old Testament Apocryphal writings, but also to
the Synoptic Gospels, in so far, at least, as these contain ele-
ments which originally were thought and spoken in Aramaic. 1
1 The author cannot assent to the thesis of Winer (see the passage re-
ferred to above, p. 67, note 2), viz., that if we are to ascertain what was the
" independent " (as distinct, i.e., from the LXX-Greek, which was conditioned
by the original) Greek of the Jews, we must rely "upon the narrative style
of the Apocryphal books, the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles".
There are considerable elements in " the " Apocrypha and in " the " Gospels
which, as translations, are as little " independent " as the work of the LXX.
With regard also to certain portions of the Apocalypse of John, the question must
be raised as to whether they do not in some way go back to a Semitic original.
70] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 75
So far as regards these Apocryphal books, the non-existence
of the original renders the problem more difficult, but the
investigator who approaches it by way of the LXX will be
able to reconstruct the original of many passages with con-
siderable certainty, and to provide himself, at least in some
degree, with the accessories most required. The case is less
favourable in regard to the Synoptic sayings of Jesus, as also
those of His friends and His opponents, which belong to the
very earliest instalment of the pre-Hellenistic Gospel-tradition.
We know no particulars about the translation into Greek of
those portions which were originally spoken and spread abroad
in the Palestinian vernacular ; we only know, as can be per-
ceived from the threefold text itself, that " they interpreted as
best they could "- 1 The author is unable to judge how far
retranslation into Aramaic would enable us to understand
the Semitisms which are more or less clearly perceived in the
three texts, and suspects that the solution of the problem,
precisely in the important small details of it, is rendered
difficult by the present state of the text, in the same way as
the confusion of the traditional text of many portions of the
LXX hinders the knowledge of its Greek. But the work
must be done : the veil, which for the Greek scholar rests
over the Gospel sayings, can be, if not fully drawn aside,
yet at least gently lifted, by the consecrated hand of the
specialist. 2 Till that is done we must guard against the
1 Cf. Jiilicher, Einleitung in das N. T., 1st and 2nd ed., Freiburg (Baden)
and Leipzig, 1894, p. 235; important observations by Wellhausen in GGA.
1896, p. 266 ff. We must at all events conceive of this kind of translation as
being quite different from the translation of Josephus's Jewish War from
Aramaic, which was undertaken in the same half-century, and which might
be called "scientific" (cf. p. 67, note 1 above). Josephus desired to impress
the literary public : the translators of the Logia desired to delineate Christ
before the eyes of the Greek Christians. The very qualities which would
have seemed "barbaric" to the taste of the reading and educated classes,
made upon the Greeks who " would see Jesus " the impression of what was
genuine, venerable in a word, biblical.
2 The author recalls, for instance, what is said in Wellhausen's Israel/it-
isclie und Jildische Geschichte, Berlin, 1894, p. 312, note 1. Meanwhile this
important problem has been taken in hand afresh by Arnold Meyer (Jesu
Muttersprache, Freiburg (Baden) and Leipzig, 1896) and others ; cf. especially
G. Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, vol. i., Leipzig, 1898.
76 BIBLE STUDIES. [71
illusion 1 that an Antiochian or Ephesian Christian (even if,
like Paul, he were a product of Judaism) ever really spoke as
he may have translated the Logia-collection, blessed and
cramped as he was by the timid consciousness of being
permitted to convey the sacred words of the Son of God to
the Greeks. Perhaps the same peculiarities which, so far as
the LXX were concerned, arose naturally and unintention-
ally, may, in the translators of the Lord's words, rest upon
a conscious or unconscious liturgical feeling : their reading
of the Bible had made them acquainted with the sound,
solemn as of the days of old, of the language of prophet and
psalmist ; they made the Saviour speak as Jahweh spoke
to the fathers, especially when the original invited to such
a procedure. Doubtless they themselves spoke differently 2
and Paul also spoke differently, 3 but then the Saviour also
was different from those that were His.
Among the biblical writings a clear distinction can be
traced between those that are translations, or those portions
that can be referred to a translation, and the other genus,
viz., those in Greek from the first. The authors of these be-
longed to Alexandria, to Palestine, or to Asia Minor. Who
will assert that those of them who were Jews (leaving out
of account those who belonged to Palestine) each and all
spoke Aramaic to say nothing of Hebrew as their native
1 Also against the unmethodical way in which peculiarities in the
diction of Paul, for example, are explained by reference to mere external
similarities in the Synoptics. What a difference there is to take one in-
structive example between the Synoptical eV T$ &pxovri ru>v Sat/uoi/tar (Mark
3 22 > etc -) and the Pauline eV Xpiffry 'lyffov I See the author's essay Die
neutestamentliche Formel "in Christo Jesu" untersucht, pp. 15 and 60.
2 Compare the prologue to Luke's Gospel. The author is unaware
whether the task of a comparative investigation with regard to the languages
of the translated and the independent parts respectively of the Gospels has
as yet been performed. The task is necessary and well worth while.
3 Even in those cases in which Paul introduces his quotations from the
LXX without any special formula of quotation, or without other indication,
the reader may often recognise them by the sound. They stand out distinctly
from Paul's own writing, very much as quotations from Luther, for example,
stand out from the other parts of a modern controversial pamphlet.
72] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 77
tongue ? We may assume that a Semitic dialect was known
among the Jews of Alexandria and Asia Minor, but this
cannot be exalted into the principle of a full historical
criticism of their language. It seems to the writer that their
national connection with Judaism is made, too hastily, and
with more imagination than judgment, to support the in-
ference of a (so to speak) innate Semitic " feeling for lan-
guage ". But the majority of the Hellenistic Jews of the
Dispersion probably spoke Greek as their native tongue :
those who spoke the sacred language of the fathers had
only learned it later. 1 It is more probable that their Hebrew
would be Graecised than that their Greek would be Hebraised.
For why was the Greek Old Testament devised at all ? Why,
after the Alexandrian translation was looked upon as sus-
picious, were new Greek translations prepared? Why do
we find Jewish Inscriptions in the Greek language, 2 even
where the Jews lived quite by themselves, viz., in the Roman
catacombs ? The fact is, the Hellenistic Jews spoke Greek,
prayed in Greek, sang psalms in Greek, wrote in Greek, and
produced Greek literature ; further, their best minds thought
in Greek. 3 While we may then continue, in critically examin-
ing the Greek of a Palestinian writer, to give due weight
to the influence of his Semitic "feeling for language," an
influence, unfortunately, very difficult to test the same pro-
cedure is not justified with regard to the others. How should
the Semitic " spirit of language " have exercised influence
1 This was probably the case, e.g., with Paul, who according to Acts 21 40
could speak in the "Hebrew language". That means probably the Aramaic.
2 So far as the author is aware no Jewish Inscription in Hebrew is
known outside of Palestine before the sixth century A.D. ; cf. Schiirer, ii.,
p. 513 ( = 3 iii., p. 93 f.) [Eng. Trans., ii., ii., p. 284], and, generally, the
references given there.
3 Aristotle rejoiced that he had become acquainted with a man, a Jew
of Coele-Syria, who 'EAArjj/i/c&s ?iv, ov rf StoAe/cry p.6vov, a\\a Kal TIJ faxy
(Josephus, c. Ap. i. 22). The sentence (De confusione ling. 26) [M. i., p. 424],
ecTTt 5e us fJ.ev 'Efipcuoi \eyov<ri " ^cwovrjA," &s 8e ^/if?s " airoffTpoty^ 0eoC," is of
great interest in regard to Philo's opinion as to his own language : he felt
himself to be a Greek. Cf. H. A. A. Kennedy, Sources of New Testament
Greek, Edinburgh, 1895, p. 54, and the present writer's critique of this book
GGA. 1896, p. 761 ff.
78 BIBLE STUDIES. [73
over them ? And how, first of all indeed, over those early
Christian authors who may originally have been pagans?
This " spirit " must be kept within its own sphere ; the
investigator of the Greek of Paul and of the New Testament
epistle- writers must first of all exorcise it, if he would see
his subject face to face. We must start from the philological
environment in which, as a fact of history, we find these
authors to be, and not from an improbable and, at best, in-
definable, linguistic Traducianism. The materials from which
we can draw the knowledge of that philological environment
have been preserved in sufficient quantity. In regard to the
vocabulary, the Alexandrian Bible stands in the first rank :
it formed part of the environment of the people, irrespective
of whether they wrote in Alexandria, Asia Minor or Europe,
since it was the international book of edification for Hellen-
istic Judaism and for primitive Christianity. We must, of
course, keep always before us the question whether the terms
of the LXX, in so far as they were employed by those who
came after, had not already undergone some change of mean-
ing in their minds. Little as the lexicon of the LXX can be
built up by merely giving the Greek words with their corre-
sponding Hebrew originals, just as little can Jewish or early
Christian expressions be looked upon as the equivalents of
the same expressions as previously used by the LXX. Even
in express quotations one must constantly reckon with the
possibility that a new content has been poured into the old
forms. The history of religious terms and not of religious
ones only shows that they have always the tendency to be-
come richer or poorer ; in any case, to be constantly altering. 1
Take the term Spirit (G-eist). Paul, Augustine, Luther,
Servetus, the modern popular nationalism : all of these
apprehend it differently, and even the exegete who is well
schooled in history, when he comes to describe the biblical
thoughts about Spirit, finds it difficult to free himself from
the philosophical ideas of his century. How differently
1 Acute observations on this point will be found in J. Freudenthal's
Die Flavins Josephus beigelegte Schrift Ueber die Herrschaft der Vernunft,
Breslau, 1869, p. 26 f.
77, 84] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 79
must the Colossians, for example, have conceived of Angels,
as compared with the travelling artisan who has grown up
under the powerful influences of ecclesiastical artistic tra-
dition, and who prays to his guardian angel ! What changes
has the idea of God undergone in the history of Christianity
from the grossest anthropomorphism to the most refined
spiritualisation ! One might write the history of religion
as the history of religious terms, or, more correctly, one
must apprehend the history of religious terms as being a
chapter in the history of religion. In comparison with the
powerful religious development recorded in the Hebrew Old
Testament, the work of the Seventy presents quite a differ-
ent phase : it does not close the religious history of Israel,
but it stands at the beginning of that of Judaism, and the
saying that the New Testament has its source in the Old
is correct only if by the Old Testament one means the book
as it was read and understood in the time of Jesus. The
Greek Old Testament itself was no longer understood in the
imperial period as it was in the Ptolemaic period, and, again,
a pagan Christian in Rome naturally read it otherwise than
a man like Paul. What the author means may be illustrated
by reference to the Pauline idea of Faith. Whether Paul dis-
covered it or not does not in the meantime concern us. At
all events he imagined that it was contained in his Bible,
and, considered outwardly, he was right. In reality, how-
ever, his idea of faith is altogether new : no one would think
of identifying the TTICTT^ of the LXX with the TTLCTT^ of Paul.
Now the same alteration can be clearly perceived in other
conceptions also ; it must be considered as possible in all, at
least in principle; and this possibility demands precise ex-
amination. Observe, for example, the terms Spirit, Flesh,
Life, Death, Law, Works, Angel, Hell, Judgment, Sacrifice,
Eighteousness, Love. The lexicon of the Bible must also
discuss the same problem in respect of expressions which are
more colourless in a religious and ethical sense. The men of
the New Testament resembled the Alexandrian translators in
bringing with them, from their " profane " surroundings, the
most varied extra-biblical elements of thought and speech.
80 BIBLE STUDIES. [74, 75
When, then, we undertake to expound the early Christian
writings, it is not sufficient to appeal to the LXX, or to the
terms which the LXX may use in a sense peculiar to them-
selves : we must seek to become acquainted with the actual
surroundings of the New Testament authors. In what other
way would one undertake an exhaustive examination of these
possible peculiar meanings ? Should we confine ourselves to
the LXX, or even to artificially petrified ideas of the LXX,
what were that but a concession to the myth of a " biblical "
Greek ? The early Christian writings, in fact, must be taken
out of the narrow and not easily-illuminated cells of the
Canon, and placed in the sunshine and under the blue sky
of their native land and of their own time. There they will
find companions in speech, perhaps also companions in
thought. There they take their place in the vast phenome-
non of the KoivY). But even this fact, in several aspects of it,
must not be conceived of mechanically. One must neither
imagine the Koivrj to be a uniform whole, nor look upon the
early Christian authors, all and sundry, as co-ordinate with
a definite particular phenomenon like Polybius. In spite of
all the consanguinity between those early Christian Greeks
and the literary representatives of universal Greek, yet the
former are not without their distinguishing characteristics.
Certain elements in them of the popular dialect reveal the
fact of their derivation from those healthy circles of society
to which the Gospel appealed : the victorious future of those
obscure brotherhoods impressively announces itself in new
technical terms, and the Apostles of the second and third
generation employ the turns of expression, understood or not
understood, used by Paul, that " great sculptor of language ", 1
It is thus likewise insufficient to appeal to the vocabu-
lary and the grammar of the contemporary "profane " litera-
ture. This literature will doubtless afford the most instructive
discoveries, but, when we compare it with the direct sources
which are open to us, it is, so far as regards the language
of the early Christian authors, only of secondary importance.
1 The author adopts this easily enough misunderstood expression from
Buresch, Eh. Mus.J. Phil, N, F., xlvi. (1891), p. 207,
75, 76] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 81
These direct sources are the Inscriptions 1 of the imperial
period. Just as we must set our printed Septuagint side by
side with the Ptolemaic Papyri, so must we read the New
Testament in the light of the opened folios of the Inscrip-
tions. The classical authors reach us only in the traditional
texts of an untrustworthy later period ; their late codices
cannot give us certain testimony with regard to any so-called
matters of form, any more than the most venerable uncials
of the New Testament can let us know how, say, the Letter
to the Romans may have looked in its original form. If
we are ever in this matter to reach certainty at all, then it
is the Inscriptions and the Papyri which will give us the
nearest approximation to the truth. Of course even they do
not present us with unity in matters of form ; but it would be
something gained if the variety which they manifest through-
out were at least to overthrow the orthodox confidence in the
trustworthiness of the printed text of the New Testament,
and place it among the " externals ". Here, too, must we do
battle with a certain ingenuous acceptation of the idea of
Inspiration. Just as formerly there were logically-minded
individuals who held that the vowel-points in the Hebrew
text were inspired, so even to-day there are those here and
there who force the New Testament into the alleged rules
of a uniform orthography. But by what authority unless
by the dictate of the Holy Spirit will any one support the
notion that Paul, for instance, must have written the Greek
form of the name David in exactly the same way as Mark
or John the Divine ?
But the help which the Inscriptions afford in the cor-
rection of our printed texts, is not so important as the service
1 When the author (in 1894) wrote the above, he was unaware that E. L.
Hicks, in The Classical Review, 1887, had already begun to apply the In-
scriptions to the explanation of the N. T. W. M. Ramsay called attention
to this, and gave new contributions of his own in The Expository Times, vol.
x., p. 9 ff. A short while ago I found a very important little work in the
University Library at Heidelberg, which shows that the Inscriptions had
begun to be drawn from a hundred years ago : the booklet, by lo. E. Imm.
Walch, is called Observationes in Matthaeum ex graecis inscriptionibus, Jena,
1779, and is not without value even at the present day.
6
82 BIBLE STUDIES. [76, 77
they render towards the understanding of the language itself.
It may be that their contents are often scanty ; it may be that
hundreds of stones, tiresomely repeating the same mono-
tonous formula, have only the value of a single authority,
yet, in their totality, these epigraphic remains furnish us
with plenty of material only, one should not expect too
much of them, or too little. The author is not now thinking
of the general historical contributions which they afford for
the delineation of the period such as we must make for
Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Europe, if we would understand
the biblical writings (though for that purpose nothing can
be substituted for them) ; but rather of their value for the
history of the language of the Greek Bible, and particularly
of the New Testament, Those witnesses in stone come
before us with exactly the same variety as to time and place
as we have to take into account when dealing with these
writings : the period of most of them, and the original locality
of nearly all, can be determined with certainty. They afford
us wholly trustworthy glimpses into certain sections of the
sphere of ideas and of the store of words which belonged to
certain definite regions, at a time when Christian churches
were taking their rise, and Christian books being written.
Further, that the religious conceptions of the time may re-
ceive similar elucidation is a fact that we owe to the numerous
sacred Inscriptions. In these, it may be observed that there
existed, here and there, a terminology which was fixed, and
which to some extent consisted of liturgical formulae. When,
then, particular examples of this terminology are found
not only in the early Christian authors, but in the LXX as
well, the question must be asked : Do the Christian writers
employ such and such an expression because they are familiar
with the Greek Bible, or because they are unaffectedly speak-
ing the language of their neighbourhood ? If we are dealing,
e.g., with the Inscriptions of Asia Minor and the Christians
of Asia Minor, the natural answer will be : Such expressions
were known to any such Christian from his environment,
before ever he read the LXX, and, when he met them again
in that book, he had no feeling of having his store of words
77, 78] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 83
enlarged, but believed himself to be walking, so to speak, on
known ground : since, happily for him, there was no Schleus-
ner at his disposal, when he found those expressions in the
LXX where, in their connection, they were perhaps more
pregnant in meaning, perhaps less so, he read them with
the eyes of an inhabitant of Asia Minor, and possibly emas-
culated them. For him they were moulds into which he
poured, according to his own natural endowment, now good,
now less valuable, metal. The mere use of LXX- words OD
the part of an inhabitant of Asia Minor is no guarantee that
he is using the corresponding LXX-conceptions. Take as
examples words like ayvos, lepos, Sifcaios, yvijcnos, dyados, evcre-
fteia, 6pt](TKGia, ap^iepevs, TrpotyrJTrjs, tcvpios, Oeo<$, 0(776X09,
KTLCTTIJS, awTijpia, SiaOrj/crj, epyov, alcov. With regard to all
these words, and many others, common to both the LXX
and the Inscriptions of Asia Minor of the imperial period, it
will be necessary to investigate how far the Christians of Asia
Minor introduced definite local shades of meaning into their
reading of the Septuagint, and, further, how far they uncon-
sciously took these shades of meaning into account either
in their own use of them or when they heard them uttered
by the Apostles. The same holds good of such expressions
as embody the specifically favourite conceptions of primitive
Christianity, e.g., the titles of Christ, wo? 0eoO, o /cvpios TJIJL&V
and o-coTijp. The author has, with regard to the first of these,
set forth in the following pages in more detail the reasons
why we should not ignore the extra-biblical technical use
of the expression, a use which, in particular, is authen-
ticated by the Inscriptions. A similar investigation with
regard to the others could be easily carried out. Even if
it could be established that " the " New Testament always
employs these expressions in their original, pregnant, distinc-
tively Christian sense, yet who will guarantee that hundreds
of those who heard the apostolic preaching, or of the readers
of the Epistles, did not understand the expressions in the
faded formulaic sense, in regard to which they reflected as
little or as much as when they read a votive Inscription
in honour of the vlb? Oeov Augustus, or of another emperor
84 BIBLE STUDIES.
who was described as o Kvpios fjuwv, or of Apollo
By the time of the New Testament there had set in a
process of mutual assimilation 1 between the religious con-
ceptions already current in Asia Minor on the one hand,
and " biblical " and " Christian " elements on the other.
Biblical expressions became secularised ; heathen expressions
gained ecclesiastical colouring, and the Inscriptions, as being
the most impartial witnesses to the linguistic usage previous
to New Testament times, are the sources which most readily
permit us a tentative investigation of the process.
Other elements, too, of the language of certain portions
of the New Testament can not seldom be elucidated by
parallels from the Inscriptions ; likewise much of the so-called
syntax. M. Frankel 2 has indicated what an "extraordinary
agreement in vocabulary and style" obtains between the
Pergamenian Inscriptions of pre-Eoman times and Polybius :
it is proved, he thinks, that the latter, " almost entirely
wanting in a distinctive style of his own," has " assumed
the richly but pedantically developed speech of the public
offices of his time ". The Inscriptions of Asia Minor have,
as the author thinks, a similar significance for the history
of the language of the New Testament. It may be readily
granted to the outsider that many of the observations which
it is possible to take in this connection have, of course,
" only " a philological value ; he who undertakes them knows
that he is obeying not only the voice of science but also the
behests of reverence towards the Book of Humanity. 3
The author has, here and there throughout the follow-
ing pages, endeavoured to carry out in practice the ideas of
method thus indicated. He would request that to these
1 So far as the author can judge, this process shows itself more clearly
in the Catholic and the Pastoral Epistles than in Paul.
2 AltertUmer von Pergamon, viii. 1, Berlin, 1890, p. xvii.
3 This matter is further dealt with in the author's little work Die
sprachliche Erforschung der griechischen Bibel, ihr gegenwartiger Stand und
ihre Aufgaben, Giessen, 1898 ; cf. also GGA. 1896, pp. 761-769 ; 1898, pp. 120-
124, and 920-923 ; ThLZ. xxi. (1896), p. 609 ff., and xxiii. (1898), p. 628 ff. ;
Theologische Rundschau, i. (1897-98), pp. 463-472.
79] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 85
should be added the observations that lie scattered through-
out the other parts of this book. If he makes a further
request for indulgence, he would not omit to emphasise that
he is not thereby accommodating himself to the well-worn
literary habit the real purpose of which is only the captatio
benevolentiae. The peculiar nature of the subject-matter,
which first attracted the author, is certainly calculated to
engender the feeling of modesty, unless, indeed, the inves-
tigator has been possessed of that quality from the outset.
ayyapevco.
Herodotus and Xenophon speak of the Persian ayyapoi.
The word is of Persian origin and denotes the royal couriers.
From ayyapos is formed the verb ajyapevco, which is used,
Mark 15 21 = Matt. 27 32 and Matt. 5 41 (a saying of the Lord),
in the sense of to compel one to something. E. Hatch 1 finds
the earliest application of the verb in a letter of Demetrius I.
Soter to the high-priest Jonathan and the Jewish people :
KeXevco Se fjurjSe a<y<yapevo-0at, ra 'lovSaiwv virofyyia, Joseph.
Antt. xiii. 2s. The letter was ostensibly written shortly
before the death of the king, and, if this were so, we should
have to date the passage shortly before the year 150 B.C.
But against this assumption is to be placed the consideration
that 1 Mace. 10 25 ~* 5 , which was the source for the statement
of Josephus, and which also quotes the said letter verbally,
knows nothing of the passage in question. Indeed it rather
appears that Josephus altered the passage, in which the
remission of taxes upon the animals is spoken of (ver. 33 real
Trdvres a^iercocrav TOVS (fropovs /cat rwv tcrr/vwv avrwv), so as to
make it mean that they should not be forced into public work.
Even if, following Grimm, 2 we consider it possible that the
passage in Maccabees has the same purport as the paraphrase
of Josephus, yet the word and it is only the word which
comes into consideration here must be assigned to Josephus,
and, therefore, can be made to establish nothing in regard to
the second century B.C., but only in regard to the first A.D.
1 Essays in Biblical Greek, Oxford, 1889, p. 37.
*HApAT.iii. (1853), p.155 f.
82] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 87
But we find the verb in use at a time much earlier than
Hatch admitted. The Comedian Menander (f 290 B.C.) uses
it in Sicyon. iv. (Meineke, p. 952). It is twice employed in
Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xx. 1 (252 B.C.), both times in reference to
a boat used for postal service : rov vTrdp-^ovros X,e/u./3ou dyyapev-
devros VTTO aov and dyyapeixras rov 'AvTiic\eov<; Xefi&ov.
This application of the word is established for the
Egyptian dialect 2 of Greek by the Inscription from the
Temple of the Great Oasis (49 A.D.), 3 in which there is other
linguistic material bearing on the Greek Bible, and to which
Hatch has already called attention : fj,r)Sev \afjiftaveiv /-t^Se
dyyapeveLV el pij rives /JLOL Bi7T\a)fJLara e^wai.
In view of these facts the usage of the verb in the
Synoptists 4 and Josephus falls into a more distinct historical
connection : the word, originally applied only to a Persian
institution, had gained a more general sense as early as the
third century B.C. 5 This sense, of course, was itself a tech-
nical one at first, as can be seen from the Papyrus and the
Inscription as well as from Josephus, but the word must
have become so familiar that the Evangelists could use it
quite generally for to compel.
The employment of the name brother to designate the
members of Christian communities is illustrated by the
1 Mahaffy, ii. [64],
2 The Persian loan-word recalls the Persian dominion over Egypt : cf.
jrapaSeuros below. It may appear strange that the LXX do not
etc., though j"\Hilfc$ perhaps also derived from the Persian, is found in
those portions which belong to the Persian period, and might have prompted
them to use a cognate Greek substantive. But they translate both it and
the Aramaic fcOilN in every passage by &noroA4> just because there was not
any Greek word formed from &yyapos for letter. For the orthography
fyyapevco cf. III. i. 1 below.
3 GIG. iii. No. 4956, A 21.
4 What is the Aramaic word which is rendered by ayyapevw in Matt. 5 41 ?
5 Cf. Buresch, Ehein. Mus. fUr Philologie, N. F., xlvi. (1891), p. 219:
" The Persian loan-word ayyapevca, which was naturalised at a very early date,
must have come to be much used in the vernacular it is still found in the
common dialect of Modern Greek ".
88 BIBLE STUDIES. [83
similar use, made known to us by the Papyri, of a
in the technical language of the Serapeum at Memphis.
See the detailed treatment of it in A. Peyron, 1 Leemans, 2
Brunet de Presle, 3 and Kenyon. 4 aSeA.<o? also occurs in the
usage of religious associations of the imperial period as
applied to the members, cf. Schiirer, in the Sitzungsberichte
der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1897, p. 207 ff., and
Cumont, Hypsistos, Brussels, 1897, p. 13.
The moral signification se gerere in 2 Cor. 1 12 , Eph. 2 3 ,
1 Pet. 1 17 , 2 Pet. 2 18 , Heb. 10 33 , 13 18 , 1 Tim. 3 15 , is illustrated
by Grimm, 5 needlessly, by the analogy of the Hebrew y?i~T.
It is found in the Inscription of Pergamus No. 224 A 6
(middle of the second century B.C.), where it is said of some
high official of the king eV TTCLGLV Ka[ipois a/teyLtTrrco? KCU aSJew?
. Further examples in III. iii. 1.
LXX Lev. 13 41 = Jll2.il, forehead-bald, frequent in personal
descriptions in the Papyri of 237, 230 and 225 B.C. ; 7 cf. ava-
4>a\dvr<*na = nrtaa, LXX Lev. 13 42 - 43 .
In 1 Pet. 2 24 it is said of Christ : o? ra? apaprlas
auro? dvijvey/cev eV rf> aw/juan, avrov eVt TO %v\ov, f iva rat?
d/jLapTiais dTroyevofAevoi, TTJ Si/caLocrvvrj tycrcofjiev. Many com-
mentators consider the expression dvafyepew ra? dfjuaprias to
1 Papyri Graeci regii Taurinensis musei Aegyptii, i. Turin, 1826, p. 60 ff.
2 L, pp. 53 and 64. 3 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 308. 4 P. 31.
5 Ch. G. Wilkii Clavis Novi Testamenti philologica*, Leipzig, 1888, p. 28.
6 Frankel, p. 129. The word occurs also in Polybius in the same sense.
W. Schulze has also called the attention of the author to the Inscription of
Sestos (c. 120 B.C.), linear ; on this cf. W. Jerusalem, Wiener Studien, i. (1879),
p. 53.
7 For particular references see Mahaffy, i. (1891), Index [88], cf. Zenyon,
p. 46 ; Notices, xviii. 2, p. 131. For the etymology, W. Schulze, Quaestiones
cpicae, Gittersloh, 1892, p. 464; the ava^aXavriacris in Aristot. H, A. iii. 11
presupposes ava<pd\avTos.
83,84] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 89
be a quotation of LXX Is. 53 12 Kal avrbs a
avtfveytce and demand that it be understood in the same sense
as in Isaiah : 1 to bear sins, i.e., to suffer punishment for sins.
But even granting that the whole section is pervaded by
reminiscences of Is. 53, yet it is not scientifically justifiable
to assert that the writer must have used avafyepew in the very
sense of the original which he followed. The cases are not
few in which phrases from the LXX, given word for word,
and introduced by the solemn formulae of quotation, have
acquired another sense from the particular new context into
which they are brought. The early Christian authors do not
quote with that precision as to form and substance which
must needs be shown in our own scientific investigations ;
these "practical" exegetes, in their simple devoutness, have
an ethical and religious purpose in their quotations, not a
scientific one. Thus their references cannot properly be
called quotations at all : sayings, in our pregnant use of that
term, would be the preferable expression. The " practical "
exegetes of every age have considered the same absolute
freedom with regard to the letter as their natural privilege.
In regard to our passage, the addition of eVt TO f vXov makes
it certain that, even if the allusion is to Isaiah, avafyepew
cannot be explained by its possible 2 meaning in the Greek
translation of the book. If to bear be made to mean to suffer
punishment, then the verb would require to be followed 3 by
eVt TO} f V\(D : eirl cum ace. at once introduces the meaning to
carry up to.
What then is meant by Christ bearing our sins in His
body up to the tree ? Attention is commonly called to the
frequently occurring collocation avafyepew TL eirl TO Qvvia-
a-rrjpiov, and from this is deduced the idea that the death of
Christ is an expiatory sacrifice. But this attempt at explana-
tion breaks down 4 when it is observed that it is certainly
not said that Christ laid Himself upon the tree (as the altar) ;
2 If, that is to say, the LXX treated the conceptions ava^epeiv and N
as equivalent.
3 E. Kiihl, Meyer, xii. 5 (1887), p. 165. 4 Cf. Kiihl, p. 166 f.
90 BIBLE STUDIES. [85
it is rather the apaprlai rj^wv that form the object of avafyepew,
and it cannot be said of these that they were offered up.
That would be at least a strange and unprecedented mode
of expression. The simplest explanation will be this : when
Christ bears up to the cross the sins of men, then men have
their sins n0 more ; the bearing up to is a taking away. The
expression thus signifies quite generally that Christ took away
our sins by His death : there is no suggestion whatever of the
special ideas of substitution or sacrifice.
This explanation, quite satisfactory in itself, appears to
the author to admit of still further confirmation. In the
contract Pap. Flind. Petr. i. xvi. 2 1 (230 B.C.), the following
passage occurs : irepl Se &v avriXeyay ava^epojjbev [ ]
o^eik^fjudrcDv Kpt6ij<rofjMi CTT 'A<rfc\rj7ri,d8ov. The editor re-
stores the omission by cov et<? e/jb, and so reads ava^epofievwv
et? eue. In this he is, in our opinion, certainly correct
as to the main matter. No other completion of the participle
is possible, and the connection with the following clauses
requires that the avafyepopeva o^etX^ara. should stand in
relation to the "I" of azmXeyew. It can hardly be determined
whether precisely the preposition efc 2 be the proper restora-
tion, but not much depends on that matter. In any case the
sense of the passage is this : as to the o^etX^/Ltara ava^epo^eva
upon (or against) me, against which I protest, I shall let myself be
judged by Asklepiades* It is a priori probable that ava<f>epew TO,
ofyeiXrjpaTa is a forensic technical expression : he who imposes 4
the debts of another upon a third desires to free the former
1 Mahaffy, i. [47].
2 twi were equally possible ; cf. p. 91, note 1.
3 Mahafiy, i. [48], translates : " But concerning the debts charged against
me, which I dispute, I shall submit to the decision of Asklepiades ".
4 It is true that watyepeiv occurs also in the technical sense of referre
(cf., besides the dictionaries, A. Peyron, i., p. 110), frequently even in the LXX,
and one might also translate the clause : as to the debts alleged (before the
magistracy) against me; avatyepew would then mean something like sue for.
But the analogies from the Attic Orators support the above explanation. In
LXX 1 Sam. 20 13 avoi<rw TO /co/ca eVi 0-e, we have avatyfpco in a quite similar
sense. Cf. Wellhausen, Der Text der Bb. Sam., p. 116 f., for the origin of this
translation.
86] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 91
from the payment of the same. The Attic Orators 1 employ
avafyepeiv eW in exactly the same way : ^Esch. 3, 215, ra? diro
TOVTWV alrias avoivew eV e/*e ; Isocr. 5, 32, TJV dvevey/cys avrwv
ra? 7rpdl*ei,<$ eirl TOU? <roi>9 Trpoybvovs.
That the technical expression was known to the writer
of the Epistle cannot of course be proved, but it is not
improbable. 2 In that case his avafyepew would take on its
local colour. The sins of men are laid upon the cross, as, in
a court of law, a debt in money 3 is removed from one and
laid upon another. Of course the expression must not be
pressed : the writer intends merely to establish the fact that
Christ in His death has removed the sins of men. The nerve
of the striking image which he employs lies in the correlative
idea that the sins of men lie no more upon them. The
forensic metaphor in Col. 2 14 is at least quite as bold, but
is in perfect harmony with the above : Christ has taken the
'Xeipoypa^ov, drawn up against mankind, out of the way,
nailing it to His cross.
Frequent in the LXX, especially in the Psalms ; also in
Sirach 13 22 , Judith 9 n ; nearly always used of God as the
Helper of the oppressed. Not hitherto authenticated in
extra-biblical literature. 5 The word is found in Pap. Lond.
xxiii. 6 (158-157 B.C.), in a petition to the king and queen, in
which the petitioner says that he finds his Kara^vyjj in them,
and that they are his dvTiXij/jLTrropes ; cf. the similar con-
junction of Karafyvtyr) and dvTiKrjfjLTrTcop in LXX 2 Sam. 22 3 .
1 A. Blackert, De praepositionum apud oratores Atticos usu quaestiones
selectae, Harp. Catt., 1894, p. 45.
2 Cf. also the other forensic expressions of the section : Kptveiv ver. w t
and SiKaioffvvn ver. 24 .
^Sin is often viewed as a debt in the early Christian sphere of thought.
Cf. III. iii. 2 below.
4 With regard to the orthography, cf. the Programme of W. Schulze,
Orthographica, Marburg, 1894, L, p. xiv. f!. ; Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 30 (p. 64).
5 "Peculiar to the LXX," Cremer 7 , p. 554 (= 8 587).
Kenyon, p. 38.
92 BIBLE STUDIES. [87,88
Frequent, in the LXX and the Apocryphal books, for
Help. This meaning is not 2 peculiar to " biblical" Greek,
but occurs frequently in petitions to the Ptolemies : Pap. Par.
26 3 (163-162 B.C.), Pap. Lond. xxiii. 4 (158-157 B.C.), Pap. Par.
8 5 (131 B.C.), Pap. Lugd. A 6 (Ptolemaic period); always
synonymous with jSor]dei,a. The last two passages yield
the combination Tv^elv aprtX^^rca)? 7 which also occurs in
2 Mace. 15 7 and 3 Mace. 2 33 . See further III. iii. 3 below.
This meaning of the word (known also to Paul, 1 Cor.
12 28 ), like that of dvriXrjfATTTcop, was found by the LXX,
as it appears, in the obsequious official language of the
Ptolemaic period. One understands how they could, with-
out the slightest difficulty, transfer such terms of the canting
and covetous court speech to religious matters when one reads
of the royal pair being addressed as vpas rovs Oeovs peyia-Tovs
KOI avTi\r]p7TTopas, Pap. Loud, xxiii. 8 (158-157 B.C.) ; the
worship of the monarch had emasculated the conception
#eo9, and thus azmA^Trrcop and a^TiX^-^t? had already
acquired a kind of religious nimbus.
The LXX translate the words rttijte (Esther 5 3 ' 8 , 7 2f -),
(Ps. 118 [119] 17 ) and the Aramaic *iy| (Dan. 6 7 ),
which all mean request, desire, by afto)/^a. The word occurs
in 1 [3] Esd. 8 4 in the same sense. It is " very infrequent
in this signification; the lexica cite it, in prose, only from
Plutarch, Conviv. disput. ii. lo (p. 632 C)" 9 . The Inscriptions
confirm the accuracy of its usage in the LXX : fragment of
a royal decree to the inhabitants of Hierocome (date ?) from
1 For the orthography cf. p. 91, note 4.
2 Contra Cremer 7 , p. 554 (= 8 587) ; Clavis 3 , p. 34.
3 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 276. 4 Kenyon, p. 38.
5 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 175. 6 Leemans, i., p. 3.
7 Upon this cf. Leemans, i., p. 5. 8 Kenyon, p. 38.
9 Frankel, Altertilmer von Pergamon, viii. 1, p. 13 f.
88, 89] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 93
Tralles ; l a decree of the Abderites (before 146 B.C.) from
Teos ; 2 Inscription of Pergamus No. 13 (soon after 263 B.C.). 3
"In all these examples the word signifies a request preferred
before a higher tribunal, thus acquiring the sense of 'petition'
or 'memorial' " 4 .
airo.
Of the construction 2 Mace. 14 30 O.TTO rov (SekrLo-Tov
in the most honourable way, in which one might suspect an
un-Greek turn of expression, many examples can be found in
the Inscriptions, as also in Dionysius of Halicarnassus and
Plutarch. 5
0. F. Fritzsche 7 still writes Sirach 36 19 ( 14orl6 in other
editions) as follows : 7r\r)<rov ^LODV apat, ra \6yid crov teal airo
rfjs Sof^9 (Tov rbv \aov aov. M. W. L. de Wette implies the
same text by his rendering : Fill Zion with the praise of Thy
promises, and Thy people with Thy glory ; he takes 8 apai in the
sense of laudibus extollere, celebrare, and thus the verbal trans-
lation would run : Fill Zion, in order to extol Thy declarations,
and Thy people with Thy glory. But against this Fritzsche 9
makes the objection that apat, must stand here in the sense of
fctfZE, and this, again, should be taken as receive, obtain, although,
indeed, such a meaning cannot be vouched for by any quite
analogous example. But leaving aside the fact that it is not
good procedure to illustrate an obscure translation by referring
1 Waddington, iii. (Ph. Le Bas et W. H. Waddington, Inscriptions
grecgues et latines recueillies en Grece et en Asie Mineure, vol. iii., part 2,
Paris, 1870), No. 1652 (p. 390).
2 Bull de corr. hell. iv. (1880), p. 50 = Guil. Dittenberger, Sylloge
inscriptionum Graecarum, Leipzig, 1883, No. 228.
3 Frankel, p. 12. 4 Ibid., p. 14. 5 References in Frankel, p. 16.
6 Upon this cf. also the investigations of Meister, Berichte der \Kgl.
Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1891, p. 13 ff., to which Wendland
has called attention (Deutsche Litteraturzeitung, 1895, p. 902).
7 Libri apocryphi Veteris Testamenti Graece, Leipzig, 1871, p. 475.
Similarly the corrected text of 1887 in the edition of L. van Ess.
8 Cf. on this O. F. Fritzsche, HApAT. v. (1859), p. 201. 9 Ibid.
94 BIBLE STUDIES. [89, 90
to a meaning of the possible original which cannot be authen-
ticated, the confusion of the parallelismus membrorum which,
with their reading, disfigures the verse, must be urged against
de Wette and Fritzsche. 1 What then is the authority for
this reading ? The beginning of the verse has been handed
down in the three principal Codices in the following forms :
B
B b
The last reading, that of the second reviser of B, has
thus become the standard, except that the TrXfjcrov of the
others has been retained instead of the irK^vlov which it
gives. H. B. Swete 2 considers it probable that also the ape
of NA is to be taken as equivalent to apat, ; in such case the
current text would be supported by NA as well. But in
reality the matter stands quite otherwise ; it is B which
gives the original text : 7r\rja-ov 2i(bv aperakoylas o-ov* NA
is deduced from this by the hemigraphy of the o-cr in apera-
\ojLaa-crov, and B b is a correction by the misunderstood NA.
The unwillingness to recognise this true state of the case
(Fritzsche says of B's reading : sed hoc quidem hie nullo
modo locum habere potest) and indeed, to go further back, the
alteration 4 which was made by the reviser of B, who mis-
understood the text, are due to a misconception of what
aperaXoyia meant. If we consult, e.g., Pape, 5 under dpera-
1 De Wette, guided by a true feeling, has obviated this objection by
rendering &pai by a substantive.
2 Textual-critical note to the passage in his edition of the LXX,
Cambridge, 1887 ff.
3 This is placed in the text by Tischendorf and Swete.
4 From his standpoint a fairly good conjecture !
5 Naturally the word is not given in the lexica to the Greek Old Testa-
ment or the Apocrypha ; nor is it given by Tromm, either in the Concordance
or in the accompanying Lexicon to the Hexapla by B. de Montfaucon and
L. Bos. The Concordance of E. Hatch and H. A. Redpath, Oxford, 1892 ff.,
which takes into account the variants of the most important manuscripts, was
the first to bring the misunderstood word to its rightful position ; although
that book seems to err by excess of good when ifc constructs from the clerical
error of fr$A a new word apfra\6ytov.
90, 91] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 95
\oyia, we find that its meaning is given as buffoonery (Possen-
reisserei). Now it is clear that God cannot be invited to
fill Zion with " aretalogy " in this sense ; then comes the too
precipitate deduction that the text must read differently,
instead of the question whether the lexicon may not perhaps
be in need of a correction. Even Symmachus, Ps. 29 [30] 6 ,
could have answered the question : in that passage he renders
the word J"T|1 (shouting for joy) of the original by dpTa\oy[a, 1
while he always translates it elsewhere by ev^^'ia. The
equation of Symmachus, dpera\oyLa = ev^rjfjLua, which can
be inferred from this, and the parallelism of the passage in
Sirach, dpera\oyia \\ Sofa, mutually explain and support each
other, and force us to the assumption that both translators
used apera\oyia sensu bono, i.e., of the glorifying of God. The
assumption is so obvious as to require no further support ;
for, to argue from the analogies, it is indisputable that the
word, the etymology of which is certainly clear enough, at
first simply meant, as a matter of course, the speaking of the
dperai, and only then received the bad secondary signification.
As to the meaning of aperr] which is the basis of this usage,
cf. the next article.
The observations of Hatch 3 upon this word have added
nothing new to the article apery in Cremer, and have ignored
what is there (as it seems to the author) established beyond
doubt, viz., that the LXX, in rendering "hn> magnificence,
splendour (Hab. 3 3 and Zech. 6 13 ) and rfarify, glory, praise,
by aperr), are availing themselves of an already-existent
linguistic usage. 4 The meaning of dperaXoyia is readily
deduced from this usage : the word signifies the same as is
elsewhere expressed by means of the verbal constructions,
LXX Is. 42 12 ra? apera? avrov [Oeov] dvayyeXXew, LXX
1 Field, ii., p. 130. The Hexaplar Syriac thereupon in its turn took
this word of Symmachus not as = eu^)7]/t/o, but &s=acceptio eloquii, Field, ibid.
2 Cf. p. 93, note 6. 3 Essays, p. 40 f.
4 That is, aperf as synonymous with 86a. The word may be used in
this sense in 4 Mace. 10 10 also (contra Cremer 7 , p. 154 = 8 , p. 164).
96 BIBLE STUDIES. [91, 92
Is. 43 21 Ta? dperd? fiov [Oeov] Birjyelo-Oai, 1 Pet. 2 9 ra? apera?
[0eoO] e^ayje\\etv. It seems to the author the most probable
interpretation that the dperal of the last passage stands, as in
the LXX, for laudes, seeing that the phrase looks like an
allusion to LXX Is. 42 12 , more clearly still to Is. 43 20f -.
One must nevertheless reckon with the possibility that the
word is used here in a different sense, to which reference has
recently been made by Sal. Reinach, 1 and which no doubt
many a reader of the above-cited passages from the LXX,
not knowing the original, found in these phrases. Eeinach,
arguing from an Inscription from Asia Minor belonging to
the imperial period, advocates the thesis 2 that dpertf, even in
pre-Christian usage, could mean miracle, effet surnaturel. He
thinks that this is confirmed by a hitherto unobserved signi-
fication of the word dpera\6yo^, which, in several places,
should not be interpreted in the usual bad sense of one who
babbles about virtues, buffoon, etc., but rather as a technical
designation of the interprete de miracles, exdgete who occupied
an official position in the personnel of certain sanctuaries. 3
The author is unable to speak more particularly about the
latter point, although it does perhaps cast a clearer light
upon our dperdXoyia. He believes however that he can point
to other passages in which the dperij of God signifies, not the
righteousness, nor yet the praise of God, but the manifestation
of His power. Guided by the context, we must translate
Joseph. Antt. xvii. 5 6, av6i<s eveirapa>vei, rfj apery rov Oelov :
he sinned, as if intoxicated, against God's manifestation of His
power. 4 Still clearer is a passage from a hymn to Hermes,*
Pap. Lond. xlvi. 4isff. 5 :
o(j)pa re fLavroavvas rat? era?? dperatdi
1 Les Aretalogues dans VantiquiU, Bull, de corr. hell. ix. (1885), p. 257 ff.
The present writer is indebted to W. Schulze for the reference to this essay.
2 P. 264. 3 P. 264 f.
4 The correct interpretation in Cremer 7 , p. 153 (= 8 , p. 163 f.), also points
to this. But in the other passage there discussed after Krebs, Joseph. Antt.
xvii. 5 s, ope-r^j most probably denotes virtue.
5 Kenyon, p. 78 f. ; Wessely, i. p. 138 ; A. Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 64.
The Papyrus was written in the fourth century A.D. ; the present writer cannot
decide as to the date of the composition, particularly of line 400 ff., but considers
that it may, without risk, be set still further back.
92, 93] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 97
The original has navrocrvvais ; the emendation
avvas (better than the alternative fjLavroo-vvTjs also given by
Kenyon) seems to be established. 1 It can only mean : that
I may obtain the art of clairvoyance by the manifestations of Thy
power, and this meaning allows the text to remain otherwise
unaltered (after A. Dieterich). This sense of aperaL seems
to have been unknown to other two editors ; but they, too,
have indicated, by their conjectures, that the word cannot
signify virtues. Wessely 2 emends thus:
0(f)pa Te pavTocrvv'rjs rrjs crfjs jj,epo$ avTt\d/3oifj,t,,
and Herwerden 3 writes :
re
We must in any case, in 2 Pet. I 3 , reckon with this
meaning of apery, still further examples of which could
doubtless be found. A comparison of this passage with the
Inscription which Eeinach calls to his aid should exclude
further doubt. This is the Inscription of Stratonicea in
Caria, belonging to the earliest years of the imperial period, 4
which will subsequently often engage our attention; the
beginning of it is given in full further on, in the remarks
on the Second Epistle of Peter, and the author has there
expressed the supposition that the beginning of the Epistle
is in part marked by the same solemn phrases of sacred emo-
tion as are used in the epigraphic decree. Be it only remarked
here that the 6ela SiW/u? is spoken of in both passages, and
that aperr;, in the context of both, means marvel, or, if one
prefers it, manifestation of power. 5
1 A. Dieterich, Abr., p. 65.
2 In his attempt to restore the hymn, i., p. 29.
3 Mnemosyne, xvi. (1888), p. 11. The present writer quotes from A.
Dieterich, p. 65 ; cf. p. 51.
4 GIG. lii., No. 2715 a, b = Waddington iii. 2, Nos. 519, 520 (p. 142).
5 Cremer 7 , p. 153 ( = 8 ,p. 163), guided by the context, points to the true
interpretation by giving self-manifestation; similarly Kiihl, Meyer xii. 5 (1887),
p. 355, performance, activity (Wirksamkeit) ; the translation virtue (H. von
Soden, HC. iii. 2 2 [1892], p. 197) must be rejected altogether. Moreover
Hesychius appears to the present writer to be influenced by 2 Pet. 1 3 when
he, rightly, makes aper-f) = Beta 8vva/j.is.
7
BIBLE STUDIES. [93, 94
This occurs in the LXX as the translation of keeper of
the threshold (Esther 2 21 ) and body-guard (literally, keeper of
the head, 1 Sam. 28 2 ). The translation in the latter passage
is correct, although crw/zaro^uXaf (Judith 12 7 , 1 [3] Esd. 3 4 )
would have been sufficient. The title is Egyptianised in
the rendering given in Esther : * the dpxio-a)jj,aTO(f)u\at;
was originally an officer of high rank in the court of the
Ptolemies the head of the royal body-guard. But the title
seems to have lost its primary meaning ; it came to be applied
to the occupants of various higher offices. 2 Hence even the
translation given in Esther is not incorrect. The title is
known not only from Egyptian Inscriptions, 3 but also from
Pap. Taur. i. 4 (third century B.C.), ii. 5 (of the same period),
xi. 6 (of the same period), Pap. Lond. xvii. 7 (162 B.C.), xxiii. 8
(158-157 B.C.), Ep. Arist. (ed. M. Schmidt), p. 15 *f.; cf.
Joseph. Antt. xii. 22.
1. The LXX translate water-brooks, Joel 1 20 , and rivers
of water, Lam. 3 47 , by a^ecret? vSdrcov, and channels of the sea t
2 Sam. 22 16 , by d^eare^ 6a\d<7cr^. The last rendering is
explained by the fact that the original presents the same
word as Joel 1 20 , D^DN, which can mean either brooks or
channels. But how are we to understand the strange 9
rendering of the word by dfaa-ei? ? 10 One might be tempted
1 Cf. B. Jacob, ZAW. x. (1890), p. 283 f.
2 Giac. Lumbroso, Recherches sur Veconomie politigue de VEgypte sous
les Lagides, Turin, 1870, p. 191.
3 Jean-Ant, [not M.] Letronne, Recherches pour servir d I'histoire de
VEgypte pendant la domination des Qrecs et des Romains, Paris, 1823, p. 56 ;
Lumbroso, Rech. p. 191. Also in the Inscription of Cyprus, CIG. ii., No.
2617 (Ptolemaic period), an Egyptian official, probably the governor, is so
named.
4 A. Peyron, i., p. 24. 5 Ibid., i., p. 175. 6 Ibid, ii., p. 65.
7 Kenyon, p. 11. 8 Ibid., p. 41.
9 Elsewhere the LXX translate it more naturally by Qdpayt and x*l-
p.appos.
10 In Ps. 125 [126] 4 , the "fifth" translation of the Old Testament also
has a<j>eVej = streams (Field, ii., p. 283).
94, 95] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 99
to think that the rendering has been influenced by aph, 1 the
initial syllable of the original, but this does not explain
a$e<76? = D^Ss Lam. 3 47 , and why is it that such influence
is not perceived in any other passage ?
The explanation is given by the Egyptian idiom. We
have in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxxvii. 2 official reports from the
Ptolemaic period concerning the irrigation. In these the
technical expression for the releasing of the waters by opening
the sluices is etyiijpi TO vSap ; the corresponding substantival
phrase afaa-is rov wSaro? is found in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiii. 2 3
(258 B.C.), but and in this the technical meaning reveals
1 Similar cases in Wellhausen, Der Text der Bb. Sam., p. 10 f. This
supposition must be taken into account in Ezek. 47 3 8tf)A.0e' ev T$ vSan SSoop
atyeffecos, which, in its connection (it is previously stated that the water
issued from under the atQpiov = atrium), signifies : he walked in the water, in
the water (the nominative has been set down mechanically) of release, i.e., in
the (previously mentioned) released water. So must a reader of the LXX
have understood their words ; the remark of Jerome (in Field, ii., p. 895) that
the LXX had rendered it aqua remissionis, rests upon a dogmatic misconcep-
tion ; &/>e<m here can be translated only by dimissio. Now the Hebrew text
has water of the ankles, i.e., water that reaches to the ankles. This is the only
occurrence of D^DDN, ankles, in the 0. T. 0. H. Cornill, Das Buch des
Propheten Ezechiel, Leipzig, 1886, p. 501, conjectures that what the LXX
translated was D^p^Dt^. The author thinks it still more probable that
their &/>e<m represents the dual of DDN, cessation. But the most natural
supposition is that they did not understand the aira.)- \ey6/j.evov, and simply
transcribed aph'sajim, the context prompting them not merely to transcribe,
but to make out of their transcription an inflected word. The present
writer will not reject the supposition that this singular passage might also be
explained in the following way: The Greek translator did not understand
the knotty word, and translated or transcribed it #8o>/> e'ws (cf. eo>s twice in
ver. 4 ) a<j>es (cf. Ezek. 27 16 LXX, Codd. 23, 62, 147 eV o^e/c, Codd. 87, 88, Hexapl.
Syr. cv a<j>ey ; Theodotion 4v atyeit, unless vatytK. [= ^TQ^l rea< i by Parsons in a
Cod. Jes. originally stood there ; these data are borrowed from Field, ii., p. 842) ;
Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, who understood the strange word, have
a corresponding rendering, e'ws affTpayaXuv (Field, ii., p. 895). From vScap
eats a$es some inventive brain fabricated vScap a^eVews, which could then have
the sense explained above. The translator of Ezekiel has, in many other
cases, shown tact in merely transcribing Hebrew words which he did not
understand (Cornill, p. 96). The reading vSwp aQatpea-ews of the Com-
plutensian seems to be a correction of v'5&>/> a^eVews made purely within the
Greek text itself.
Mahaffy, ii. [119] f. * Ibid., [38].
100 BIBLE STUDIES. [95, 96
itself most clearly the genitive may also be omitted, afao-it
standing alone is intelligible to all, and we find it so used
in several passages in the first mentioned Papyrus. When
one thinks of the great importance to Egypt of the irrigation,
it will be found readily conceivable that the particular inci-
dents of it and their technical designations must have been
matter of common knowledge. Canals 1 were to the Egyptian
what brooks were to the Palestinian ; the bursting forth of
the Nile waters from the opened sluices made upon the
former the same deep impression as did the roar of the first
winter-brook upon the Canaanite peasants and shepherds.
Thus the Egyptian translators of Lam. 3 47 have rendered,
by a<e<ret? vSdrcov, the streams of water breaking forth before
the eyes of the people not indeed verbally, but, on behalf
of their own readers, by transferring into the Egyptian
dialect, with most effective distinctness, the image that was
so expressive for the Palestinians. Similarly the distress of
the land in Joel 1 20 is made more vivid for the Egyptians
by the picture of the carefully-collected water of the canals
becoming dried up shortly after the opening of the sluices
(e^ripdvdrjcrav afyea-et,? vSdrcov), than it would be by speaking
of dried-up brooks. 2
2. The LXX translate rtfi, Lev. 25 15 , used elliptically
for Jobel-year, s by the substantive aypacrla sign, signal, a
rendering altogether verbal, and one which does not fail to
mark the peculiarity of the original. But they translate
Jobel-year in vv. 10 - 1L 12> 13 of the same chapter (apart from
the fact that they do not supply the ellipsis that occurs here
and there in the Hebrew passages) by eVtauro? or ero? a^eVea)?
(nj/jiao-ias, signal-year of emancipation? The technical expression
signal-year was made intelligible to non-Hebrew readers by
1 &$<ris seems to bear the meaning of sluice and canal exactly.
2 Of. below, under Diupvl-. 3 [English, " Jubilee ".]
4 In this way, and in no other, did the LXX construe the genitives,
as we see from ver. 15 ; so in ver. 13 , where the article belongs to o-rj/iao-tos.
A Greek reader indeed, ignoring the context, might understand the expres-
sion thus : year of the &<f)e<ns of the signal, i.e., in which the signal was given ;
does occur in similar combinations.
96, 97\ LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 101
the addition of a^eo-eo)?, which comes from ver. 10 :
ere afaa-iv eVt T?j9 7^9, where a^ecrt? = "TVVJ. From this,
again, it is explained how Jobel-year in the parts of chap. 25
w r hich follow the verse quoted, and in chap. 27, is rendered
by ero9 or ei/tauTo? rfj? a</>e<reo>9, which is not a translation, 1
but an "explicative paraphrase". 2 Similarly in these pas-
sages the elliptical Jobel (standing in connection with what
goes before) js imitated in a manner not liable to be mis-
taken by an elliptical a^eo-i?.
Now this usage of the LXX is not to be explained as a
mere mechanical imitation : it found a point of local con-
nection in the legal conditions of the Ptolemaic period.
Pap. Par. 63 3 (165 B.C.) mentions, among various kinds of
landed property, ra ra>v ev d<f>e<rei teal Trjv lepav yf)v.*
Lumbroso 5 explains the lands thus said to be ev afykaei as
those which were exempted from the payment of taxes, and
points to several passages on the Eosetta Stone 6 (196 B.C.),
in which the king is extolled as having expressly remitted
certain taxes (et? reXo? affi/cev). 7 With this seems to be
connected also Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. ii. 1 (260-259 B.C.) : 8 orav
r/ a<ecr9 So6y ; cf. previously ra e/ccpopia.
The LXX might have translated "fiTJ Lev. 25 10 (the
rendering of which was determinative for the whole of
their subsequent usage) by a different word, but their imi-
tation of the technical Jobel was facilitated just by their
choice of afacris, a technical word and one which was
current in their locality.
1 The expression Ezek. 46 1V is such.
2 Cremer 7 , p. 439 ( = 8 , p. 466).
3 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 368.
4 This lepa 77} occurs still in the (Berlin) Egyptian documents of the
second and third centuries A.D. (U. Wilcken, Observations ad historiam
Aegypti provincial Romanae depromptae e papyris Graecis Berolinensibus
ineditis, Berlin, 1885, p. 29).
6 Eecherches, p. 90. Brunet de Presle (Notices, xviii. 2, p. 471) gives the
extraordinary explanation with a mark of interrogation, it is true cong4
militaire.
6 Letronne, Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines de VEgypte, vol. i.,
Paris, 1842, p. 244 ff. = CIG., iii. No. 4697.
7 Line 12 and elsewhere. 8 Mahaffy, ii. [2].
< ' . . :
' I
102 BIBLE STUDIES. [97, 98
In Matt. 8 17 there is quoted, as the word of "the pro
phet Isaiah," auro? ras do-Oeveias TI^WV e\a(Sev KOI ra? voaov?
eftdorraaev. " The passage Is. 53 4 is cited according to the
original, but not in the historical sense thereof, ..... nor
according to the special typical reference which any one
looking back from the Saviour's healing of diseases to that
prophetic saying, might have perceived to be the intention
of the latter (Meyer) ; but with a free interpretation of the
language. The Evangelist, that is to say, clearly takes Xajji-
f3dvew in the sense of take away, as the fc$t!)2 of the original
may also signify though not in this passage. On the other
hand, it is doubtful whether he also understood ftao-rd&iv
(~)2D) in the sense of bear hence (John 20 15 ), an impossible
meaning for the Hebrew . . ., or whether he is not thinking
rather of the trouble and pains which the Saviour's acts of
healing, continued till far on in the evening, cost Him." 1
H. Holtzmann, 2 like Weiss, similarly identifies Xa^dveiv with
NfcO, and ftaa-rd^eiv with TQD. But, if the author's judg-
ment is correct, the case is just the opposite : Matthew has
not only discarded the translation given by the LXX, but
has also, in his rendering, transposed the two clauses of the
Hebrew sentence ; 3 he does not translate He bore our diseases
and took upon Himself our pains, but He took upon Hims If ou
pains, and bore our diseases. In that case it will not be TOD
but fcW2 which is represented by j3ao-Tdew. 5 The LXX
also translate ttfett, in 2 Kings 18 u and Job 21 3 , Cod. A, by
fiaa-Tafav ; similarly Aquila in the four extant passages
where he uses ficurrdfav: Is. 40 n , 6 53 n , 7 66 12 , 8 and Jer.
i B. Weiss, Meyer, i. 1 8 (1890), p. 169. 2 HC. i. 2 (1892), p. 76.
3 O/. the remark below upon the Gospel quotations, sub vl6s.
4 Cf., with reference to Xa.p.$<iveiv = bUD, LXX Is. 46 4 , where the same
verb is rendered by a.va\ap.$aviv.
Thus A. Eesch, Aussercanonische Paralieltexte zu den Evangelien,
2 Heft (TU. x. 2), Leipzig, 1894, p. 115.
6 Field, ii., p. 510. 7 Ibid., p. 535. 8 Ibid., p. 565.
98, 99] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 103
10 5 . 1 Of these last passages, Is. 53 deserves special atten-
tion, as it approximates in meaning to the quotation in
Matthew : KOI ras d/jLaprias avrwv avros (Sao-rdo-ei. If we
should not assume, with E. Bohl, 2 that the quotation is taken
from an already-existent version, then it must be said that
Matthew, or his authority, in their independent rendering of
the Mtt^5 f * ne original by fiaa-rdfav, were acting in the
same way as do the LXX and the Jewish translator of the
second century A.D. in other passages. It does not of course
necessarily follow from the fact that the LXX, Matthew,
and Aquila all use paard&iv as the analogue of Ntt^, that
the pacrrd^ew of Matt. 8 17 must have the same meaning as
the fcW2 ^ ^ e Hebrew original. One must rather, in re-
gard to this passage, as indeed in regard to all translations
whatever, consider the question whether the translator does
not give a new shade of meaning to his text by the expres-
sion he chooses. It will be more correct procedure to ascer-
tain the meaning of ffao-rdfav in this verse of Matthew from
the context in which the quotation occurs, than from the ori-
ginal meaning of fcW2 however evident the correspondence
^aa-rd^eiv = fcW^? superficially regarded, may seem. And
all the better, if the meaning bear away, required here by
the context for fiao-rdfav* is not absolutely foreign to NtW
in the sense, at least, which it has in other passages.
The same favourable circumstance does not occur in
connection with eKaffev, for the signification take away, which
the context demands, does not give the sense of TQD.
In the religious language of early Christianity the terms
bear and take away, differing from each other more or less
distinctly, and often having sin as their object, play a great
1 Field, II., Auct., p. 39.
2 Die alttestamentlichen Citate im N. T., Vienna, 1878, p. 34. Bohl finds
his Volksbibel (People's Bible) quoted in this passage also. But the Volksbibel,
or, more properly, a version that was different from the LXX, would hardly
have transposed the two clauses of the original.
3 C/., upon Paffrdfav in Josephus, Guil. Schmidt, De Flav. los. elocutione,
Fleck. Jahrbb. Suppl. xx. (1894), p. 521. Upon j8a<TTaCo> in Gal. 6 17 see VII.
below, the study on the "Large Letters" and the " Marks of Jesus," Gal. 6,
104 BIBLE STUDIES. [loo
part ; the Synonymic ] of this usage must raise for itself the
problem of investigating words like aipco, e^aipa), pao-rdfo,
\a/j,/3dv(0, dvaXajjipdvw, (f>epoy, dvatyepw, V7ro<t>ep(o in their
various shades of meaning.
11 The seller was required, in general, i.e., unless the
opposite was stipulated, to deliver to the buyer the thing
sold dvafji(j)i(T/3tfTr)Tov, without dispute, and had to accept of
the responsibility if claims should be raised to the thing by
others. ... If he [the buyer], however, had obtained from
the seller the promise of guarantee " . . .he could, if claims
to the thing were subsequently raised by others, " go back
upon the seller (this was called dvdyeiv el? Trpdrr/v) and
summon him to confirm -as against the person now raising
the claim that he himself had bought from him the thing
now claimed, i.e., he could summon him (Sepaiwa-ai. If
the seller refused to do this, then the buyer could bring
against him an action /3e/3afcw<reo>9." 2 In the language of the
Attic Process, fteftalwcris confirmation had thus received the
technical meaning of a definite obligation of the seller, which
among the Romans was termed auctoritas or evictio : 3 the
seller did not only make over the thing to the buyer, but
assumed the guarantee to defend the validity of the sale against
any possible claims of a third party. Among the historians
of the ancient Civil Process there exist differences of opinion 4
1 Had we a discreetly prepared Synonymic of the religious expressions
of Early Christianity of which there is as yet, one may say, a complete want
we should then have a defence against the widely-current mechanical
method of the so-called Biblical Theology of the N. T. which looks upon
the men whose writings stand in the Canon less as prophets and sons of the
prophets than as Talmudists and Tosaphists. This dogmatising method
parcels out the inherited territory as if Eevelation were a matter of a
thousand trifles. Its paragraphs give one the idea thab Salvation is an ordo
salutis. It desecrates the N. T. by making it a mere source for the history of
dogma, and does not perceive that it was, in the main, written under the
influence of Eeligion.
2 M. H. E. Meier and G. F. Schomann, Der Attische Process, neu bear-
beitet von J. H. Lipsius, Berlin, 1883-1887, ii., pp. 717, 719, 720.
3 Ibid., p. 717 f.
4 Ibid., p. 721 f. ; K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch der Griechischen Bechts-
alterthiimer, 3rd edition by Th. Thalheim, Freiburg and Tiibingen, 1884, p. 77.
101] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 105
regarding the details of the SUrj /3e/&uo>crea>9 that might
possibly be raised by the buyer, but these are immaterial
for the determination of the idea corresponding to the word
This technical expression found admission into Egypt
in the Ptolemaic period. The Papyrus documents speak not
only of the fieftcucorijs, 1 the sale-surety, the auctor secundus
of Roman law, but also of the /3e/3atW? itself : Pap. Taur.
i. 2 (2nd cent. B.C.), Pap. Par. 62 3 (2nd cent. B.C.) twice
in the latter passage, once in the combination el? rrjv
fiefiaiwcnv virodrficai^ How thoroughly the expression had
become naturalised in Egypt is shown by the fact that we
still find the jSe/Saiwo-Ls in Papyrus documents belonging to
a time which is separated from the Lagides by seven hundred
years. It is, indeed, possible that in these, as well as already
in the Ptolemaic documents, (BeftaLuHns has no longer exactly
the same specific meaning as it has in the more accurate
terminology of the highly-polished juristic Greek of Attica : 5
but the word is certainly used there also in the sense of
guarantee, safe-guarding of a bargain: Pap. Par. 21 bis 6 (592 A.D.),
Pap. Jomard 7 (592 A.D.), Pap. Par. 21 8 (616 A.D.). In these
the formula Kara Traaav fiepatcoo-w occurs several times, and
even the formula et? jBepaiwcriv comes before us again in
Pap. Par. 20 9 (600 A.D.), having thus 10 maintained itself
through more than seven hundred years.
Reference has already been made by Lumbroso n to the
1 Hermann-Thallieim, p. 78.
2 A. Peyron, i., p. 32, cf. p. 120, and E. Kevillout, Etudes sur divers points
de droit et d'histoire PtoUmdigue, Paris, 1880, p. xl. f.
3 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 355.
4 The text is, indeed, mutilated, but is sufficient for our purpose.
5 According to Hermann-Thalheim, p. 78, note 1, j8e/3at&>Tfc, for instance,
has become nothing but an empty form in the Papyri.
6 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 250.
7 Ibid., pp. 258, 259. 8 Ibid., p. 244.
9 Ibid., p. 241. 10 Cf. above, Pap. Par. 62 (2nd cent. B.C.).
11 Eecherches, p. 78. But the passage belonging to the 2nd cent. B.C.,
indicated above, is more significant than the one of 600 A.D. quoted by him.
106 BIBLE STUDIES. [102
striking similarity of a passage in the LXX with this idiom
of Egyptian Civil law. /3e/&uWfc? is found only once in
the Alexandrian translation, Lev. 25 23 , but there in the
characteristic formula 6^9 ^e^aLwa-iv: KOI rj <yfj ov TrpaOrf-
a-erai, ek fiefiaiaxriv, eprj yap eanv f) <yf). The translation is
not a literal one, but one of great fineness and accuracy.
The Israelites are but strangers and sojourners in the land ;
the ground, the soil, belongs to Jahweh therefore it may
not be sold absolutely : such is the bearing of the original
nnp^r? (properly unto annihilation, i.e., completely, for ever).
Looked at superficially, the et? jBe^aiwa-iv of the LXX is the
exact opposite of the unto annihilation of the original ; x con-
sidered properly, it testifies to an excellent understanding
of the text. 2 A sale et? jBeftaiwcri.v is a definitive, legally
guaranteed sale : mere sojourners could not, of course, sell
the land which they held only in tenure, least of all et?
/3e/3aia)(Tiv. The reading etV /Se/^Aeocrtz/ 3 of Codices XL, 19, 29,
and others, also of the Aldine, is a clumsy mistake of later
copyists (occasioned in part by LXX Lev. 21 4 ), who only
spoiled the delicately-chosen expression of the LXX by
school-boy literalness ; on the other hand, the in confirma-
tionem of the Vetus Latina 3 is quite correct, while the renderings
of Aquila, 3 et? Tray/CTrjcriav, and Symmachus, 3 els a\vrpcorov,
though they miss the point proper, yet render the thought
fairly well.
The LXX have shown the same skill in the only other
passage where this Hebrew word occurs, viz., Lev. 25 30 :
KvpwOrjo-erai r) olxia rj ovcra ev TroXet vy e%ovcrr/ rer^o?
/3e/3atft>9 TO) KTriaafjbeva) avrr]v. That they did not here
make choice of the formula efc fapaicoaw, in spite of the
similarity of the original, reveals a true understanding of
the matter, for, as the phrase was primarily used only of the
giving of a guarantee in concluding a bargain, it would not
have answered in this passage.
1 Which fact explains the variants about to be mentioned.
2 In the same chapter we also found a pertinent application of fyeo-ts
as a legal conception.
3 Field, i., p. 212.
103] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 107
The Alexandrian Christian to whom we owe the ^0709
7-779 7rapaK\rjo-ws in the New Testament, writes, in Heb. 6 16 ,
<yap Kara rov pei^ovos o/jLvvovcnv /cal Trdcrrjs avrols
Trepan 6*9 fteftalaxnv o opfcos. The context of
the passage is permeated by juristic expressions as is the
Epistle to the Hebrews as a whole. That this Egyptian
legal formula, persistent through hundreds of years, occurs
here also, deserves our notice. We do not need to give
it the same sharply- denned sense which it had in Attic
jurisprudence (guarantee in regard to a sale) : l it must be
interpreted more generally ; at all events it is still a technical
expression for a legal guarantee*
The use of fieffaicoo-is elsewhere in biblical literature like-
wise appears to the author to be influenced by the technical
meaning of the word. In Wisd. 6 19 , in the magnificent
hymn 3 upon wisdom, occurs the gnomic saying 7rpoero%?)
Se vofjiwv fiepaiwo-is afyOapo-'ias; here VO/JLWV suggests very
plainly the juristic conception of the word : he who keeps
the laws of wisdom has the legal guarantee of incorruption ;
he need have no fear that his afydapvia will be disputed
by another.
/3e/3atWt9 has been spoken of more definitely still by
the man upon whose juristic terminology the jurist Johannes
Ortwin Westenberg was able to write an important treatise 4
1 This interpretation is not impossible. For a legitimate sale an oath
was requisite, e.g., according to the "laws of Ainos" (the name is uncertain)
The buyer must sacrifice to the Apollo of the district ; should he purchase a
piece of land in the district in which he himself dwells he must do the same ;
and he must take an oath, in presence of the recording authorities and of
three inhabitants of the place, that he buys honourably : similarly the seller
also must swear that he sells without falsity (Theophrastus irepl <ru/t)8oA.atW
in Stobaeus, Flor. xliv. 22) ; cf. Hermann-Thalheim, p. 130 ff.
2 Cf. the terms /Senates, Heb. 2 2 , 3 6 , 9 17 , and 0ej3ato', Heb. 2 3 , which
in the light of the above should probably also be considered as technical.
3 Upon the form of this (Sorites or Anadiplosis), cf. Paul's words in
Eom. 5 3 - 5 , 10 14 '-; also James I 3 *-, and LXX Hos. 2"'-, Joel I 3 '-
4 Paulus Tarsensis Jurisconsultus, seu dissertatio de jurisprudentia Pauli
Apostoli habita, Franecker, 1722. The essay has often been reprinted : an
edition Bayreuth, 1738, 36 pp. 4to lies before the present writer. A new treat-
ment of the subject would be no unprofitable task.
108 BIBLE STUDIES. [104
a hundred and seventy years ago. Paul, in Phil. 1 7 , says
/caOcos eanv Si/caiov e/Aol rovro (frpoveiv vTrep rrdvrwv V/JLWV &ia
TO e%ei,v fie ev rfj /capSia vpa? ev re rot? Seoyiot? (JLOV fcal ev rfj
a7ro\oyia /ecu pefSaiwcrei, rov evayye\iov : he is indeed in
bonds, but he is standing on his defence, and this defence
before the court will be at the same time an evictio or convictio
of the Gospel. To the forensic expressions ev rot? SeoyAofc
and ev rfj diroXoyia, which, of course, 1 are not to be under-
stood as metaphorical, ev f$ej3aL(0o-ei, rov evayyeXiov corresponds
very well, and forms at the same time the final step of a very
effective climax.
That the Apostle was not ignorant of the older Att;c
signification of ftepalwo-K} is rendered probable by a striking
correspondence between the mode of expression he uses in
other passages and the terms applied to the legal ideas which
are demonstrably connoted by fiefiaiwa-is. Observe how Paul
brackets together the conceptions dppafioov and ffeftaiovv.
Harpocration, the lexicographer of the Attic Orators, who
lived in the Imperial period, writes in his lexicon, sub
/3e/3euo)<7t? : 2 evlore /cal appajBwvo? /JLOVOV SoOevros elra
dfj,<f)icr/3r)Tr)cravTos rov TreTrpafcoros e\d<y%ave TIJV rfy /3e/3ai,ct)-
<7eo>9 BLKIJV 6 rov dppajSwva Sou? rc3 Xaftovri. Similarly
in the ancient Aegeis prjropifcai, one of the Lexica Segueriana,
edited by Imm. Bekker, 3 sub fieftaLwa-ews : ^LK^ ovofjid eo-rw,
TJV eSi/cd&vro ot aivrjadfjuevoi, Kara r&v drro^o^evoyv, ore erepos
d/jL(f>ta-^rjrol rov irpadevros, dgiovvTes /3e/3aiovv avTols ri
Trpadev eviore Be /cal dppafBwvos JJLOVOV SoOevros. CTTL TOUT*
ovv e\dy%avov rr)V rfjs ffe/Baicoo-eax; Sucrjv ol Sovres rov
dppa/3wva rot? \a/3ov<riv, 'iva jSeftaicoOf) virep ov 6 dppa-
fta)v e&607). Now, although doubts do exist 4 about the
possibility of basing a S/KT; fiefiaicbcrea)? upon the seller's
acceptance of the earnest-money, still thus much is clear,
viz., that, in technical usage, dppaficov and fiefiaiovv stand
1 Paul hopes, 2 23 (as also appears from the tone of the whole letter), for
an early and favourable judgment on his case.
2 In Hermann-Thalheim, p. 77.
3 Anecdota Graeca, i. Berlin, 1814, p. 219 f.
4 Hermann-Thalheim, p. 77 ; Meier-Schomann-Lipsius, ii., p. 721.
105] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 109
in an essential relation to each other. 1 It is exactly in this
way that Paul speaks his indestructible faith representing
the relation of God to believers under the image of a legally
indisputable relation, 2 Cor. I 21 '-: o Se fieftaiwv fjpas crvv
et? Xpia-Tov /cal XP /lcra ^ *7A*fo 0eo9, o K^ o-(f)payi,crdjj,vo<;
fcal Bo 1)9 TO v dppaftwva rov TTVGV paras ev rals KapBiai,<i
. Apt as is the metaphor itself, intelligible as it would
be in this verse and in 5 5 , particularly to the Christians of
that great commercial centre, it is in form equally apt. The
Apostle, of course, could have chosen another verb 2 equally
well, without rendering the image unintelligible, but the
technical word makes the image still more effective. A
patristic remark upon the passage in question 3 shows us,
further, how a Greek reader could fully appreciate the specific
nature of the metaphor: o yap dppaficov ela>6e fteftaiovv
TO irav crvvrayua.
Hence we shall not err in construing fieficuoa 4 and
/3e/3ouo9, 5 even where they occur elsewhere in the writings of
Paul and his circle, from this standpoint, and especially as
these words sometimes occur among other juristic expressions.
By our taking confirm and sure in the sense of legally guaran-
teed security, the statements in which they occur gain in
decisiveness and force.
Symmachus 6 uses /3e/3aiW5 once : Ps. 88 [89] 25 for
(LXX a\r]6eia).
Very common in the LXX for the produce of the land ;
so also in the Synoptists : its first occurrence not in Polybius ; 8
1 Cf. also below, III. iii. 4.
2 The Kv P 6<a of Gal. 3 15 , for instance, which is likewise forensic, is a
synonym. Cf., besides, Pap. Par. 20 (600 A.D., Notices, xviii. 2, p. 240):
irpdffecas TTJS Kal icvpias ot>ffi}S /cal ySe^otos.
3 Catenae Graecorum Patrum in N. T. ed. J. A. Cramer, v., Oxford, 1844,
p. 357.
4 1 Cor. I 6 - 8 (observe avfyKX-ffrovs and vi<rr6s), Rom. 15 8 ; cf. Mark 16 2.
5 2 Cor. I 6 , Rom. 4 18 ; cf. 2 Pet. 110,19. e Field, ii., p. 243.
7 In reference to the orthography cf. Winer- Sohmiedel, 5, 26 a (p. 55 f.).
The Papyri have y^fia ; cf. below, III. i. 2.
8 Clams 3 , p. 78*
110 BIBLE STUDIES. 106,107]
it is already found in connection with Egypt in Pap. Flind.
Petr. i. xvi. 2 1 (230 B.C.): ra yevij/nara rwv virap^ovroDv /JLOL
7rapa$ei(T(t)v, and in several other passages of the same age. 2
yoyyv^co.
Very familiar in the LXX, also in Paul, 3 Synopt., John ;
authenticated in the subsequent extra-biblical literature only
by Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus ; 4 but already used in the
sense of murmur in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. ix. 3 5 (241-239 B.C.) :
/cal TO 7r\rjp(i)/jia (men) yoyyvfei
In the 0. T. the person designated scribe (^QD and ^WttJ)
is generally the official. The LXX translate verbally ypa/j,-
yuarev? even in those passages where scribe seems to be used
in the military sense, i.e., of officers. One might conjecture
that in this they were slavishly subjecting themselves to the
original, the employment of ypafi/jbarevs in the military sense
being foreign to ordinary Greek usage. But their rendering
is altogether correct from their own point of view: in Egyptian
Greek ypa^arev^ is used as the designation of an officer.
In Pap. Par. 63 6 (165 B.C.) we find the ypa/jbfjLarevs r&v
v, and in Pap. Lond. xxiii. 7 (158-157 B.c,) the ypa/j,-
T&V Swd/jbecov. This technical meaning 8 of the word
was familiar to the Alexandrian translators. So, e.g., 2 Chron.
26 n , where the ypa/j,/j,aT6v<; stands with the SmSo^o? ; 9 cf.
also Jer. 44 [37] 15> 20 if Jonathan the scribe, in this passage,
is an officer. Similarly Judg. 5 u . 10 The following passages,
again, are of great interest as showing indubitably that the
translators employed the technical term as they had learned
its use in their locality. The Hebrew of 2 Kings 25 19 is
almost verbally repeated in Jer. 52 25 , as is 2 Kings 24 18 -
1 Mahaffy, i. [47]. 2 Cf. Index in Mahaffy, ii. [190].
3 He probably knows the word from his Bible-readings : 1 Cor. 10 10 is
an allusion to LXX Num. 14 27
4 Clavis*, p. 82. 5 Mahaffy, ii. [23]. 6 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 367.
7 Kenyon, p. 41. 8 Cf. Lumbroso, EechercTies, p. 231.
9 On the technical meaning of this word see below, sub
10 Cod. A has quite a different reading.
107] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. Ill
25 30 as a whole in Jer. 52. The Book of Kings speaks
here of the scribe, the captain of the host. 1 But in our text
of Jeremiah we read (the article is wanting before ^Qb) the
scribe of the captain of the host. The LXX translate the first
passage by TOV ^pa^iJiarea 2 rov ap^ovros 7779 Swa//,ea>?, as if
they had had our text of Jeremiah before them ; Jer. 52 25 , on
the other hand, they render by TOV ypa^fiarea ratv Swdfiecov,
which agrees in sense with the traditional text of 2 Kings
25 19 . Now, without having the least desire to decide the
question as to the meaning of 1DD in the Hebrew 0. T., or
as to the original text of the above two passages, the author
yet thinks it plain that the LXX believed that they had
before them, in Jer. 52 25 , 3 the ypap/jiarev^ rwv Swdpewv now
known to us from the London Papyrus, not some sort of
scribe of the commander -in -chief (G-eneralcommando) . 4 The
1 So De Wette renders ; similarly E. Keuss : the scribe, who as captain
. . . . ; A. Kamphausen (in Kautzsch) translates the text as altered in accord-
ance with Jer. 52 K by and " the " scribe of the commander-in-chief. The
present writer cannot perceive why this alteration should he made "as a
matter of course " (W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der heb. Archaologie, i., Freiburg
and Leipzig, 1894, p. 360). But it is scarcely possible, with K. H. Graf
(who does not change the text, but explains the article as referring to the
following relative clause, and translates the scribe of the captain of the host),
fco pronounce categorically that " The captain of the host cannot be called a
*^DD : that title pertains only to the people who use the pen" (Der Prophet
Jeremia erklart, Leipzig, 1862, p. 628).
2 The jpa^fj-araiav of Cod. A is the same form (at = e) with the affixed v
of the popular dialect (Winer-Schmiedel 9, 8, p. 89).
3 If the article was really taken from 2 Kings 25 19 and inserted in the
Hebrew text here, then the translation of the LXX is an altogether pertinent
rendering of the original, and the supposition of Siegfried- Stade, p. 467, viz.,
that the LXX read the passage in Jeremiah without ^fej would not be
absolutely necessary. The LXX, in rendering the original by a firmly-fixed
terminus technicus, could leave untranslated the **|\> ? which was irrelevant
for the sense; the taking of it over would have ruptured the established
phrase ypa/j.fj.arevs ruv 8vvd/j.<av. The author has subsequently noticed that
the most recent editor of Jeremiah actually emends the text here by the Book
of Kings for internal reasons, and explains the chancellor, under whom the
army was placed, as a military minister who took his place beside the chan-
cellor mentioned elsewhere (F. Giesebrecht, Das Buch Jeremia [Handkomm.
zum A. T. iii. 2i], Gottingen, 1894, p. 263 f.).
4 Thus 0. Thenius, Die Bucher der Konige (Kurzgef. ex. Handb. zum A, T.
ix.), Leipzig, 1849, p. 463.
112 BIBLE STUDIES. [108, 109
choice of the plural BvvdfAecov, which was not forced upon
them by the singular of the original, is to be explained only
by the fact that they were adopting a long-established and
fixed connection.
Is. 36 22 is a most instructive case. Our Hebrew text
has simply a *|b there, without any addition; the LXX
however, transfer him to the army with the rank of the
ypafjifjiarev^ rrjs Sv i>a/iea>9 : they understood scribe to denote a
military rank. 1
The military meaning of ypa/jifiarev^ has been preserved
in 1 Mace. 5 42 ; 2 probably also in Symmachus Judg. 5 14 , 3
Jer. 44[37] 15 . 4
Vpd(j)Q).
"In the sphere of Divine Kevelation the documents
belonging to it assume this 5 regulative position, and the
yeypaTTTcu always implies an appeal to the incontestable
regulative authority of the dictum quoted." 6 "The New
Testament usage of rj ypacfrri implies the same idea as
is stamped upon the usage of the yeypaTrrai, viz., a reference
to the regulative character of the particular document as a
whole, which character gives it a unique position, in virtue
of which rj <ypa<f)f} is always spoken of as an authority." 7
In this explanation of terms Cremer has, without doubt,
accurately defined the bases not only of "New Testament"
1 In this technical ypa^arevs the fundamental meaning of scribe seems
to have grown quite indistinct : Is. 22 15 , Cod. A, has preserved the translation
ypafAfj-arevs for house- steward, a reading which, as compared with ro/ifos (which
is better Greek), e.g. of Cod. B, decidedly gives one the impression of its being
the original ; with reference to ypa^/jLarevs as a designation of a civil official
in Egypt, cf. Lumbroso, Recherckes, p. 243 ff . The word is common elsewhere
in the latter sense. When the LXX speak of the Egyptian task-masters, in
Exod. 5 s. 10. H. is. 19^ as ypappaTtis, it is not only a verbal, but, from their stand-
point, also an accurate translation. They subsequently designate Israelitic
officials also in this way. In LXX Is. 33 18 , ypa.fj.fi.aT IK 6s is used ioiypaiJ./j.aTevs
in this sense.
2 Cf. Grimm, ad loc., and Wellhausen, Israelitische und Jiidische
Geschichte, p. 209.
3 Field, i., p. 413. 4 Ibid., ii., p. 682.
5 Viz., the regulative position which falls to the lot of legal documents.
6 Cremer 7 , p. 241 (= 8 , p. 255). 7 Ibid.
109, 110] LANGUAGE OP THE GREEK BIBLE. 113
usage but of the general idea that regulative authority belongs
to scripture. Should the question be asked, whence it comes
that the conception of Holy Scripture has been bound up
with the idea of , its absolute authority, the answer can only
be a reference to the juristic idea of scripture, which was
found ready to hand and was applied to the sacred docu-
ments. A religion of documents considered even histori-
cally is a religion of law. It is a particularly instructive,
though commonly overlooked, fact in connection with this
juristic conception of the biblical documents that the LXX
translate rrfiD by vo/j,o<; in the great majority of passages,
although the two ideas are not by any means identical ; and
that they have thus made a law out of a teaching. 1 It is
indeed probable that in this they had been already influenced
by the mechanical conception of Scripture of early Eabbinism,
but, in regard to form, they certainly came under the sway
of the Greek juristic language. Cremer has given a series of
examples from older Greek of this use of ypdfaiv in legislative
work, 2 and uses these to explain the frequently-occurring
" biblical " yeypaTrrcu. This formula of quotation is, however,
not "biblical" only, but is found also in juristic Papyrus
documents of the Ptolemaic period and in Inscriptions : Pap.
Flind. Petr. ii. xxx. a \ 3 further and this is most instructive
for the frequent icaOw yeypaTrrai, of the biblical authors 4
in the formula /caOori yeypaTrrat,: Pap. Par. 13 5 (probably
157 B.C.) ; Pap. Lugd. 6 (89 B.C.) ; Inscription of Mylasa
in Caria, Waddington, iii. 2, No. 416 = GIG. ii., No. 2693 e
(beginning of the imperial period) ; 7 Inscription from the
1 Cf. the similar alteration of the idea of covenant into that of testament,
and, upon this, Cremer 7 , p. 897 (= 8 , p. 946).
2 The 6 ytypcKpa yeypa<pa of Pilate, John 19 22 , is also to be understood in
this pregnant sense.
3 Mahaffy, ii. [102].
4 In the 0. T. cf., e.g., LXX Neh. lO 34 * and, in particular, LXX Job
42 18 (in the Greek appendix to the Book of Job).
5 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 210.
'Leemans, i., p. 77; on this Leemans, i., p. 133, remarks:
in contractu scribere".
7 As to the date see below, sub
8
114 BIBLE STUDIES. [no, 111
neighbourhood of Mylasa, Waddington, iii. 2, No. 483
(imperial period ?) : in spite of mutilation the formula is
still legible in four passages here; and in the formula
KaOa yeypaTTTat,, Pap. Par. 7 1 (2nd or 1st cent. B.C.), cf.
Ka(r)rdirep . . . y6ypa7r[roi] in line 50 1. of the architectural
Inscription of Tegea (ca. 3rd cent. B.C.) 2 in all of which
reference is made to a definite obligatory clause of the docu-
ment quoted. 3 Further examples in III. iii. 5 below.
That the juristic conception of sacred writings was
familiar to the Alexandrian translators is directly shown by
Ep. Arist. (ed. M. Schmidt), p. 68 iff. : when the translation of
the Bible into Greek was finished, then, Ka6w e'0o? avrols
<TTtV, L T9 ia(7Kevd<T6l 7rpO<TTlOels fj fJ,6Ta<f)pO)V Tl TO (TVVO\OV
TWV yeypa/ji/jieiHDv r) iroiovpevos afyaipeawf he was threatened
with a curse. According to this the Greek Bible was placed
under the legal point of view which forbade the altering of a
document ; this principle is not universal in Greek law, 5 but
the Apostle Paul gives evidence for it, when, in Gal. 3 15 ,
arguing e concessis, he says that a SiaQrJKr) Kefevpay/jLevrj can
neither be made void 6 nor have anything added to it.
Speaking from the same point of view, the advocate
Tertullian to give another very clear example of the further
development of the juristic conception of biblical authority
describes, adv. Marc. 4 2 and elsewhere, the individual portions
of the New Testament as instrumenta, i.e., as legally valid
documents. 7
1 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 172.
2 P. Cauer, Delectus inscriptionum Graecarum propter dialectum memora-
bilium 2 , Leipzig, 1883, No. 457.
8 It is not in this pregnant sense that Plutarch uses y^pavrai, but simply
as a formula of quotation ; cf. J. F. Marcks, Symbola critica ad epistolographos
Graecos, Bonn, 1883, p. 27. So also LXX Esth. 10 2 .
Cf. Deut. 4 2 , 1232, Prov< 30 6> and later Eev . 22"*
B It was allowed, e.g., in Attic Law " to add codices to a will, or make
modifications in it " ; cf. Meier-Schomann-Lipsius, ii., p. 597.
* Upon the revocation of a will cf. Meier-Schomann-Lipsius, ii., p. 597 f.
7 Cf. upon this E. Reuss, Die Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften Neuen
Testaments*, Brunswick, 1887, 303, p. 340, and Jiilicher, Einleitung in das
N. T., p. 303.
Ill, 112] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 115
SmSo^o? and StaSe^o/zei/o?.
SmSo^o? occurs in the LXX only in 1 Chron. 18 17 , as
the equivalent of T*7, 2 Chron. 26 n as the translation of
njJtfe, and 2 Chron. 28 7 as the translation of *ito. In none
of these three passages is StaSo%o9, in its ordinary sense of
successor, an accurate rendering of the original. It has there-
fore been asserted by Schleusner l that &ao%<>9 corresponds
to the Hebrew words, and thus means something like proxi-
mus a rege ; he refers to Philo, de Josepho, M. pp. 58 and 64.
Similarly Grimm, 2 in reference to 2 Mace. 4 29 , has, on account
of the context, rejected the meaning successor for that passage
and 14 26 ; cf. also 4 31 Siaoexonevo?. This supposition is con-
firmed by Pap. Taur. i. (lisande) 3 (2nd cent. B.C.), in which
ot Trepl avXrjv StaSo%ot and oi StaSo^ot are higher officials at
the court of the Ptolemies ; 4 StaSo^os is thus an Egyptian
court-title. 5 The Alexandrian translators of the Book of
Chronicles and the Alexandrian Philo used the word in this
technical sense, and the second Book of Maccabees (compiled
from Jason of Cyrene) also manifests a knowledge of the
usage.
Allied to the technical meaning of SidSoxo? is that of
the participle SmSexo/uez/o?, 6 2 Chron. 31 12 and Esth. 10 3 , as
the translation of the POtfe of the original : so 2 Mace. 4 31 .
The LXX render p^TO or the genitival pT2 by
in almost every case, and their translation is accurate even
for those passages in which the conception normal 7 (which
1 Novus Thesaurus, ii. (1820), p. 87. 2 HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 90.
3 A. Peyron, i., p. 24.
4 Ibid., p. 56 ff . On this see Brunei de Presle, Notices, xviii. 2, p.
228, and Lumbroso, Recherches, p. 195.
5 As such frequent also in the London Papyri of the 2nd cent. B.C. ; cf.
on these, Kenyon, p. 9. On the military signification of SidSoxos cf. Lumbroso,
Recherches, p. 224 f.
6 Cf., in regard to later usage, F. Krebs, Agyptische Priester unter
romischer Herrschaft, in Zeitschr. filr agyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde,
xxxi. (1893), p. 37.
7 Cf. E. Kautzsch, [Uber] die Derivate des Stammes ffT im alttestament-
lichen Sprachgebrauch, Tubingen, 1881, p. 59.
116 BIBLE STUDIES. [112, 113
lies at the basis of the Hebrew words) has been preserved
most purely, i.e., where correct measures are described as
just. 1 That they did not translate mechanically in these
cases appears from Prov. II 1 , where they likewise render
the weight there described as oSttf, full, by o-rad^Lov SUatov?
There can be established also for Greek a usage similar to
the Semitic, 3 but it will be better in this matter to refer to
Egyptian usage than to Xenophon and others, 4 who apply
the attribute M/caio? to ITTJTOS, /Sou?, etc., when these animals
correspond to what is expected of them. Thus in the decree
of the inhabitants of Busiris, 5 drawn up in honour of the
emperor Nero, the rise of the Nile is called a Si/cata avdjSaa-is ;
but more significant because the reference is to a measure
is the observation of Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom, vi. 4
(p. 758, Potter), that, in Egyptian ceremonies, the TTTJXVS
7-775 &L/caio(7vvri<; was carried around i.e., a correct cubit. 6
That is the same idiom as the LXX apply in the &ya Sifcaia
KOI o"ra0fjLia Si/caia teal %oO? $(/eai,o<;, Lev. 19 36 , in the fierpov
a\rj6ivov teal SifcaLov, Deut. 25 15 , and in the
Ezek. 45 10 .
The LXX translate flood Is. 27 12 , stream Is. 33 21 , and
river Jer. 38 [31] 9 , by Stco/suf canal. They have thus
Egyptianised the original. Such a course was perhaps quite
natural in the first passage, where the reference is to the
"flood of Egypt " : noticing that stream and river were meta-
1 Cf. Kflutzsch, p. 56 f., on the inadequacy of the German gerecht for
the rendering of the Hebrew word.
2 Deut. 25 18 t 4\i0^.
3 Kautzsch, p. 57 ff. In Arabic the same word is used, according to
Kautzsch, to describe, e.g., a lance or a date [the fruit] as correct.
4 Cremer 7 , p. 270 ( = 8 , p. 284).
5 Letronne, Eecueil, ii., p. 467, cf. p. 468 f. ; also Letronne, Recherclies,
p. 396 f., Lumbroso, Eeclierclies, p. 290. Pliny, Nat. Hist. v. 58, speaks in the
same way of the iustum incrementum, and Plutarch, de Isid. et Osirid., p. 368,
says : 77 8e fieffrj avdfZaffis irepl Me/jupiv, '6rav y Sutaia, SeKarecrffdpcav iryxwv.
6 Cf. also the Egyptian measure ^iKa.i6rarov /j-va-rpov in F. Hultsch'a
Griechische und romische Metrologie 2 , Berlin, 1882, p. 636.
113, 114] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 117
phorically used in the other two passages, they made the
metaphors more intelligible to the Alexandrians by giving
them a local colouring just as was shown above in the case
of ci(f>6ori<;.
" The prepositional construction came easily to the
N. T. writers probably because of the more forcible and
more expressive diction of their native tongue, and we
therefore find etg in places where the Dat. commodi or
incommodi would have sufficed for the Greeks, e.g., Acts
24 17 : 6\e7)fJLocrvva$ iroiija-cov et? r^ e6vo<$ JAOV . . ."*
In answer to this it must, to begin with, be remarked
that " the " New Testament writers were not the first to
find the usage a natural one, for it is already found in the
Greek Old Testament. The author is not now examining
the use of eh in that book, but he can point to the following
passages, in which e/? represents the "dative of advantage " :
LXX Bel 5 , ova eh avrbv [Bel] ^airavcurai^ ver. 22 , rrjv
SaTrdvrjv rrjv eh avrov [Bel], with which is to be compared
ver. 2 , dvr)\L(r/ceTo avrw 2 [Bel] ; Ep. Jerem. 9 (dpyvpiov) eh
eavrovs KaravaXovcri, ; Sir. 37 7 , crvfJL^ov\ev(av eh eavrov ( =
ver. 8 , eavTw ftovXevo-erai,) . In all these passages the original
is wanting, but it seems certain to the author that what we
find here is not one of the LXX's many 3 Hebraisms in the
use of prepositions, but that this employment of eh is an
Alexandrian idiom.
In Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxv. a-i* (ca. 226 B.C.) and else-
where, we have a number of receipts, from the standing
formulae of which it appears that eh was used to specify the
various purposes of the items of an account. Thus the receipt
a 5 runs : 6fj,o\oyei Ke<$>d\&v rjvLo^o^ e%ei,v irapa Xdpfiov .....
1 Winer-Liinemann, 31, 5 (p. 200).
2 Theodotion (ver. 3 ) translates the same passage thus : Kal &aira.vS)VTo
els avrbv [Bel] (re/jii8d\ecas aprdfiai SdaSeita (Libri apocryphi V. T. graece, ed.
0. F. Fritzsche, p. 87).
3 Cf. the author's work Die neutest. Formel " in Christo Jesu," p. 55 f.
4 Mahaffy, ii. [72] ff. 6 Ibid., ii. [72].
118 BIBLE STUDIES. [114, 115
?' .'. aprwv Ka6ap&v $'
KCU et? iTTTroKo/JLovs iy aprcov avT07rvpa)v'\. . KS, i.e., Kephalon
the charioteer certifies that he has received from Charmosfor himself
and 7 other charioteers, 2 chcenices lo/ pure bread, and for 13
grooms, 26 measures of bran bread. Further, et? stands before
non-personal words in the same way : KOI ek Ibnrov eVo%\ou-
fjievov . et9 yjpiviv e\aiov K? 7' /cal . . et? \v%vov<s /a/ceco? /C N y8',
i.e., aniZ for a. sick horse 3 cotylas of oil for rubbing in, and for
the lantern 2 cotylas of Kiki-oil.
Still more clear is the passage from the contract Pap.
Par. 51 (114 B.C.) /cat TOP et? Tdyrjv ol/cov ^KO^O^^GVOV.
Further examples in III. iii. 1, below.
The same usage of et?, the examples of which may be
increased from the Papyri, is found specially clearly in Paul :
1 Cor. 16 * rr}? \oyeias -n}? efc TOV? a<yiovs, similarly 2 Cor.
8 4 , 9 1 - 18 , Bom. 15 26 ; cf. Acts 24 17 ; Mark 8 19 f - should pro-
bably be explained in the same way.
e'/ero? el /JLIJ.
The commonly cited examples, from Lucian, etc., of
this jumbled phrase, 2 long since recognised as late-Greek, in
the Cilician Paul (1 Cor. 14 5 , 15 2 , cf. 1 Tim. 5 19 ) are not so
instructive for its use as is the passage of an Inscription of
Mopsuestia in Cilicia, Waddington, iii. 2, No. 1499 (the
author cannot fix the date ; certainly the imperial period) :
eVcro9 el fjir) [e]av Mdyva fj,6vrj 6e\\rf\(rr).
eV.
The ignoring of the difference between translations of
Semitic originals and works which were in Greek from the
first a difference of fundamental importance for the grammar
(and the lexicon) of the "biblical" writers has nowhere
such disastrous consequences as in connection with the pre-
1 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 131. The same words are found in Pap. Lugd. M.
(Leemans, i., p. 59) ; Leemans, i., p. 63, explains els as a periphrasis for the
genitive : similarly W. Schmid, Der Atticismus, iii. (1893), p. 91. One should
notice in this latter work the other observations upon the prepositions they
are of importance for biblical philology.
2 Winer-Liinemann, 65, 3 (p. 563) ; Schmiedel, HC., ii. 1 (1891), p. 143.
115, 116] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 119
position. The author considers that he has previously shown,
by a not unimportant example, what a difference there is
between a peculiarity of syntax in the originally- Greek
Epistles of Paul and the apparently similar phenomenon in
Greek translations. A similar fact may be observed with
regard to the question of ev with the dativus instrument^
Winer-Liinemann l still maintains that eV is used "of the
instrument and means (chiefly in the Apocalypse) not only
(as in the better Greek prose- writers . . . .) where in (or
on) would be proper enough , but also, irrespective
of this, where in Greek the dative alone, as casus instru-
mentalis, would be used as an after-effect of the Hebrew 5, ".
Similarly A. Buttmann. 2 In their enumeration of the 'ex-
amples in so far as these can come into consideration at all
both writers, in neglecting this difference, commit the error
of uncritically placing passages from the Gospels and the
Apocalypse, in regard to which one may speak of a Semitic
influence, i.e., of a possible Semitic original, alongside of,
say, Pauline passages, without, however, giving any indica-
tion of how they imagine the " after-effect " of the i to
have influenced Paul. Thus Winer-Liinemann quotes Rom.
15 6 eV evl o-TOfjiaTi Sogd&re, and Buttmann, 3 1 Cor. 4 21 eV
pdfiSw e\6w 777)09 t^a?, as Pauline examples of eV with the
instrumental dative. The author believes that both passages
are capable of another explanation, and that, as they are
the only ones that can be cited with even an appearance
of reason, this use of eV by Paul cannot be made out. For,
to begin with, the passage in Eomans is one of those
" where in would be proper enough," i.e. t where the refer-
ence to its primary sense of location is fully adequate to
explain it, and it is thus quite superfluous to make for
such instances a new compartment in the dust-covered re-
pository ; the Eomans are to glorify God in one mouth
because, of course, words are formed in the mouth, just as,
according to popular psychology, thoughts dwell in the
1 48, d (p. 363).
2 Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachgebrauchs, p. 157.
3 P. 284.
120 BIBLE STUDIES. [116, 117
heart. In 1 Cor. 4 21 , again, the case seems to be more
favourable for the view of Buttmann, for the LXX frequently
use the very construction ev rfj pa/3S&> ; what more easy
than to maintain that "the" biblical Greek uses this con-
struction instrument ally throughout? But here also we
perceive very clearly the difference between the diction of
the translators as cramped by their original, and the un-
constrained language of Paul. In all the passages of the
LXX (Gen. 32 10 , Exod. 17 5 , 21 20 , 1 Sarn. 17 43 , 2 Sam. 7 14 ,
23 21 , 1 Chron. II 23 , Ps. 2 9 , 88 [89] 33 , Is. 10 24 , Mic. 5 1 , 7 U ;
cf. Ezek. 39 9 , also Hos. 4 12 , where ev pd/3Soi<; is conformed
to the previous ev [=5-] <rvfjb/36\oi<:) the ev of the phrase ev
rf) pd/BSw is a mechanical imitation of a J, in the original : it
cannot therefore be maintained in any way that that con-
struction is peculiar to the indigenous Alexandrian Greek.
With Paul, on the contrary, ev pd/BSw is anticipatively
conformed to the following locative rj ev dyaTrrj irvev^aTi re
TTpavTTjTos ; it is but a loose formation of the moment, and
cannot be deduced from any law of syntax. It is, of course,
not impossible that this anticipative conformation came the
more easily to the Apostle, who knew his Greek Bible, be-
cause one or other of those passages of the LXX may have
hovered l before his mind, but it is certainly preposterous to
speak of the " after-effect " of a 5.. Where in Paul's psy-
chology of language may this powerful particle have had
its dwelling-place?
The LXX correctly translate Nph physician by
only in Gen. 50 2f< by evTCKpiaa-rrjs. The original speaks in
that passage of the Egyptian physicians who embalmed the
body of Jacob. The translation is not affected by the verb
evra^id^eiv simply, but is explained by the endeavour to
1 The tv rfj aj85$>, which should possibly he restored as the original
reading in line 12 of the leaden tablet of Adrumetum to be discussed in Art.
IV., might be explained as a reminiscence of these LXX passages, in view of
its association with the many other quotations from the LXX found there.
In the passage in Lucian, Dial. Mori. 23 3, Ka.QiK6iJ.evov ev rrj fidpScf the eV is
regarded as doubtful (Winer-Lunemann, p. 364).
117, 118] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 121
introduce a term better suited to Egyptian conditions : it
was, of course, an embalming in Egypt. But the profes-
sional designation of the person l entrusted with this work
was evrafaatfTfa, Pap. Par. 7 2 (99 B.C.). Those sections of
the Old Testament the scene of which was laid in Egypt,
or which had regard to Egyptian conditions, naturally gave
the translators most occasion to use Egyptianised expressions.
In the New Testament writings evrevgi? is used only in
1 Tim. 2 1 and 4 5 , having in both passages the sense of
petitionary prayer. This usage is commonly explained 3 by
the employment of the word in the sense of petition which
is found in extra-biblical literature from the time of Diodorus
and Josephus. The Papyri 4 show that in Egypt it had
been long familiar in technical language : " eWeuft? est ipsa
petitio sen voce significata, seu in scripto libello expressa, quam
supplex subditus offert ; . . . vocem Alexandrini potissimum usur-
pant ad designandas petitiones vel Regi, vel Us, qui regis nomine
rempublicam moderantur, exhibitas ". 5 This explanation has
been fully confirmed by the newly-discovered Papyri of the
Ptolemaic period. 6 The technical meaning also occurs in
Ep. Arist. (ed. M. Schmidt), p. 58s; A. Peyron, who has
previously drawn attention to this passage, finds it also in
2 Mace. 4 8 probably without justification.
evTw%ia is found in the same sense in Pap. Lond. xliv. 3 7
(161 B.C.) and 3 Mace. 6 40 in both passages in the idiomatic
phrase evrv^iav iroielaOai.
The verb eVri^az/o) 8 has the corresponding technical
1 Cf. on this point Lumbroso, Becherches, p. 136 f.
2 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 172. 3 Clavis 3 , p. 151.
4 The word does not occur in the LXX. In 2nd Mace. 4 8 , iWevfxs
signifies conference.
5 A. Peyron, i., p. 101.
6 Cf. the indexes of Leemans, of the Notices, xviii. 2, of Mahaffy and
Kenyon.
7 Kenyon, p. 34.
8 In addition to Wisdom 8 21 , a later testimony, Pap. Berol. 7351 (BU.
viii., p. 244, No. 246 is) 2-3 cent. A.D. : et'S^res tin VVKT^S KO.\ r)/j.epas i>Tuyx<*-f<
T$ 0e< virep fyieDj/, is significant in regard to the use of this word in religious
speech. (Rom. S 27 - 34 , II 2 , Heb. 7 25 , Clem. Bom. 1 Cor. 56 1 ).
122 BIBLE STUDIES. [118, 119
meaning ; the correlative term for the king's giving an answer
is xprj/jLari^eiv. 1
Both the verb and the substantive are frequently com-
bined with Kara and virep, according to whether the memorial
expresses itself against or for some one; cf. the Pauline
, Rom. 8 26 .
This word, common in the LXX, but hitherto not
authenticated elsewhere, is vouched for by Pap. Flind. Petr.
ii. iv. i. 2 (255-254 B.C.) as a technical term for overseer of
work, foreman. Philo, who uses it later, de Vit. Mos. i. 7 (M.,
p. 86), can hardly have found it in the LXX first of all, but
rather in the current vocabulary of his time. It is in use
centuries later in Alexandria : Origen 3 jestingly calls his
friend Ambrosius his epyoSKbtcTr/s. Even he would not origin-
ally get the expression from the LXX. 4
Occurring only in LXX Ps. 98 [99] 8 (representing
and 1 [3] Esd. 8 535 = very favourable : already exempli-
fied in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiii. 19 6 (ca. 255 B.C.) ; observe
that it is the same phrase rv^elv TWO? evCkdrov which is
found here and in the passage in Esd. See a further
example, III. iii. 6, sub ^id^ofiai, below.
In regard to the passive, 7 2 Cor. 1 n , Pap. Flind. Petr. ii.
ii. 4 8 (260-259 B.C.) is instructive ; it is difficult, however, to
1 A. Peyron, i., p. 102 ; Lumbroso, Recherches, p. 254 ; Mahaffy, ii., p. 28.
2 Mahaffy, ii. [6], cf. p. 6.
3 Hieron. de vir. iril. 61 ; cf. P. D. Huetii, Origenianorum, i. 8 (Lomm.
xxii., p. 38 f.).
4 Upon the usage of the word in ecclesiastical Greek and Latin, cf. the
Greek and Latin Glossaries of Du Cange. The o?ra \y6/j.fvov tpyoirapenrris of
Clem. Eom. 1 Cor. 34 * seems to be allied.
6 Cod. A reads l\drov (thus the lAatrrou of the second hand should per-
haps be restored).
6 Mahaffy, ii. [45], The word refers to the king.
7 Cf. Clavis*, p. 184, in the concluding note, and G. Heinrici, Meyer vi. 1
(1890), p. 25.
8 Mahaffy, ii. [4].
119,120] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 123
settle what the evxapia-vriOds in this passage refers to, owing
to mutilation of the leaf.
TO 6efjie\iov.
In deciding the question whether Oepekiov is to be
construed as masculine or neuter in passages where the
gender of the word is not clearly determined, attention is
usually called to the fact that the neuter form is first found
in Pausanius (2nd cent. A.D.). But it occurs previously in
Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiv. 3 1 (Ptolemaic period). Of. also TO
0/j,e\iov of an unknown translator of Lev. 4 18 . 2 From this,
the possibility, at least, of taking it as neuter, in the non-
decisive passages 3 Sir. I 15 , Bom. 15 20 , Eph. 2 20 , Luke G 48 '-,
14 29 , 1 Tim. 6 19 , Heb. 6 1 , may be inferred.
The LXX not seldom (Gen. 47 18 , Deut. 15 2 , Job 2 11 ,
7 10 - 13 , Prov. 6 2 , 13 8 , 16 23 , 27 8 , Dan. I 10 ) translate the
possessive pronoun (as a suffix) by iSio?, though the con-
nection does not require the giving of such an emphasis
to the particular possessive relation. Such passages as Job
24 12 , Prov. 9 12 , 22 7 , 27 15 , might be considered stranger still,
where the translator adds I'o^o?, though the Hebrew text does
not indicate a possessive relation at all, nor the context re-
quire the emphasising of any. This special prominence is,
however, only apparent, and the translation (or addition) is
correct. We have here probably the earliest examples of the
late-Greek use of iSios for the genitives eavrov and eavT&v
employed as possessives, a usage which can be pointed to in
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Philo, Josephus and Plutarch, 4
1 Mahaffy, ii. [4], p. 30. 2 Field, i., p. 174.
3 Winer-Schmiedel notes the " unambiguous " ones, 8, 13 (p. 85).
4 References in Guil. Schmidt, De Flavii losephi elocutione, Fleck. Jbb.
Suppl. xx. (1894), p. 369. Specially important are the many examples given
there from Josephus, in whose writings a similar use of oiKelos is also shown.
A more out-of-the-way example of this worn-out olne'ios may be mentioned
here. In the second (spurious) Prologue to Jesus Sirach, near the middle, it
is said : (r^v jS/jSAoj/) 2ipax OVTOS /xer' avrbv Trd\u> Xafikv Ttf olicdtp iraiSl Ka.Tf\urev
'Irjo-oG (Libri apocr. V. T. ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, p. 388). 0. F. Fritzsche assigns
this Prologue to the 4th-5th cent. A.D., HApAT. v. (1859), p. 7 ; in his edition
of 1871, ad loc., he seems to agree with K. A. Credner, who dates it cent. 9-10.
124 BIBLE STUDIES. [121
and in the Attic Inscriptions 1 subsequent to 69 B.C. This
usage is also confirmed by the Apocryphal books of the
0. T., specially by those in Greek from the first, and it in-
fluences the New Testament writers, 2 and especially Paul,
much more strongly than is implied by Winer-Lunemann. 3
Exegetes have, in many places, laid a stress upon the t&o?
which, in the text, does not belong to it at all. In con-
sideration of the very widely-extended use of the exhausted
iSto? in the post -classical age, it will, in point of fact, be the
most proper course in exegesis always to assume it primarily
as most probable, and to take t&o? in the old sense only
when the context absolutely requires it. A specially instruc-
tive example is 1 Cor. 7 2 , &ia Se ra? iropvelas e/cao-ro?
eavrov ryvvaiica e^erco teal e/cdarr} rov i8t,ov avSpa e^erco : '/
is here used only for the sake of variety and is exactly
equivalent to the eavrov.
i\a(nripio<; and ihacmjpiov.
Of all the errors to be found in exegetical and lexical
literature, that of imagining that l\ao-rr)piov in the LXX is
identical in meaning with ITlES; cover (f * ne ar k of the cove-
nant), and that therefore the word with them means pro-
pitiatory cover (Luther: Gnadenstuhl) , is one of the most
popular, most pregnant with results, and most baneful. Its
source lies in the fact that the LXX's frequent external
verbal equation, viz., L\aa-Tr]piov = kapporeth, has been in-
considerately taken as an equation of ideas. But the in-
vestigation cannot proceed upon the assumption of this
1 K. Meisterhans, Grammatik der attischen InscTiriften 2 , Berlin, 1888,
p. 194.
2 Genuine examples are readily found in all of these except Revelation,
in which t8ios does not occur at all. The reason of this is not, of course, that
they all wrote " New Testament " Greek, but that they wrote at a time
when the force of ffiios had been long exhausted. The Latin translations,
in their frequent use of the simple suus (A. Buttmann, p. 102, note), mani-
fest a true understanding of the case.
3 22, 7 (p. 145 f.). Here we read : " no example can be adduced from
the Greeks " ; reference is made only to the Byzantine use of oi/ce?os and the
late-Latin proprius=suus or ejus. A. Buttmann, p. 102 f., expresses himself
more accurately.
122] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 125
identification of ideas. We must rather, as in all cases where
the Greek expression is not congruent with the Hebrew
original, begin here by establishing the difference, and then
proceed with an attempt to explain it. In the present case
our position is happily such that we can give the explanation
with some certainty, and that the wider philologico-historical
conditions can be ascertained quite as clearly.
To begin with, it is altogether inaccurate to assert that
the LXX translate kapporeth by i\a<TTr)piov. They first en-
countered the word in Exod. 25 16 [17] : and thou shalt make a
kapporeth of pure gold. The Greek translator rendered thus :
KCLI Trotr](reis iKaGTripiov eVi^e/ua 1 xpvaiov /cadapov. His
rendering of kapporeth is therefore not i\a<7Tr]piov, but l\acr-
Trjpiov eTrlQepa ; he understood kapporeth quite well, and
translates it properly by cover, 2 but he has elucidated the
word, used technically in this place, by a theological adjunct
which is not incorrect in substance. 3 eVttfe/za is doubtless a
translation of kapporeth the word ; iXacrrrjpiov eVi#e/i,a is a
rendering of kapporeth the religious concept. How then are
we to understand this theological gloss upon the Hebrew
word ? i\a<7Ttfpioi> is not a substantive, 4 but, as in 4 Mace.
1 e7rt0e,ua is wanting in Cod. 58 only ; in Codd. 19, 30, etc., it stands
before IXaarr^piov. A second hand makes a note to /Aacrn^uoj/ in the margin
of Cod. vii. (an Ambrosianus of cent. 5, Field, i., p. 5), viz., o-KeTroa-^o (cover-
ing), (Field, i., p. 124). Cremer 7 , p. 447 ( = 8 , p. 475), following Tromm,
quotes also LXX Exod. 37 6 for kapporeth = i\a.<rriipiov eVifleyua. But the
Complutensian alone has it there not the manuscripts.
2 The Concordance of Hatch and Kedpath is therefore inaccurate in
affirming, sub eiriOepa, that this word has no corresponding Hebrew in Exod.
25 16 U7], and also in quoting this passage sub ixaffrfyiov instead of sub
l\a.ffri]pios.
3 This is also the opinion of Philo, cf. p. 128 below.
4 Against Cremer 7 , p. 447 ( = 8 ,p. 475), who has no hesitation in
identifying l\a.ffrfipiov with kapporeth. His taking IXaffT-^piov as a substantive
in this passage would have better support if the word stood after eV^a ; it
could then be construed as in apposition to eVi0e/*a. The passage he quotes,
LXX Exod. 30 M [not 35 ] is not to the purpose, for, at the end of the verse,
f\aiov XPW* 7 to " Z<ri should be translated the (previously mentioned) oil
shall be a xpr/*a ciyiov, and, at the beginning of the verse, xpla-pa ayiov appears
to be in apposition to e\aiov. If Cremer takes Ixaffr^pwv as a substantive =
propitiatory cover, then he could only translate LXX Exod. 25 10 [171 by and
thou shalt make a propitiatory cover as a cover of pure gold, which the original
does not say.
126 BIBLE STUDIES. [123
17 22 (if rov t\a<rTrip[ov Oavdrov is to be read here with the
Alexandrinus), an adjective, and signifies of use for propitiation.
The same theological gloss upon the ceremonial kap-
poreth is observed when, in the Greek translation of the
Pentateuch 1 first in the passages immediately following
upon Exod. 25 16[ir] and also later it is rendered, brevilo-
quently, 2 by the simple l\a<7Ttfpiov instead of iXaa-rrfpiov
eTTiOepa. The word is now a substantive and signifies some-
thing like propitiatory article. It does not mean cover, nor
even propitiatory cover, but for the concept cover it substi-
tutes another, which only expresses the ceremonial pur-
pose of the article. The kapporeth was for the translators a
(rvfjL/36\ov T?}? Them rov 6eov Swapem*?, as Philo, de vit. Mos.
iii. 8 (M., p. 150), speaking from the same theological stand-
point, explains it, and therefore they named this symbol
i\a(nr]piov. Any other sacred article having some connection
with propitiation might in the very same way be brought
under the general conception i\ao-Trjpiov, and have the latter
substituted for it, i.e., if what was required was not a
translation but a theological paraphrase. And thus it is of
the greatest possible significance that the LXX actually do
make a generalising gloss 3 upon another quite different
religious conception by t\a<TTr)piov, viz., mt^, the ledge of
the altar, Ezek. 43 u - 17 - 20 ; it also, according'to ver. 20 , had
to be sprinkled with the blood of the sin-offering, and was
therefore a kind of propitiatory article hence the theologising
rendering of the Greek translators. i\a<nr]piov here also
1 The apparent equation l\affr^piov = kapporeth is found only in Exod.,
Lev., Numb.
2 The present writer cannot understand how Cremer, 7 , p. 447 ( = 8 , p. 475),
inverting the facts of the case, can maintain that Ixaffr-fipiov r0e;ua is an
expansion of the simple iKaffr^ptov = kapporeth. This is exactly the same as
if one should explain the expression symbolum apostolicum as an " expansion "
of the simple apostolicum, which we do in fact use for Apostolic Symbol. But,
besides, it would be very strange if the LXX had expanded an expression
before they had used it at all ! No one can dispute that ixa<rri)piov eiri0e/j.a is
their earliest rendering of kapporeth. Then it must also be conceded that
the simple lAotrr^ptoi/ is an abbreviation. We have in this a case similar to
that of the breviloquence Jobel and of &<p(ffis (cf. p. 100 above.)
3 This fact is almost always overlooked in the commentaries.
124] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 127
means neither ledge nor ledge of propitiation, but propitiatory
article.
The proof of the fact that the LXX did not identify the
concept l\aa-rr]pLov with kapporeth and 'azdrah can be supple-
mented by the following observed facts. The two words
paraphrased by i\ao-Tijpiov have other renderings as well.
In Exod. 26 34 the original runs, and thou shalt put the kap-
poreth upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place ;
LXX KOL KaraKaXv^ei^ rw KaTairerda-^iari, rrjv KifttoTov
rov fjLaprvpiov ev rw dyiw rwv dyicov. According to Cremer,
the LXX have not translated the Hebrew word here at all
let alone by Kara'jreraa-^a. But it is without doubt
a more correct conjecture that they read not rnS3 but
rG'lS, curtain, and thus did translate the Hebrew word. 1
This conjecture is, however, in no way absolutely necessary ;
the author thinks it not at all impossible that the LXX read
kapporeth, and translated it by KaraTreracrfjLa, just as they
did, at its first occurrence, by &rt#e/AO. More significant is
1 Chron. 28 n , where house of the kapporeth is rendered by
6 ot/eo? rov ef tXaoyiou : this also is a theological gloss, not a
verbal translation of the original. 2 It may be regarded as
specially significant that the ceremonial word should thus
be glossed in two different ways. Similarly, 'azdrah in Ezek.
45 19 is paraphrased 3 by TO iepbv, and, in 2 Chron. 4 9 and 6 13 ,
translated by avkrj.
It thus seems clear to the author that it is not correct
to take the LXX's equation of words as being an equation
of ideas. IXaa-njpiov, for the translators, signified propitia-
tory article, even where they used it for kapporeth. Philo
still had a clear conception of the state of the matter. It
1 In the same way they probably read in Amos 9 1 JT^ED i ns ^ead of
p3. capital of a column, and translated l\a<rr-fipiov, unless the Qvffia<n-{\piov
of Cod. A and others (Field, ii., p. 979) should be the original ; cf. the same
variant to i\a<rr-fipiov in Exod. 38 5 [37 6 ] (in Field, i., p. 152) and Lev. 16 14 .
2 Hardly any one would maintain in regard to this that ^iAao>t(fe in the
LXX " means " kapporeth.
3 Had the Greek translators understood the construction here, they
ought certainly to have written ital 4-irl ras reffvapas ywvias rov iepov rov
Qv<riaffri]piov.
128 BIBLE STUDIES. [125
is not correct to assert l that, following the example of the
LXX, he describes Jcapporeth as l\aa-Tr]piov : he describes it
correctly as eiridefjui rf)? /ci/3corov, and remarks further that
it is called iKaarrjpiov in the BibJe : De Vit. Mos. iii. 8
(M. p. 150) 77 Se /a/3&>TO? . . ., 975 eTriOe/jLO, wcravel irw^a TO
\eydfjL6vov eV iepals /3t/3Xot9 l\ao-Trjpiov, and, further on in
the same work, TO Be eTrLOepa TO Trpoaayopevofievov l\aarripiov ;
De Profug. 19 (M. p. 561) . . . TO eV/#e^z T?}? /cifiayrov, ica\el
Be avrb i\ao-rr}pi,ov. Philo manifestly perceived that the
iXao-rrfpiov of the Greek Bible was an altogether peculiar
designation, and therefore expressly distinguishes it as such :
he puts the word, so to speak, in quotation-marks. Thus
also, in De Cherub. 8 (M. p. 143), /cal <yap awrnrpoa-uTrd $a<Tiv
eivai vevovra Trpo? TO l\aarripLov erepois is clearly an allusion
to LXX Exod. 25 20[21] , and, instead of saying that Philo here
describes the kapporeth as IXao-rrjpiov, 1 we should rather say
that he, following the LXX, asserts that the cherubim over-
shadow the l\a(TTripiov. z How little one is entitled to speak
of a " Sprachgebrauch " 3 (usage, or, habit of speech), viz., l\aa--
Ttjpiov = Jcapporeth, is shown by the fact that Symmachus
in Gen. 6 16[15] twice renders the Ark of Noah by l\aarripLov^
and that Josephus, Antt. xvi. 7 i, speaks of a monument of
white stone as a l\acrrripiov : ireplfyolBos 8' avrbs e^rjei, Kal rov
1 Cremer 7 , p. 447 ( = 8 , p. 475).
2 It is to be doubted whether the Hebrew concept Tcapporeth was
present to the mind of the writer at all : in any case it is wrong to assume
forthwith that he consciously described kapporeth as iKaffrhpiov. It is exactly
the same as if one were to assert that wherever the word Gnadenstuhl
(mercy-seat) occurs in the biblical quotations of German devotional books,
the original being Jcapporeth, the writers describe the kapporeth as Gnaden-
stuhl. In most cases the writers will be simply dependent upon Luther, and
their usage of the word Gnadenstuhl furnishes nothing towards deciding the
question how they understood kapporeth. Cf. p. 134 f. Similarly, Heb. 9 5
is an allusion to LXX Exod. 25 2 [ 2l l; what was said about the passage in
Philo holds good here.
3 Cremer 7 , p. 447 ( = 8 , p. 475).
4 Field, i., p. 23 f. The present writer agrees with Field in this matter,
and believes that Symmachus desired by this rendering to describe the Ark
as a means of propitiation : God was gracious to such as took refuge in the
Ark.
126] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 129
Se'ou? i\a0Tr]piov jjbvfjfjba \evfcfjs vrerpa? eVl rw
Kevdcraro, which must certainly be translated : Tie set up a
monument of white stone as a i\acnr]piov. 1
What, then, is the meaning of l\acrrr)piov in the impor-
tant " Christological " statement Bom. 3 25 ? Paul says there
of Jesus Christ, ov irpoeOero o $09 i\a(TTrjptov &ia Trtcrreco? ev
TO) avrov ai/jLari et<? evSeL^w TTJS Si/caioo-vvr/s avrov. It has
been said that the Roman readers could hardly have known
the expression from any other source than the Greek Bible. 2
But, even if this assumption were correct, it still requires to
be proved that they could have learned from the Greek Bible
that l\ao-rripiov means the kapporeth ; besides, the primary
question must be : what did the term signify to Paul him-
self? The author believes that even the context requires
us to reject the opinion that the Apostle is describing the
crucified Christ as "a" 8 kapporeth. Had the Cross been so
named, then the metaphor might possibly be understood ; as
used of a person, it is infelicitous and unintelligible ; further,
Christ, the end of the law, Christ, of whom Paul has just said
that He is the revealer of the SIKCUOO-VVTJ 6eov ^copl? i>6jj,ov,
would hardly be named by the same Paul, in the same breath,
as the cover of the ark of testimony : the metaphor were as
unlike Paul as possible. But the whole assumption of the
explanation in question is without support : no " Sprachge-
brauch," according to which one had to understand l\a-
artjpLov as the kapporeth, ever existed either in the LXX or
later. Hence this explanation of the passage in Romans
has long encountered opposition. Again, it is a popular
interpretation to take i\aaTijpiov as equivalent to propitiatory
1 Cremer 8 , p. 474, joins Ixaffr^piov with pyr^a. and therefore construes
adjectivally as did the present writer in the German edition of
this book, pp. 122 and 127 which is not impossible, but improbable. See
note 2 on p. 127 of the German edition.
2 Cremer 7 , p. 448 ( = 8 , p. 475).
3 The absence of the article is more important than Cremer supposes ;
if "the" kapporeth, "the" i\affT"f)piov, was something so well known to the
readers as Cremer asserts, then it would be exactly a case where the article
could stand with the predicate (contra E. Kuhl, Die Heilsbedeutung des
Todes Christi, Berlin, 1890, p. 25 f.).
9
130 BIBLE STUDIES. [126, 127
sacrifice, after the analogy of o-corrjpiov, xapia-Tijpiovy icaOdpa-iov,
etc., in connection with which Ovpa is to be supplied. How-
ever difficult it would be to find examples of the word being
used in this sense, 1 there is no objection to it linguistically.
But it is opposed by the context ; it can hardly be said of a
sacrifice that God TrpoeQero it. The more general explanation
therefore, which of late has been advocated again, specially
by B. Weiss, 2 viz., means of propitiation, is to be preferred :
linguistically it is the most obvious ; it is also presupposed
in the " usage " of the LXX, and admirably suits the connec-
tion particularly in the more special sense of propitiatory gift
which is to be referred to just below.
Hitherto the word in this sense had been noted only
in Dion Chrysostom (1-2 cent. A.D.), Or. xi. p. 355 (Keiske),
yap avrovs dvd6r)/j,a /cd\\t,crTov KOI ^e<yi(7Tov rf}
Kal eTriypdtyeiv iXao-Ttjpiov * Ayaioi TTJ 'IXtaSfc and
in later authors. The word here means a votive gift, which
was brought to the deities in order to induce them to be
favourable 3 a propitiatory gift. Even one such example
would be sufficient to confirm the view of the passage in
Romans advocated above. Its evidential value is not de-
creased, but rather increased, by the fact that it is taken
from a "late" author. It would surely be a mechanical
notion of statistical facts to demand that only such con-
cepts in "profane" literature as can be authenticated before,
e.g., the time of Paul, should be available for the explana-
tion of the Pauline Epistles. For this would be to uphold
the fantastic idea that the first occurrence of a word in the
slender remains of the ancient literature must be identical
with the earliest use of it in the history of the Greek
language, and to overlook the fact that the annoying caprice
of statistics may, in most cases, rather tend to delude the
pedants who entertain such an idea.
In the case before us, however, a means has been found
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 16, 26, note 16 (p. 134) refers only to the Byzantine
Theophanes Continuatus.
2 Meyer, iv. 8 (1891), p. 164 f. and elsewhere.
1 This tXaffT-fipiov should not be described as a sacrifice.
128] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 131
of removing the objection to the " lateness " of the quotation :
iXaarripwv in the assigned meaning is found also before the
time of Paul occurring as it does in a place at which the
Apostle certainly touched in his travels (Acts 21 *) : the
Inscription of Cos No. 81 l reads thus :
o Sa/409 vTrep ra? avroKparopos
Kai&apos
Oeov vlov 2 2
This Inscription is found on a statue or on the base of
a statue, 3 at all events on a votive-gift which the " people "
of Cos erected to the gods as a l^aa-rrjpiov for the welfare of
the " son of God," Augustus. That is exactly the same use
of the word as we find later in Dion Chrysostom, and the
similarity of the respective formulae is evident.
The word is used in the same way in the Inscription of
Cos No. 347, 4 which the author cannot date exactly, but
which certainly falls within the imperial period : it occurs
upon the fragment of a pillar :
[o Sa/juos 6 t A\evri(t)v\
O-[T]&> ALL ^[r^pariy i
Trjpiov Sa/jLapxevv-
TO<? Tatov Ncop-
flavov Mocr^/co-
Thus much, then, can be derived from these three pas-
sages, as also from Josephus, vie., that, early in the imperial
period, it was a not uncommon custom to dedicate propitia-
tory gifts to the Gods, which were called l\ao"njpta. The
1 W. B. Paton and E. L. Hicks, The Inscriptions of Cos, Oxford, 1891,
p. 126.
2 For this expression see below, sub vibs 8eov.
3 The editors, p. 109, number it among the Inscriptions on votive-
offerings and statues.
4 Paton and Hicks, p. 225 f.
132 BIBLE STUDIES. [129
author considers it quite impossible that Paul should not
have known the word in this sense : if he had not already
become familiar with it by living in Cilicia, he had certainly
read it here and there in his wanderings through the
empire, when he stood before the monuments of paganism
and pensively contemplated what the piety of a dying civilisa-
tion had to offer to its known or unknown Gods. Similarly,
the Christians of the capital, whether one sees in them,
as the misleading distinction goes, Jewish Christians or
Heathen Christians, would know what a ZXao-rtfpiov was in
their time. To suppose that, in consequence of their
"magnificent knowledge of the Old Testament," 1 they
would immediately think of the kapporeth, is to overlook two
facts. First, that the out-of-the-way 2 passages referring to
the l\a<Trr)pi,ov may very well have remained unknown even
to a Christian who was conversant with the LXX : how
many Bible readers of to-day, nay, how many theologians
of to-day who, at least, should be Bible readers, if their
readings have been unforced, and not desecrated by side-
glances towards " Ritschlianism " or towards possible ex-
amination questions, are acquainted with the kapporeth ?
The second fact overlooked is, that such Christians of the
imperial period as were conversant with those passages,
naturally understood the IXacmjpiov in the sense familiar to
them, not in the alleged sense of propitiatory cover just as
a Bible reader of to-day, unspoiled by theology, finding the
word Gnadenstuhl (mercy-seat) in Luther, would certainly
never think of a cover.
That the verb irpoeOero admirably suits the i\ao-rr)pLov
taken as propitiatory gift, in the sense given to it in the Greek
usage of the imperial period, requires no proof. God has
publicly set forth the crucified Christ in His blood in view of
1 Cremer 7 , p. 448 ( = 8 , p. 476).
2 By the time of Paul the ceremony in which the kapporeth played a
part had long disappeared along with the Ark of the Covenant ; we can but
conjecture that some mysterious knowledge of it had found a refuge in
theological erudition. In practical religion, certainly, the matter had no
longer any place at all.
130] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 133
the Cosmos to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles
foolishness, to Faith a IXaa-Trjpiov. The crucified Christ is
the votive-gift of the Divine Love for the salvation of men.
Elsewhere it is human hands which dedicate to the Deity a
dead image of stone in order to gain His favour ; here the
God of grace Himself erects the consoling image, for the
skill and power of men are not sufficient. In the thought
that God Himself has erected the l\aarr)piov, lies the same
wonderful jjucopia of apostolic piety which has so inimitably
diffused the unction of artless genius over other religious
ideas of Paul. God's favour must be obtained He Himself
fulfils the preliminary conditions ; Men can do nothing at
all, they cannot so much as believe God does all in Christ :
that is the religion of Paul, and our passage in Romans is
but another expression of this same mystery of salvation.
A. Ritschl, 1 one of the most energetic upholders of the
theory that the i\a<m)piov of the passage in Romans signifies
the kapporeth, has, in his investigation of this question, laid
down the following canon of method " . . . for IXao-rrfpiov
the meaning propitiatory sacrifice is authenticated in heathen
usage, as being a gift by which the anger of the gods is
appeased, and they themselves induced to be gracious. . . .
But . . . the heathen meaning of the disputed word should
be tried as a means of explaining the statement in question
only when the biblical meaning has proved to be wholly
inapplicable to the passage." It would hardly be possible
to find the sacred conception of a "biblical" Greek more
plainly upheld by an opponent of the theory of inspiration
than is the case in these sentences. What has been already
said will show the error, as the author thinks it, of the
actual assertions they contain concerning the meaning of
IXaa-rripiov in "biblical" 2 and in "heathen" usage; his
own reflections about method are contained in the introduc-
tion to these investigations. But the case under considera-
1 Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung dargestellt,
ii. 3 , Bonn, 1889, p. 171.
2 Cf. A. Bitschl, p. 168 ; the opinions advanced there have urgent need
of correction.
134 BIBLE STUDIES. [131, 132
tion, on account of its importance, may be tested once more
by an analogy which has already been indicated above.
In the hymn Konig, dessen Majestdt, by Valentin Ernst
Loscher (|1749), there occurs the following couplet 1 :
Mein Abba, schaue Jesum an,
Den Gnadenthron der Sunder. 2
Whoever undertakes to explain this couplet has, with-
out doubt, a task similar to that of the exegete of Rom.
3 25 . Just as in the passage from Paul there is applied to
Christ a word which occurs in the Bible of Paul, so there is
in this hymn a word, similarly used, which stands in the
Bible of its author. The Apostle calls Christ a i\aa-TY)piov ;
l\ao-Tijpi.ov is occasionally found in the Greek Bible, where
the Hebrew has kapporeth : ergo Paul describes Christ as
the kapporeth ! The Saxon Poet calls Christ the Throne of
Grace (Gnadenthron) ; the Mercy-seat (Gnadenstuhl not indeed
Throne of Grace, but an expression equivalent to it) is found
in the German Bible, where the Greek has iXaar^piov, the
Hebrew kapporeth : ergo the poet describes Christ as i\a-
o-Tripiov, as kapporeth, i.e., as the lid of the Ark of the Covenant !
These would be parallel inferences according to that me-
chanical method of exegesis. The historical way of looking
at the matter, however, gives us the following picture. Kap-
poreth in the Hebrew Bible signifies the cover (of the Ark) ;
the Greek translators have given a theological paraphrase of
this conception, just as they have occasionally done in other
similar cases, in so far as they named the sacred article
l\a(TTr]piov eTriOe/jia, propitiatory cover, according to the pur-
pose of it, and then, quite generally, l\ao-rrjpi,ov, propitiatory
article ; the readers of the Greek Bible understood this
l\ao-rr]pLov in its own proper sense (a sense presupposed
also in the LXX) as propitiatory article the more so as it
was otherwise known to them in this sense ; the German
translator, by reason of his knowledge of the Hebrew text,
1 The quotation is from [C. J. Bottcher] Liederlust filr Zionspilger, 2nd
edition, Leipzig, 1869, p. 283.
2 I.e., literally : My father, look upon Jesus, the sinner's throne of
grace I Tr<
132, 133] LANGUAGE Otf THE &REEB: BIBLE. 135
again specialised the propitiatory article into a vehicle or instru-
ment of propitiation again imparting to it, however, a theo-
logical shading, in so far as he wrote, not propitiatory
cover or cover of mercy, but mercy-seat ; J the readers of the
German Bible, of course, apprehend this word in its own
proper sense, and when we read it in Bible or hymn-book, or
hear it in preaching, we figure to ourselves some Throne in
Heaven, to which we draw near that we may receive mercy and
may find grace to keep us in time of need, and nobody thinks of
anything else.
The LXX and Luther have supplied the place of the
original kapporeth by words which imply a deflection of the
idea. The links kapporeth, iXaa-rrjpiov, Gnadenstuhl cannot
be connected by the sign of equality, not even, indeed, by
a straight line, but at best by a curve.
The Greek usage of this word is also found in the
LXX's correct renderings of the corresponding Hebrew
words, viz., mast (of a ship), Is. 30 17 , 33 23 , Ezek. 27 5 , and
web (through the connecting-link weaver's-beam), Is. 59 5 * 6
(likewise Is. 38 12 , but without any corresponding word in
our text); cf. Tobit 2 12 Cod. N. In reference to this, the
author would again call attention to a little-known emenda-
tion in the text of the Epistle of Aristeas proposed by
Lumbroso. 2 M. Schmidt writes, p. 69 16, (e7reyin|re Se KOI ra>
*E\adp<p ......... ) Pvacrivwv oOovLwv et? J* TOL? e/carov,
which is altogether meaningless. We must of course read,
in accordance with Joseph. Antt. xii. 2u
e/carov), ftva-crivcov oOovicov iaTovs ercarov.
In Leviticus 2 n we find the command : ye shall not
burn incense (Wtppri) of any leaven or honey as an offering
made by fire n$N to Jahweh. The LXX translate :
1 Luther undoubtedly took this nuance from Heb. 4 16 , where the
rri$ xdpiros is spoken of : this also he translates by Gnadenstuhl.
2 Eecherches, p. 109, note 7.
136 BIBLE STUDIES. [133, 134
yap %v/jir)v KOI TTOLV fjueXi ov TT poaoicrere a?r' avrov (a mechanical
imitation of *l2ft?2) Kapirwaai Kvpiw. This looks like an in-
adequate rendering of the original : in the equation, irpoo-fyepeiv
/capTrwcrat, = burn incense as an offering made with fire, there
seems to be retained only the idea of sacrifice ; the special
nuance of the commandment seems to be lost, and to be
supplanted by a different one : for Kapirovv of course means
" to make or offer as fruit ", x The idea of the Seventy, that
that which was leavened, or honey, might be named a fruit-
offering, is certainly more striking than the fact that the
offering made by fire is here supplanted by the offering of
fruit. But the vagary cannot have been peculiar to these
venerable ancients, for we meet with the same strange
notion also in passages which are not reckoned as their
work in the narrower sense. According to 1 [3] Esd. 4 52
King Darius permits to the returning Jews, among other
things, /cal eVt TO Bvcriaarripiov 6\oKavTa)^ara KapTrovcrOat, KCL&
rjpepav, and, in the Song of the Three Children 14 , Azarias
laments teal OVK ecrrtz/ eV ro5 Kaipco rovrw ap%cov KOI
teal rfyov/jievos ovSe oXo/cauroxn,? ovSe Ovala ovbe TTpoo-^opa
6vfiLafi,a ov$e TOTTO? TQV fcapTTWcrai, evavriov crov KOA, evpelv
If then a whole burnt-offering could be spoken of as a fruit-
offering, wherefore should the same not be done as regards
things leavened and honey ?
But the LXX can be vindicated in a more honourable
way. Even their own usage of /capiroco elsewhere might
give the hint : it is elsewhere found 2 only in Deut. 26 u , OVK
eKdpTTcoaa air avrwv et? a/cdOaprov, which is meant to repre-
sent I have put away nothing thereof (i.e., of the tithes), being
unclean. In this the LXX take ^ptj5- * mean for an unclean
use, as did also De Wette, while /capTroo) for *ij?i is apparently
intended to signify put away, a meaning of the word which
is found nowhere else, 3 implying, as it does, almost the
1 0. F. Fritzsche HApAT. i. (1851), p. 32, in reference to this passage.
Thus also the Greek lexica.
2 In Josh. 5 12 we should most probably read fKapTrta-avro.
3 Schleusner explains Kapir6o> = aufero by itapirtw = decerpo, but it is
only the middle voice which occurs in this sense.
134, 135] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 137
opposite of the primary meaning to bring forth fruit. It is
not the LXX, however, who have taken KapTroco and put
away as equivalent, but rather the unscientific procedure
which looks upon verbal equations between translation and
original without further ceremony as equations of ideas.
The true intention of the Greek translators is shown by
a comparison of Lev. 2 11 and Deut. 26 14 . In the first
passage, one may doubt as to whether KapTroco is meant to
represent "VtppH or "R$M, but whichever of the two be
decided upon does not matter : in either case it represents
some idea like to offer a sacrifice made with fire. In the other
passage, KapTroco certainly stands for ^Sl, and if, indeed, the
Greek word cannot mean put away, yet the Hebrew one can
mean to burn. It is quite plain that the LXX thought that
they found this familiar meaning in this passage also : the
two passages, in fact, support one another, and ward off any
suspicion of " the LXX's " having used KapTroco in the sense
of put away and bring for ih fruit at the same time. However
strange the result may appear, the issue of our critical com-
parison is this : the LXX used KapTroco for to burn both in a
ceremonial and in a non-ceremonial sense.
This strange usage, however, has received a brilliant
confirmation. P. Stengel l has shown, from four Inscriptions
and from the old lexicographers, 2 that KapTroco must have been
quite commonly used for to burn in the ceremonial sense. 3
Stengel explains as follows how this meaning arose :
KapTTovv properly signifies to cut into pieces ; the holocausts
of the Greeks were cut into pieces, and thus, in ceremonial
language, KapTroco must have come to mean absumere, consu-
mere,
l Zu den griechischen Sacralalterthiimern, Hermes, xxvii. (1892), pp.
161 S.
2 The passages he brings forward, in which the meaning, at least, of to
sacrifice for Kapirtw is implied, may be extended by the translation sacrificium
offero given by the Itala, as also by the note " Kapiruvai, ev<rid<rcu" in the MS.
glossary (?) cited by Schleusner. Schleusner also gives references to the
ecclesiastical literature.
3 He counts also Deut. 26 14 among the LXX passages in this connec-
tion, but it is the non-ceremonial sense of to burn which Kapir6ca has there.
BIBLE STUDIES. t^5, 136
The ceremonial sense of /capTroco grows more distinct
when we notice the compound form 6\o/cap7r6co, 1 Sir. 45 14 ,
4 Mace. 18 n , Sibyll. Orac. 3 565, as also by the identity
in meaning of the substantives oXo/cap7ra>//,a = o\oKavrw^a,
and 6\otcdp7rci}(Tis = oX-o/cauroxTt?, all of which can be fully
established in the LXX and the Apocrypha as meaning, in
most cases, burnt-offering, just like /cdp7ra>/jia = /cdpTrwo-is.
These substantives are all to be derived, not from /capTros
fruit, but from the ceremonial Kapirow, to burn. 2
/card.
1. In 3 Mace. 5 s4 and Eom. 12 5 is found o /caO" efc 3 for
el? e/tao-To?, and in Mark 14 19 and John 8 9 4 the formula efc
Katf 6*9 for unusquisque. In these constructions, unknown in
classical Greek, we must, it is said, either treat efc as an
indeclinable numeral, or treat the preposition as an adverb. 5
Only in the Byzantine writers have such constructions been
authenticated. But el? ica& e/cao-ro? 6 already stands in LXX
Lev. 25 10 (/cat aTrekevaerai et? etcacrros eh TT/V KTTJO-LV avrov),
according to Cod. A. This represents tt^N, and cannot,
therefore, be explained as a mechanical imitation of the
original. What we have here (assuming that A has pre-
served the original reading) will rather be the first example
of a special usage of Kara, and thus, since it is evao-ros which
is now in question, the first, at least, of Buttmann's proposed
explanations would fall to the ground.
It is, of course, quite possible that the efc Kaff e/tacrro?
should be assigned only to the late writer of Cod. A. But
1 This of course does not "properly" signify to offer a sacrifice which
consists wholly of fruits (Grimm, HApAT. iv. [1857], p. 366), but to burn com-
2 Stengel, p. 161.
3 For the orthography cf. Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 7 g (p. 36).
4 In the non-Johannine passage about the adulteress.
6 A. Buttmann, p. 26 /., Winer-Lunemann, 37, 3 (p. 234).
6 The Concordance of Hatch and Redpath puts, very strangely, a point
of interrogation to ttaff. Holmes and Parsons (Oxf . 1798) read " Kai uncis
inchis." for /cofl'. But the fac-simile (ed. H. H. Baber, London, 1816) shows
EAT quite distinctly.
136, 137] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE.
the hypothesis of its being the original derives, as the author
thinks, further support from the following facts. The LXX
translate the absolute && by e/cao-ro? in innumerable pas-
sages. But in not a single passage except the present (ac-
cording to the ordinary text), is it rendered by efc e/ea<7Tos.
This combination, already found in Thucydides, 1 frequent
also in the " fourth " Book of Maccabees, 2 in Paul and in
Luke, is used nowhere else in the LXX, a fact which, in
consideration of the great frequency of e/caa-ros = tl^N, is cer-
tainly worthy of note. It is in harmony with this that, so
far as the author has seen, no example occurs in the con-
temporary Papyri. 3 The phrase seems to be absent from
the Alexandrian dialect in the Ptolemaic period. 4 Hence it
is a priori probable that any other reading which is given by
a trustworthy source should have the preference. Although
indeed our e? icaO' e/cacrro^ seems strange and unique, yet
this fact speaks not against, but in favour of, its being the
original. It can hardly be imagined that the copyist would
have formed the harsh el? /cad' e/cao-ros out of the every-day
el? e/e<ze7T05. But it is quite plain, on the other hand, that
the latter reading could arise from the former nay, even
had to be made from it by a fairly " educated " copyist. 5
Our reading is further confirmed not only by the analogies
cited, but also by Eev. 21 21 , ava et9 e/cao-ros TWV TTV\^VWV r}v
e j>o? fjiapjapirov : here also we have evidently an adverbial
use of a preposition, 6 which should hardly be explained as
one of the Hebraisms of Eevelation, since in 4 8 the distri-
1 A.Buttmann, p. 105.
2 In O. F. Fritzsche, Libri apocryphi V. T. graece, 4 , 5 2 , 8 5 - 8 , 13 13 (in
which the connected verb stands in the plural), 13 17 , 14 12 , 15 5 (/co0' eVa e/coo-roj/
according to AB, which codices should not be confused with the similarly
designated biblical MSS. ; cf. Praefatio, p. xxi.), 15 16 , 16 M .
3 The author cannot of course assume the responsibility of guarantee-
ing this.
4 Nor does it occur in the Epistle to the Hebrews. If we could assign
4 Mace, to an Alexandrian writer, we should have the first example of it in
that book.
5 iHence also the frequent corrections in Mark 14 19 and John 8 9 .
8 Cf. also 2 [Hebr.] Ezra 6 2 eo>s els vdvres, which indeed is perhaps a
Hebraism, and 1 Chron. 5 10 , Cod. A [N.B.] fas *drrcs (Field, i., p. 708).
140 BIBLE STUDIES. [137, 138
butive avd is made, quite correctly, to govern the accusative,
and since, further, it would be difficult to say what the
original really was which, as it is thought, is thus imitated
in Hebraising fashion.
2. " Even more diffuse and more or less Hebraising peri-
phrases of simple prepositions are effected by means of the
substantives Trpoa-WTrov, %etp, O-TO/JLO,, o^OaX/jids." l The author
considers that this general assertion fails to stand the test.
One of the phrases used by Buttmann as an example, viz.,
Kara TrpoacoTrov nvos = Kara, is already found in Pap.
Flind. Petr. i. xxi., 2 the will of a Libyan, of the year 237
B.C., in which the text of line 8 can hardly be restored other-
wise than ra fie[y rca\Ta irpoo-WTrov rov lepov.
\eirov pyeci), \eirovpryia,
" The LXX took over the word [Xeirovpyew] in order
to designate the duties of the Priests and Levites in the
sanctuary, for which its usage in profane Greek yielded no
direct support, as it is only in late and in very isolated cases
[according to p. 562, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plu-
tarch] that even one word of this family, XefcTotyryo?, occurs
as applied to priests." 3 The Papyri show, however, that
\et,Tovpyect) and \eiTovpyia were commonly used in Egypt in
the ceremonial sense. In particular, the services in the
Serapeum 4 were so designated. As examples of the verb
there should be noted here: Pap. Par. 23 5 (165 B.C.), 27 6
(same date), Pap. Lugd. B 7 (164 B.C.), E 8 (same date), Pap.
Lond. xxxiii. 9 (161 B.C.), xli. 10 (161 B.C.), Pap. Par. 29 u (161-
160 B.C.) ; of the substantive, Pap. Lugd. B 12 (164 B.C.), Pap.
1 A. Buttmann, p. 274. 2 Mahaffy, i. [59].
3 Cremer 7 , p. 560 ( = 8 , p. 592). But before this there had been noted
in the Thesaurus Oraecae Linguae, Diod. Sic. i. 21, rb rpirov p.4pos rrjs x^P as
avrols 5ouj/o: irpbs ras ruv Oea>v Bepaireias re Kal \eirovpytas.
4 Cf. upon this H. Weingarten, Der Ursprung des Monchtums, ZKG. i.
(1877), p. 30 ff., and R-E*, x. (1882), p. 780 if.
Notices, xviii. 2, p. 268. Ibid., p. 277.
7 Leemans, i., p. 9. 8 Ibid., p. 30.
a Kenyon, p. 19. 10 Ibid., p. 28.
11 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 279. ]2 Leemans, i., p. 11.
138, 139] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 141
Lond. xxii. 1 (164-163 B.C.), xli. 2 (161 B.C.), Pap. Drcsd. ii. 3 (162
B.C.), Pap. Par. 33 4 (ca. 160 B.C.). But also of other cere-
monial services elsewhere there were used \ecrovpyea), Pap.
Par. 5 5 (113 B.C.) twice ; \eirovpy La in the Papp. Lugd. G 6 ,
H 7 and J, 8 written 99 B.C. 9
Xeirovpyitcos is found not "only in biblical and
ecclesiastical Greek," 10 but occurs in a non -religious sense
six times in a taxation-roll of the Ptolemaic Period, Pap.
Flind. Petr. ii. xxxix. e. u Its use is confined, so far as
" biblical " literature is concerned, to the following Alex-
andrian compositions : LXX Exod. 31 10 , 39 1 , 12 Numb. 4 12 - 26 ,
7 5 , 2Chron. 24 14 ; Heb. I 14 .
Xn/r.
In the three passages, 2 Chron. 32 80 , 33 u , and Dan. 8 5 ,
the LXX render the direction West by \ty. Elsewhere they
use Xn/r quite accurately for South. But even in the pas-
sages cited they have not been guilty of any negligence, but
have availed themselves of a special Egyptian usage, which
might have been noticed long ago in one of the earliest-
known Papyrus documents. In a Papyrus of date 104 B.C.,
I Kenyon, p. 7. 2 Ibid., p. 28.
3 Wessely, Die griechischen Papyri Sachsens, Berichte Uber die Verhand-
lungen der Kgl. Sticks. Gesellsch. der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, philol.-histor.
Classe, xxxvii. (1885), p. 281.
4 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 289. 6 Notices, xviii. 2, pp. 137 and 143.
6 Leemans, i., p. 43. 7 Ibid., p. 49. 8 Ibid., p. 52.
9 A Berlin Papyrus of date 134 B.C. (Ph. Buttmann, AAB. 1824, hist.-
phil. Klasse, p. 92) uses \firovpyla for the duties of the funeral society men-
tioned below under \oyela. Similarly in Pap. Lond. iii., 146 or 135 B.C.
(Kenyon, pp. 46, 47). But it is doubtful whether such duties were of a cere-
monial character. Further examples of \eiTovpyeTv in the religious sense,
from the Inscriptions, in H. Anz, Subsidia ad cognoscendum Graecorum ser-
monem vulgarem e Pentateuchi versione Alexandrina repetita, Dissertationes
Philologicae Halenses, vol. xii., Halle, 1894, p. 346.
10 Cremer 7 , p. 562 ( = 8 , p. 595).
II Mahaffy, ii. [130].
12 Tromm and Cremer also give Exod. 39 43 ; probably they intend
39 41 [ 19 ], where the word is found only in Cod. 72 and the Complutensian ;
in regard to the confused state of the text, cf. Field, i., p. 160.
142 BIBLE STUDIES. [139, 140
which was elucidated by Boeckh, 1 there occurs the phrase
Xt/?o5 olxia TeQiTos. As the South (1/0x09) has been expressly
mentioned just before, this can mean only in the West the house
of Tephis. To this Boeckh 2 observes : " Xfy means South-
West in Hellas, Africus, because Libya lies South- West from
the Hellenes whence its name : Libya lies directly West
from the Egyptians ; hence XM/T is for them the West itself,
as we learn here ". The word had been already used in the
will of a Libyan, Pap. Mind. Petr. i. xxi. 3 (237 B.C.), where
similarly the connection yields the meaning West.
\oyeia.
In 1 Cor. 16 * Paul calls the collection for " the saints "
(according to the ordinary text) \oyta, and in ver. 2 says that
the \oylai must begin at once. The word is supposed to
occur for the first time here, 4 and to occur elsewhere only in
the Fathers. Grimm 5 derives it from \eyco. Both views
are wrong.
\oyeia can be demonstrated to have been used in Egypt
from the 2nd cent. B.C. at the latest : it is found in Papyrus
documents belonging to the Xoa^vraL or XoX%vrat (the
orthography and etymology of the word are uncertain), a
society which had to perform a part of the ceremonies re
quired in the embalming of bodies : they are named in one
place a$6\<j)ol ol r9 \e(,TOvp<yias ev rat? vKplai<s Trape^ofjuevoi. 6
They had the right, as members of the guild, to institute
collections, and they could sell this right. Such a collection
is called \oyeia: Pap. Land, iii. 7 (ca. 140 B.C.), Pap. Par. 5 8
1 ErUlttrung einer Agyptischen Urkunde in Griechischer Cursivschrift
vom Jahre 104 vor der Christlichen Zeitrechnung, AAB. 1820-21 (Berlin, 1822),
hist.-phil. Klasse, p. 4.
2 P. 30. 3 Mahaffy, i. [59] ; cf. [60],
4 Th. Oh. Edwards, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corin-
thians, London, 1885, p. 462, even maintains that Paul coined the word.
c Clavis 3 , p. 263.
6 Pap. Taur. i., 2nd cent. B.C. (A. Peyron, i., p. 24). Jb'or the name
brother, cf. p. 87 f. above ; veKpia A. Peyron, i., p. 77, takes to be res mortuaria.
For these guilds in general, c/., most recently, Kenyon, p. 44 f.
7 Kenyon, p. 46. 8 Notices, xviii. 2, pp. 143, i47.
140, 141] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 143
(114 B.C.) twice; Pap. Lugd. M 1 (114 B.C.). We find the
word, further, in the taxation-roll Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxxix. c, 2
of the Ptolemaic period, 3 in which it is used six times pro-
bably in the sense of tax.
The derivation of the word from Xey&> is impossible ;
\oyeia belongs to the class 4 of substantives in -da formed
from verbs in -evco. Now the verb \ojeva) to collect, which has
not been noticed in literary compositions, is found in the
'following Papyri and Inscriptions : Pap. Lond. xxiv. 5 (163 B.C.),
iii. 6 (ca. 140 B.C.), a Papyrus of date 134 B.C., 7 Pap. Taur. 8 8
(end of 2nd cent. B.C.), an Egyptian Inscription, GIG. iii.,
No. 4956 37 (49 A.D.) ; cf. also the Papyrus-fragment which
proves the presence of Jews in the Fayyum. 9
The Papyri yield also the pair TrapaXoyevco, Pap. Flind.
Petr. ii. xxxviii. 6 10 (242 B.C.) and irapaXoyela, Pap. Par. 61 n
(145 B.C.).
In regard to the orthography of the word, it is to be
observed that the spelling \oyeia corresponds to the laws of
word-formation. Its consistent employment in the relatively
well-written pre-Christian Papyri urges us to assume that
it would also be used by Paul : the Vaticanus still has it, in
1 Cor. 16 212 at least.
In speaking of the collection for 13 the poor in Jerusalem,
1 Leemans, i., p. 60. 2 Mahaffy, ii. [127].
3 This Papyrus, it is true, is not dated, but is " a fine specimen of Ptole-
maic writing" (MahafEy, ibid.), and other taxation-rolls which are published
in xxxix. date from the time of Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, i.e., the middle of
the 3rd cent. B.C. For further particulars see below, III. iii. 2.
4 Winer-Schmiedel, 16, 2a (p. 134).
6 Kenyon, p. 32. 6 Ibid., p. 47.
7 Ph. Buttmann, AAB., 1824, hist.-phil. EX, p. 92, and, on this, p. 99.
8 A. Peyron, ii., p. 45. 9 Issued by Mahafly, i., p. 43, undated.
10 Mahafty, ii. [122]. u Notices, xviii. 2, p. 351.
12 The author has subsequently seen that L. Dindorf, in the Thesaurus
Qraecae Linguae, v. (1842-1846), col. 348, had already noted \oyeia in the
London Papyrus (as in the older issue by J. Forshall, 1839). He certainly
treats \oyia and \oyeia in separate articles, but identifies the two words, and
decides for the form \oyeia.
13 For the els following \oyeta cf. p. 117 f. above.
144 BIBLE STUDIES. [141, 142
Paul has other synonyms besides \oyeia, among them Xet-
Tovpyia, 2 Cor. 9 12 . This more general term is similarly
associated with \oyeia in Pap. Lond. iii. o. 1
In 1 Cor. 16 l Donnaeus and H. Grotius proposed to
alter " \oyla " to ev\oyia, 2 as the collection is named in
2 Cor. 9 5 . This is of course unnecessary : but it does not
seem to the author to be quite impossible that, conversely,
the first evXoyiav in the latter passage should be altered to
\oyeiav. If \o<yelav were the original, the sentence would
be much more forcible ; the temptation to substitute the
known word for the strange one could come as easily to a
copyist as to the scholars of a later period.
With this double comparative in 3 John 43 cf. the
double superlative peyia-TOTaros, Pap. Lond. cxxx. 4 (1st or
2nd cent. A.D.).
In Mark 15 40 there is mentioned a '
It is a question whether the attribute refers to his age or
his stature, 5 and the deciding between these alternatives is
not without importance for the identification of this James
and of Mary his mother. In reference to this the author
would call attention to the following passages. In Pap. Lugd.
N 6 (103 B.C.) a N%OVTTI<; yiu/cpo? is named twice. Upon
this Leemans 7 observes : " quominus vocem /AiKpos de corporis
altitudine intelligamus prohibent turn ipse verborum ordo quo ante
patris nomen et hie et infra in Trapezitae subscriptions vs. 4 poni-
tur ; turn quae sequitur vox //-e'cro?, qua staturae certe non parvae
fuisse Nechyten docemur. Itaque ad aetatem referendum videtur,
et additum fortasse ut distingueretur ab altero Nechyte, fratre
1 Kenyon, p. 46. Also in line n of the same Papyrus, Xfirovpyuav
should doubtless be read instead of \eiTovpycav. Cf. also line 42 and Pap. Par.
5 (Notices, xviii. 2, top of p. 143).
2 Wetstein, ad loc. 3 Winer-Schmiedel, 11, 4 (p. 97).
4 Kenyon, p. 134. 5 B. Weiss, Meyer i. 2 7 (1885), p. 231.
6 Leemans, i., p. 69, 1 Ibid., p. 74.
142, 143] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 145
major e ; " it is, in point of fact, shown by Pap. Taur. i. that
this Nechytes had a brother of the same name. In a simi-
lar manner a Mdvprjs peyas is named in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii.
xxv. i l (Ptolemaic period). Mahaffy, 2 it is true, prefers to
interpret the attribute here as applying to the stature.
The LXX also are acquainted with (not to speak of
the idiom CLTTO piKpov eo>? neyd\ov) a usage of /utcpos to
signify age, e.g., 2 Chron. 22 l .
L. van Ess's edition of the LXX (1887) 3 still reads Is.
19 2 thus : teal ^TreyepOrjcrovrau Alyvimoi ear AlyvTrrlovs /cal
7ro\e/jLrj(Ti, avOpcoTros TOP aSe\<jboj> avrov xal avOpwiros rov
TrXr/aiov avrov , TroXt? eVt iroXiv /cai vofjios eirl VOJJLOV. In
the original the concluding words of the verse are kingdom
against kingdom. The Concordance of Tromm therefore
says vonos lex stands for JlD T>ftft regnum, and the editor
of Van Ess's LXX appears to be of the same opinion. The
correct view has long been known ; 4 the phrase should be
accented thus : ^0/1,09 eVl vo/jt,6v. 5 1/0/^09 is a terminus technicus
for a political department of the country, and was used as
such in Egypt especially, as was already known from Hero-
dotus and Strabo. The Papyri throw fresh light upon this
division into departments, though indeed the great majority
of these Papyri come from the "Archives " of the Nomos of
Arsinoe. This small matter is noted here because the trans-
lation of Is. 19, the " opao-is AlyvTrrov," has, as a whole,
been furnished by the LXX, for reasons easily perceived,
with very many instances of specifically Egyptian in com-
parison with the original, we might indeed say modern-
Egyptian local-colouring. This may also be observed in
other passages of the O.T. which refer to Egyptian con-
ditions.
1 Mahafiy, ii. [79]. 2 ii., p. 32.
3 It is true that the edition is stereotyped, but the plates were corrected
at certain places before each reprint.
4 Cf. Schleusner, Nov. Thes. s. v.
5 Thus also Tischendorf 6 (1880), and Swete (1894).
10
146 BIBLE STUDIES. [143, 144
In connection with the characteristic "biblical" con-
struction ei9 TO ovopd TWOS, x and, indeed, with the general
usage of wopa in the LXX, etc., the expression eVreuft? 49
TO rov /3<zo-tXeft)9 ovopa, which occurs several times in the
Papyri, deserves very great attention : Pap. Flind. Petr. ii.
ii. I 2 (260-259 B.C.), Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xx. ee z (241 B.C.) ;
cf., possibly, Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xlvii. 4 (191 B.C.).
Mahany 5 speaks of the phrase as a hitherto unknown
" formula ". Its repeated occurrence in indictments cer-
tainly suggests the conjecture that it must have had a tech-
nical meaning. This is, doubtless, true of eWeuft?. 6 An
evTevgis t? TO TOV /3acri,\ea)s OVO/JLO, would be a direct petition
a memorial to the King's Majesty ; 7 the name of the King
is the essence of what he is as ruler. We see how nearly
this idea of the ovopa approaches to that of the Old Testa-
ment DttJ, and how convenient it was for the Egyptian trans-
lators to be able to render quite literally the expressive word
of the sacred text.
The special colouring which ovofia often has in early
Christian writings was doubtless strongly influenced by the
LXX, but the latter did not borrow that colouring first from
the Hebrew ; it was rather a portion of what they took from
the adulatory official vocabulary of their environment. But
current usage in Asia Minor also provided a connecting link
for the solemn formula of the early Christians, viz., els TQ
OVO/JLO, with genitive of God, of Christ, etc., after it. In the
Inscription of Mylasa in Caria, Waddington, iii. 2, No. 416
GIG. ii. No. 2693 e, belonging to the beginning of the im-
perial period, 8 we find yevo/mevr/s 8e rrjs 0)1/779 TWV Trpoyeypa/n-
1 Passages in Cremer 7 , p. 676 f. ( = 8 , p. 710). 2 Mahaffy, ii. [2].
3 Ibid. [32]. 4 Ibid. [154]. B Ibid. [32]. 6 Cf. above, p. 121 f.
7 The synonymous phrase evreviv a7ro5t5<h/ai(or eVtSiStWi) T$ &affi\ei
occurs frequently in the Papyri of the 2nd cent. B.C. (Kenyon, pp. 9, 41 and
10, 11, 17, 28).
8 It is undated, but an approximate point is afforded by its affinity with
a long series of similar decrees from Mylasa (Waddington, iii. 2, Nos. 403-
415), of which No. 409 must have been written not long after 76 B.C. The
date given above seems to the author to be too late rather than too early.
144, 145] LANGUAGE OP* THE GEEEK BIBLE. 14?
fjievwv TO?? KTrjiJLaTtovais et<? TO TOU Oeov ovopa. 1 This means :
" after the sale of the afore-mentioned objects had been concluded
with the KT7]fj,a,Ta)vai, et? TO TOV Oeov [Zeus] OVO/JLO, ". In refer-
ence to the KTijfMaTtoVY)*;, which is to be found in Inscriptions
only, Waddington 2 observes that the word means the pur-
chaser of an article, but the person in question, in this con-
nection, is only the nominal purchaser, who represents the
real purchaser, i.e., the Deity ; the KTrjparwvTjs eh TO TOV
Oeov ovofjLa, is the fiddicommissaire du domaine sacre. The pas-
sage appears to the author to be the more important in that
it presupposes exactly the same conception of the word
ovofia as we find in the solemn forms of expression used in
religion. Just as, in the Inscription, to buy into the name of
God means to buy so that the article bought belongs to God, so
also the idea underlying, e.g., the expressions to baptise into
the name of the Lord, or to believe into the name of the Son of
God, is that baptism or faith constitutes the belonging to God
or to the Son of God.
The author would therefore take exception to the state-
ment that the non-occurrence of the expression iroielv TL ev
ov op CUT I TIVOS in profane Greek is due to the absence of
this usage of the Name? What we have to deal with here
is most likely but a matter of chance ; since the use of ovopa
has been established for the impressive language of the court
and of worship, it is quite possible that the phrase ev TO> ovbpaTi
TOV /8aenA,e'fc>5 or TOV Oeov may also come to light some day
in Egypt or Asia Minor.
The present example throws much light upon the de-
velopment of the meaning of the religious terms of primitive
Christianity. It shows us that, when we find, e.g., a
Christian of Asia Minor employing peculiar expressions,
which occur also in his Bible, we must be very strictly on
1 The very same formula is found in the Inscription GIG. ii. No. 2694 b,
which also comes from Mylasa, and in which, as also in GIG. ii. No. 2693 e,
Boeckh's reading rois vrnp&tw Sis efs rb TOW 0eoO ovo/ma is to be corrected by
that of Waddington.
2 In connection with No. 338, p. 104.
sCremer?, p. 678 ( = 8 , p. 712).
148 BIBLE STUDIES. [U5, us
our guard against summarily asserting a " dependence "
upon the Greek Old Testament, or, in fact, the presence of
any Semitic influence whatever. Further in III. iii. 1 below,
and Theol. Liter aturzeitung, xxv. (1900), p. 735.
The first occurrence of ra otyavia is not in Polybius ; *
it is previously found in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiii. 7 2 and
17 3 (258-253 B.C.) ; ra otyavia is found in Pap. Flind. Petr.
ii. xxxiii. a 4 (Ptolemaic period). In all three places, not
pay of soldiers, but quite generally wages; similarly Pap.
Lord, xlv. 5 (160-159 B.C.), xv. 6 (131-130 B.C.), Pap. Par. 62 7
(Ptolemaic period). The word is to be found in Inscriptions
onwards from 278 B.C. 8 Further remarks below, III. iii. 6.
This word resembles ayyapevo) in its having been di-
vested of its original technical meaning, and in its having
become current in a more general sense. It stands for
garden in general already in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xlvi. b 9
(200 B.C.), cf. xxii., 10 xxx. c, 11 xxxix. i 12 (all of the Ptolemaic
period) ; 13 similarly in the Inscription of Pergamus, Wad-
dington, iii. 2, No. 1720 b (undated). It is frequent in the
LXX, always for garden (in three of the passages, viz., Neh.
2 8 , Eccles. 2 5 , Cant. 4 13 , as representing D^S 14 ) ; so in Sir.,
Sus., Josephus, etc., frequently. Of course, TrapaSetcro? in
LXX Gen. 2 8ff - is also garden, not Paradise. The first
witness to this new technical meaning 15 is, doubtless, Paul,
2 Cor. 12 *, then Luke 23 43 and Eev. 2 7 ; 4 Esd. 7 53 , 8 52 .
1 Clavis*, p. 328. 2 Mahaffy, ii. [38]. 3 Ibid. [42]. 4 Ibid., [118].
5 Kenyon, p. 86. 6 Ibid., pp. 55, 56. 7 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 357.
8 Examples in Guil. Schmidt, De Flav. los. eloc. Fleck. Jbb. Suppl. xx.
(1894), pp. 511, 531.
9 Mahaffy, ii. [150]. 10 Ibid. [68]. n Ibid. [104]. 12 Ibid. [134].
13 Cf. also Pap. Lond. cxxxi., 78-79 A.D. (Kenyon, p. 172).
14 The Mishna still uses DT^5 only for park in the natural sense
(Schiirer, ii., p. 464, = 3 , ii., p. 553)' [Eng. Trans., ii., ii., p. 183 f., note 88].
15 Cf. G. Heinrici, Das eweite Sendschreiben des Apostel Paulus an die
Korinthier erklart, Berlin, 1887, p. 494.
147] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 149
In LXX Gen. 23 4 and Ps. 38 [39] 13 , this is the trans-
lation of lEJin ; used, most probably in consequence thereof
in 1 Pet. I 1 , 2 11 , Heb. II 13 ; authenticated only 1 in Polybius
and Athenaeus. But it had been already used in the will
of a certain Aphrodisios of Heraklea, Pap. Flind. Petr. i.
xix. 2 (225 B.C.), who calls himself, with other designations,
a TrapeTrtSrj/jLos. Mahaffy 3 remarks upon this: "in the de-
scription of the testator we find another new class, Trapeirl-
077/409, a sojourner, so that even such persons had a right to
bequeath their property ". Of still greater interest is the
passage of a will of date 238-237 B.C. 4 which gives the name
of a Jewish Trapem&^o? in the Fayyum : 5 'ATroXXaviov
7rape7r]iSr)/jt,ov 09 KOI avpio-rl 'IcovdOas Q [tfaXemu].
The verb Trapeiri^ri^ew, e.g., Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiii. 19 7
(258-253 B.C.).
The LXX use this word in almost all the relatively
numerous passages where it occurs, the Apocrypha and
Josephus 8 in every case, for the chambers of the Temple.
Sturz 9 had assigned it to the Egyptian dialect. His con-
jecture is confirmed by the Papyri. In the numerous docu-
ments relating to the Serapeum 10 at Memphis, Trao-Tofybpiov
is used, in a technical sense, of the Serapeum itself, or of
cells in the Serapeum: 11 Pap. Par. II 12 (157 B.C.), 40 13 (156
B.C.) ; similarly in the contemporary documents Pap. Par.
1 Clavis*, p. 339. 2 Mahaffy, i. [54].
3 i. [55]. 4 Ibid., ii., p. 23.
6 Upon Jews in the Fayyum cf. Mahaffy, i., p. 43 f., ii. [14].
6 'A"iro\\<&vtos is a sort of translation of the name 'IwvdQas.
7 Mahaffy, ii. [45]. The word is frequently to be found in Inscriptions ;
references, e.g., in Letronne, Becueil, i., p. 340; Dittenberger, Sylloge Nos.
246so and 2675.
8 Particulars in Guil. Schmidt, De Flav. Jos. eloc., Fleck. Jbb. Suppl.
xx. (1894), p. 511 f. Reference there also to GIG. ii., No. 2297.
9 De dialecto Macedonica et Alexandrina, p. 110 f.
10 Cf. p. 140 above. n Cf. Lumbroso, Recherches, p. 266 i
12 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 207. 13 Ibid., p. 305.
150 BIBLE STUDIES. [148,149
41 * and 37 2 in the last passage used of the '
which is described as being contained ev r&> peyakw 2aap-
tneia? The LXX have thus very happily rendered the
general term il3$7, wherever it denotes a chamber of the
Temple, by a technical name with which they were familiar.
iraa-To^opiov is also retained by several Codices in 1 Chron.
9 83 , and 2 Esd. [Hebr. Ezra] 8 29 . 4
In LXX Numb. 31 60 , Exod. 35 22 and Is. 3 20 (in the two
latter passages without any corresponding original) for brace-
let. To be found in Pap. Flind. Petr. i. xii. 5 (238-237 B.C.).
The enumeration given there of articles of finery resembles
Exod. 35 22 , and particularly Is. 3 20 ; in the latter passage
the eVoma 6 (mentioned also in the former) come immediately
after the TrepiSefta so in the Papyrus. As the original has
no corresponding word in either of the LXX passages, we
may perhaps attribute the addition to the fact that the two
ornaments were usually named together.
In 2 Mace. 4 16 , Symmachus Ps. 33 [34] 57 (here the
LXX has OXfyis, or Trapoi/cia), in the evil sense, for distress ;
it is not found first of all in Polybius, but already in Pap.
Lond. xlii. 8 (172 B.C.) ; cf. the Inscription of Pergamus No.
245 A 9 (before 133 B.C.) and the Inscription of Sestos (ca.
120 B.C.), line 25. 10
1 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 306. 2 Ibid., p. 297.
3 Cf. Brunet de Presle, ibid., and Lumbroso, Becherches, p. 266.
4 Field, i., pp. 712, 767. It is these which De Lagarde uses to deter-
mine the Lucianus: his accentuation of 1 Chron. 9 W , vaffroQopiuv, is not
correct.
6 Better reading than in Mahaffy, i. [37] ; see Mahaffy, ii., p. 22.
6 The Papyrus reads evutfia ; that is also the Attic orthography found
in a large number of Inscriptions from 398 B.C. onwards, Meisterhans 2 ,
pp. 51, 61.
7 Field, ii., p. 139. 8 Kenyon, p. 30. 9 Frankel, p. 140.
10 W. Jerusalem, Die Inschrift von Sestos und Polybios, Wiener Stztdien,
i. (1879), p. 34 ; cf. p. 50 f., where the references from Polybius are also given.
149, 150] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 151
7rpt,T/J,V(D.
The LXX use irepirefivw always in the technical sense
of the ceremonial act of circumcision- ; this technical meaning
also underlies the passages in which circumcision is meta-
phorically spoken of, e.g., Deut. 10 16 and Jer. 4 4 . The word
is never employed by the LXX in any other sense. The
usual Hebrew word TIE occurs frequently, it is true, in a
non-technical signification, but in such cases the translators
always choose another word : Ps. 57 [58] 8 aaOeveay for to be
cut off, 1 Ps. 117 [118] 10 - 1L 12 , a/j,vvo/jL(u for the cutting in
pieces (?) of enemies, Ps. 89 [90], 6 aTroTTLTrra) (of grass) for to
be cut down. 2 Even in a passage, Deut. 30 6 , where T1D, cir-
cumcise, is used metaphorically, they reject Trepirefivw and
translate by irepLtcaOapL^w^ The textual history of Ezek.
16 4 affords a specially good illustration of their severely
restrained use of language. To the original (according to
our Hebrew text) thy navel-string was not cut, corresponds, in
the LXX (according to the current text), OVK eSrjaas rov?
/Ltao-rou? o-ov, " quite an absurd translation, w T hich, however,
just because of its absolute meaninglessness, is, without
doubt, ancient tradition ". 4 But the " translation " is not
so absurd after all, if we read eBr/aav 5 with the Alexan-
drinus and the Marchalianus, 6 a reading which is supported
by the remark of Origen : 7 the LXX had translated non alii-
gaverunt ubera tua, (l sensum magis eloquii exponentes quam
verbum de verbo exprimentes". That is to say, among the
services mentioned here as requiring to be rendered to the
helpless new-born girl, the Greek translators set down some-
thing different from the procedure described by the Hebrew
author ; what they did set down corresponds in some degree
1 The author does not clearly understand the relation of this translation
to the (corrupt) original.
2 If the original should not be derived from 77^ J cf. Job 14 2 , where
the LXX translate e/c7nVro>.
3 Cf. Lev. [not Luc. as in Cremer 7 , p. 886 (= 8 , p. 931)] 19 .
4 Cornill, Das Buck des Propheten Ezechiel, p. 258.
5 Which would be translated they bound.
6 For this Codex cf. Cornill, p. 15. 7 Field, ii., p. 803.
152 BIBLE STUDIES. [150, 151
with the ev cnrapydvois aTrapyavcoOfjvai which comes later. 1
But perhaps they had a different text before them. In any
case the translation given by some Codices, 2 viz., OVK er/jujOr)
6 o/Ac/><zXo? aov, is a late correction of the LXX text by our
present Hebrew text ; other Codices read OVK ebrjaav TOU?
fj,acrTovs crov, and add the emendation OVK er/jirjd'r) 6 o//,<aXo9
crov; others do the same, but substitute 7rpieT/jbrj6r), a form
utterly at variance with LXX usage (and one against which
Jerome's non ligaverunt mamillas tuas et umbilicus tuus non est
praecisus 3 still guards), for the erjArjOr). It is this late emenda-
tion which has occasioned the idea 4 that the LXX in one
case also used rov 6fjL(j)a\6v as the object of irepLTe^veiv. This
is not correct. One may truly speak here, for once, about
a " usage " of the LXX : TrepirejAva), with them, has always
a ceremonial meaning. 5
In comparison with the verbs "Vpn, JV)3 and TIE, whiten
are rendered by Trepire^vw, the Greek word undoubtedly in-
troduces an additional nuance to the meaning ; not one of
the three words contains what the 'jrepL implies. The
choice of this particular compound is explained by the fact
that it was familiar to the LXX, being in common use as
a technical term for an Egyptian custom similar to the Old
Testament circumcision. " The Egyptians certainly practised
circumcision in the 16th century B.C., probably much earlier." 6
1 The reading OVK y/Seitraj', which is given in two late minuscules, and
from which Cornill makes the emendation OVK jfSeto-os (as a 2nd person
singular imperfect founded on a false analogy) as being the original reading
of the LXX, appears to the author to be a correction of the unintelligible
fSrjffav which was made in the Greek text itself, without reference to the
original at all.
2 Field, ii., p. 803, where a general discussion is given of the materials
which follow here.
3 Should have been circumcisus, if Jerome was presupposing Trepifr^Qr].
4 Cremer 7 , p. 886 (= 8 , p. 931). The remark is evidently traceable to
the misleading reference of Tromm.
6 Similarly ireptro/^j, occurring only in Gen. 17 12 and Ex. 4 26 . In Jer.
11 16 it has crept in through a misunderstanding of the text ; cf. Cremer 7 ,
p. 887 (= 8 ,p. 932).
6 J. Benzinger, Hebraische Archaologie, Freiburg and Leipzig, 1894,
p. 154.
151, 152] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 153
Now even if it cannot be made out with certainty that
the Israelites copied the practice from the Egyptians, yet it
is in the highest degree probable that the Greek Jews are
indebted to the Egyptians l for the word. Herodotus already
verifies its use in ii. 36 and 104 : he reports that the Egyp-
tians irepLrd/jLvovrai TO, alSola. But the expression is also
authenticated by direct Egyptian testimony : Pap. Lond.
xxiv. 2 (163 B.C.), ft>9 e#09 eorrl rot? AlyvTrrLo^ 7repi,T6fj,vecr0ai,
and Pap. Berol 7820 3 (14th January, 171 A.D., Fayyum) still
speaks several times of the irepiTfjirjdrjvaL of a boy Kara TO
If Trepirepvw is thus one of the words which were taken
over by the LXX, yet the supposition 4 that their frequent
aTrepiT/jLrjTos uncircumcised = Tny was first coined by the
Jews of Alexandria may have some degree of probability.
In the last-cited Berlin Papyrus, at least, the as yet uncir-
cumcised boy is twice described as acr^o?. 5 The document
appears to be employing fixed expressions, ao-^o? was per-
haps the technical term for uncircumcised among the Greek
Egyptians ; 6 the more definite and, at the same time,
harsher aTrepLr^ro^ corresponded to the contempt with
which the Greek Jews thought of the uncircumcised.
We need have no doubt at all about the contracted
genitive irvjxwv, 7 LXX 1 Kings 7 2 (Cod. A), 38 (Cod. A),
Esther 5 14 , 7 9 , Ezek. 40 7 , 41 22 ; John 21 8 , Eev. 21 17 . It
is already found in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xli. 8 (Ptolemaic
1 The author does not know how the Greek Egyptians came to use the
compound with -jrepi. Did the corresponding Egyptian word suggest it to
them ? Or did the anatomical process suggest it to them independently ?
2 Kenyon, p. 82, cf. p. 33. 3 BU. xi., p. 337 f., No. 347.
4 Cremer 7 , p. 887 (= 8 , p. 932).
B And circumcision as vimeiov : cf., in reference to this, LXX Gen. 17 u
and Eom. 4 u .
6 F. Krebs, Philologus, liii. (1894), p. 586, interprets &ffijfj.os differently,
vie., free from bodily marks owing to the presence of which circumcision was
forborne.
7 Winer-SchmiecU-i, 9, 6 (p. 88). 8 Mahaffy, ii. [137].
154 BIBLE STUDIES. [152, 153
period) twice ; Josephus agrees with the LXX in using
and TTTJ^V promiscuously. 1
TTCTiCT/LtO?.
In Aquila Prov. 3 8 2 watering, irrigation ; to be found in
Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. ix. 4 3 (240 B.C.).
Trpd/crcop.
In LXX Is. 3 12 for tojb despot. In the Papyri fre-
quently as the designation of an official ; the Trpdfcrcop 4
seems to have been the public accountant : 5 Pap. Flind. Petr.
ii. xiii. 17 6 (258-253 B.C.), and several other undated Papyri
of the Ptolemaic period given in Mahaffy, ii. 7
In Luke 12 58 also the word has most probably a techni-
cal meaning ; it does not however denote a finance-official,
but a lower officer of the court.
Symmachus Ps. 108 [109] n 8 uses it for ntt?3 creditor.
The LXX translate |pt old man by both Trpeo-fivTrj? and
repos. The most natural rendering was irpea-fivTris,
and the employment of the comparative TT pea PVT epos must
have had some special reason. We usually find Trpeafivrepo?
in places where the translators appear to have taken the
]gt of the original as implying an official position. That
they in such cases speak of the elders and not of the old men
is explained by the fact that they found Trpecrfivrepos already
used technically in Egypt for the holder of a communal
office. Thus, in Pap. Lugd. A 35 f. 9 (Ptolemaic period), mention
1 Guil. Schmidt, De Flav. los. eloc., Fleck. Jbb. Suppl. xx. (1894),
p. 498.
2 Field, ii., p. 315. 3 Mahaffy, ii. [24].
4 On the vpdicropcs in Athens, cf. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aris-
toteles und Athen, i., Berlin, 1893, p. 196.
5 Mahaffy, ii. [42]. 6 Ibid.
7 Further details in E. Eevillout, Le Papyrus grec 13 de Turin in the
Revue tyyptologique, ii. (1881-1882), p. 140 f.
8 Field, ii., p. 265. 9 Leemans, i., p. 3.
153, 154] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 155
is made of o Trpeo-fivrepos rfj? KW/JLI)? without doubt an
official designation, although, indeed, owing to the mutila-
tion of another passage in the same Papyrus (lines 17-23), no
further particulars as to the nature of this office can be
ascertained from it. 1 The author thinks that ol TrpeajBvrepoi,
in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. iv. 6 is 2 (255-254 B.C.) is also an
official designation ; cf. also Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxxix. a,
3 and i4. 3 Similarly, in the decree of the priests at Diospolis
in honour of Callimachus, 4 (ca. 40 B.C.), the Trpeo-fivrepoi, are
still mentioned along with the iepels rov /Aeyicrrov deov
'ApovpacrcovOijp. We have a periphrasis of the title irpev-
ftvrepos in Pap. Taur. 8eof. 5 (end of the 2nd cent B.C.), in
which the attribute TO irpea-fielov e%c0v Trapa rov? aAAou?
Tou9 ev TTJ /cMprj KaroiicovvTas is applied to a certain Erieus.
We still find ol Trpeo-fivrepoi in the 2nd century A.D. as
Egyptian village-magistrates, of whom a certain council of
three men, ol rpeh, appears to have occupied a special
position. 6
Here also then the Alexandrian translators have ap-
propriated a technical expression which was current in the
land.
Hence we must not summarily attribute the " New Testa-
ment," i.e., the early Christian, passages, in which Trpecrfiv-
Tepoi occurs as an official designation, to the " Septuagint
idiom," since this is in reality an Alexandrian one. In
those cases, indeed, where the expression is used to desig-
nate Jewish municipal authorities 7 and the Sanhedrin, 8 it
is allowable to suppose that it had been adopted by the
Greek Jews from the Greek Bible, 9 and that the Christians
1 Leemans, i., foot of p. 3. 2 Mahaffy, ii. [10]. 3 Ibid. [125].
4 GIG. iii., No. 4717 : on this, as on the title irpe<rftvTepoi in general, cf'
Lumbroso, Recherches, p. 259.
5 A. Peyron, ii.,p. 46.
6 U. Wilcken, Observationes ad historiam Aegypti provinciae Eomanae
depromptae epapyris Graecis Berolinensibus ineditis, Berlin, 1885, p. 29 f.
7 Schiirer, ii., p. 132 ff. (= 3 ii., p. 176 ff.). [Eng. Trans., ii., i., p. 150 f.]
s Ibid., p. 144 ff. (= 3 ii., p. 189 ff.). [Eng. Trans., ii., i., p. 165 ff.]
9 Cf. the use of the word irpeff&vTepoi in the Apocrypha and in Josephus.
156 BIBLE STUDIES. [154, 155
who had to translate the term the old men found it convenient
to render it by the familiar expression ol Trpea-pvrepoi. But
that is no reason for deeming this technical term a peculi-
arity of the Jewish idiom. Just as the Jewish usage is
traceable to Egypt, so is it possible that also the Christian
communities of Asia Minor, which named their superinten-
dents 7rpo-(3vT6poi, may have borrowed the word from their
surroundings, and may not have received it through the
medium of Judaism at all. 1 The Inscriptions of Asia Minor
prove beyond doubt that Trpeo-^vrepoi, was the technical term,
in the most diverse localities, for the members of a corpora-
tion : 2 in Chios, GIG. ii. Nos. 2220 and 2221 (1st cent. B.C. 3 ),
in both passages the council of the Trpeo-pvrepoi is also
named TO Trpea/Buri/cov ; in Cos, GIG. ii. No. 2508 = Paton
and Hicks, No. 119 (imperial period 4 ); in Philadelphia in
Lydia, GIG. ii. No. 3417 (imperial period), in which the
crvveSpiov T&V TTpeo-jBvTeptov? mentioned here, is previously
named jepovaia. " It can be demonstrated that in some
islands and in many towns of Asia Minor there was, besides
the Boule, also a Gerousia, which possessed the privileges of
a corporation, and, as it appears, usually consisted of Bou-
leutes who were delegated to it. Its members were called
yepovres, fyepovaiao-Tal, Trpeafivrepoi, yepaioi. They had a
1 In any case it is not correct to contrast, as does Cremer 7 , p. 816 ( =
8 , p. 858), the word eirio-Koiros, as the " Greek-coloured designation," with the
term irpecrpvTepot (almost certainly of Jewish colouring). The word was &
technical term in Egypt before the Jews began to speak of irpefffivrepoi, and
it is similarly to be found in the Greek usage of the imperial period in the
most diverse localities of Asia Minor.
2 This reference to the irpeo-fivrepoi of Asia Minor has of course a purely
philological purpose. The author does not wish to touch upon the question
regarding the nature of the presbyterial " Office ". It may have been de-
veloped quite apart from the name whatever the origin of that may have
been.
a Both Inscriptions are contemporary with No. 2214, which is to be
assigned to the 1st cent. B.C.
4 Possibly, with Paton and Hicks, p. 148, to be assigned, more exactly,
to the time of Claudius.
5 Cf. the data of Schiirer, ii., p. 147 f., note 461. [Eng. Trans, ii., i. f
p. 169, note 461.]
155, 156J LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 157
president (apxcov, Trpoardrrj^, Trpor/yovfjuevos), a secretary, a
special treasury, a special place of assembly (yepovriKov,
-ia), and a palaestra." 1 See also III. iii. 4, below.
The LXX translate the technical expression bread of the
countenance (also called row-bread [Schichtbrot] and continual
bread) , which Luther rendered Schaubrot (show-bread), in 1
Sam. 21 6 and Neh. 10 33 by ol aproi rov TrpoacoTrov, and in
Exod. 25 30 by ol apToi ol ev^ioL, but their usual rendering
is ol aproi, rfjs TrpoO evens. The usual explanation of this
TrpoOea-Ls is setting forth, i.e., of the bread before God. The
author leaves it undecided whether this explanation is cor-
rect ; but, in any case, it is to be asked how the LXX came
to use this free translation, while they rendered the original
verbally in the other three passages. The author thinks it
not unlikely that they were influenced by the reminiscence
of a ceremonial custom of their time : " Au culte se rat-
tachaient des institutions philantropiques telle que la suivante :
Le medecin Diodes cite par AthenSe (3, 110), nous apprend quil
y avait une TrpoOrjo-^ sic de pains pdriodique a Alexandrie, dans
le temple de Saturne (A\e!;avSpeis T&> Kpovco afyi
TTpoTiOeacrw ecrOLeiv rw /3ov\ofj,evcp ev T&> rov Kpovov l
Cette irpo6ecri<$ TMV aprcov se retrouve dans un papyrus du
Louvre (60 bi8 )." 2 The expression nrpbQecns aprcov is also
found in LXX 2 Chron. 13 n ; cf. 2 Mace. 10 8 .
Hitherto known only from LXX Gen. 25 25 , 1 Sam. 16 12 ,
17 42 , for ruddy. To be found in Pap. Flind. Petr. i. xvi. 1 3
(237 B.C.), xxi. 4 (237 B.C.), possibly also in xiv. 5 (237 B.C.).
1 O. Benndorf and G. Niemann, Reisen in Lykien und Karien, Vienna,
1884, p. 72.
2 Lumbroso, Reclierches, p. 280; the Papyrus passage certainly not
fully legible in Notices, xviii. 2, p. 347. Lumbroso defends his reading in
Recherches, p. 23, note 1.
3 Mahaffy, i. [47]. 4 Ibid. [59].
6 Ibid. [43]. The passage is mutilated.
158 BIBLE STUDIES. (ise, 157
In Luke 12 42 for portio frumenti ; referred to in this
passage only : to be verified by Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxxiii. a 1
(Ptolemaic period). Of. o-iro/jLerpea) in Gen. 47 12 (said of
Joseph in Egypt).
Earliest occurrence in the Eecension of Lucianus, 2 1
Sam. 17 22 , as the literal translation of 0^50 T?^ keeper of
the baggage. 5 The supposition that the word was not first
applied as a mere momentary creation of the recensionist,
but came to him on good authority, is supported by its
occurrence in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiii. 10 4 (258-253 B.C.) :
o-K6o^v\afca there is to be read <r/cvo(j>v\aKa, in accordance
with o-fcevofoXd/ciov in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. v. a 6 (before 250
B.C.).
With the o-fyvpk (vernacular aspiration 6 ) handed down
on good authority in Mark 8 8 - 20 , Matt. 15 37 , 16 10 , Acts 9 25 ,
cf. o-<j)vpi&a in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xviii. 2 a 7 (246 B.C.), though
we should observe the reading o-irvpiSiov in Pap. Flind. Petr.
Z d 8 (Ptolemaic period). Further remarks in III. i. 2, below.
Among other words, the translation of which by
is more or less intelligible, TtyD stronghold Nah. 3 11 , and
footstool 1 Chron. 28 2 , are rendered in the same way
1 Mahaffy, ii. [113]. In this an olKov&fjios submits an account of his house-
keeping. The present writer thinks that the o-iro/terpio which occurs in this
account should be taken as the plural of ffirofierpiov, and not as a singular,
ffirofierpia. The passage is mutilated.
2 Edited by De Lagarde, Librorum V. T. canonicorum pars prior graece,
Gottingen, 1883.
3 The simple <}>6\aKos of our LXX text is marked with an asteriscus by
Origen, Field, i., p. 516.
4 Mahaffy, ii. [39]. 6 Ibid. [16]. On ffKfvo<t>v\dKiov cf. Suidas.
6 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 27 e (p. 60).
7 Mahaffy, ii. [59]. 8 Ibid., p. 33.
157, 158] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 159
by the LXX, and Symmachus l uses o-rao-t? in Is. 6 13 for
rQ&O root-stock (truncus) or young tree, cutting;* certainly
a very remarkable use of the word, and one hardly explained
by the extraordinary note which Schleusner 3 makes to the
passage in Nahum : " o-racrt? est firmitas, consistentia, modus
et via subsistendi ac resistendi ". What is common to the
above three words translated by crrao-t? is the idea of secure
elevation above the ground, of upright position, and this fact
seems to warrant the conjecture that the translators were
acquainted with a quite general usage of eraa-is for any
upright object. 4 "
This conjecture is confirmed by Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xiv.
3 5 (Ptolemaic period?), i.e., if the o-racret? which is found
in this certainly very difficult passage be rightly interpreted
as erections, buildings? This use of the word seems to the
author to be more certain in an Inscription from Mylasa in
Caria, GIG. ii. No. 2694 a (imperial period), in which Boeckh
interprets the word a-rda-eis (so restored by him) as stabula.
arvyyevr)?.
In the Old Testament Apocryphal books there is found
not infrequently the expression kinsman of a king. Like
riend, 7 etc., it is a court-title, which was transferred from
the Persian usage to the language of Alexander the Great's
court, and thence became very common among the Diadochi.
Compare, in regard to Egypt, the exhaustive references in
Lumbroso ; 8 in regard to Pergamus, the Inscription No.
248, line 28 f. (135-134 B.C.). 9
1 Field, ii., p. 442.
2 In the LXX this passage is wanting ; Aquila translates (rr^Aoxm ;
Theodotion, <rHj\ov*a (Field, ibid.).
3 Nwus Thesaurus, v. (1821), p. 91.
4 Of. the German Stand for market-stall. [Also the English stand =
support, grand-stand, etc. Tr.]
5 Mahaffy, ii. [51]. 6 Ibid., p. 30. 7 Of. sub <f>t\os below.
8 Recherches, p. 189 f. Also the Inscription of Delos (3rd cent. B.C.),
Bull, de corr. hell. iii. (1879), p. 470, comes into consideration for Egypt : the
there named is ffvyyevfys j8a<n\es
9 Frankel, pp. 1GG and 505.
160 BIBLE STUDIES. [iss, 159
Used in Luke 22 63 of the officers who held Jesus in
charge; in the same sense Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xx. 1 (252 B.C.).
In Eev. 18 13 crco/jiara stands for slaves, crwfia was used
for person in very early times, and already in classical
Greek the slaves were called o-u>^ara ol/cenKa or Bov\a. z
O-W/JLO, alone without any such addition is not found used
for slave earlier than in LXX Gen. 34 29 (36 6 ), 3 Tob. 10 10 ,
Bel and the Dragon 32 , 2 Mace. 8 11 , Ep. Arist. (ed. M.
Schmidt), p. 1629, in Polybius and later writers. The
Greek translators of the 0. T. found the usage in Egypt :
the Papyri of the Ptolemaic period yield a large number of
examples, cf. especially Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxxix. 4
The LXX translate "Vlftn ass in very many places by
yiov -(cf. also Theodotion Judg. 5 10 , 5 19 106 [also the
Alexandrinus and the recension of Lucianus read vTro&ylcov
in both passages], Symmachus Gen. 36 247 )- Similarly,
vTTovyi,ov stands for ass in Matt. 21 5 (cf. Zech. 9 9 ) and 2 Pet.
2 16 . 8 This specialising of the original general term draught
animal, beast of burden, is described by Grimm 9 as a usage
peculiar to Holy Scripture, which is explained by the im-
portance of the ass as the beast of burden /car' efo%??V in the
East. A statistical examination of the word, however, might
teach us that what we have to deal with here is no " biblical "
1 Mahaffy, ii. [61].
2 Oh. A. Lobeck ad Phryn. (Leipzig, 1820), p. 378.
3 Cf. the old scholium to the passage, ffcafiara TO*JS 8ov\ovs faus \eyei
(Field, i., p. 52).
4 Mahaffy, ii. [125] ff. 5 Field, i., p. 412.
6 Ibid., p. 464. 7 Ibid., p. 52 f.
8 In this passage the interpretation ass is not in any way necessary ;
the she-ass of Balaam, which is called ?j ovos in the LXX, might quite well
be designated there by the general term beast of burden.
* Clavis*, p. 447.
159, 161] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 161
peculiarity, but, at most, a special usage of the LXX which
may possibly have influenced other writings. But even the
LXX do not occupy an isolated position in regard to it ;
the truth is rather that they avail themselves of an already-
current Egyptian idiom. It seems to the author, at least,
that the " biblical " usage of vTrotyyiov is already shown in
the following passages : Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxii. 1 (Ptolemaic
period), where ftov? 2 fj VTTO&JIOV rj irpo^arov are mentioned
after one another ; Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxv. d 3 (2nd half of
3rd cent. B.C.), where the donkey-drive? Horos gives a receipt
for money due to him by a certain Charmos in respect of
: 0/1-0X076^/2/005 bvrfkdrrjs *%eiv Trapa Xdp/jiov SeovTa
/cara crvpjBdXov ; similarly in the same Papyrus i.*
Grimm's remark may, of course, be turned to account
in the explanation of this idiom.
wo? (reicvov).
Those circumlocutions by which certain adjectival con-
ceptions are represented by u/o? or rewov followed by a
genitive, and which are very frequent in the early Christian
writings, are traced back by A. Buttmann 5 to an " influence
of the oriental spirit of language " ; they are explained
by Winer-Liinemann 6 as "Hebrew-like circumlocution,"
which however is no mere idle circumlocution, but is due
to the more vivid imagination of the oriental, who looked
upon any very intimate relationship whether of connection,
origin or dependence as a relation of sonship, even in the
spiritual sphere. According to Grimm, 7 these periphrases
spring " ex ingenio linguae hebraeae," and Cremer 8 describes
them as " Hebrew-like turns of expression in which vid? .
is used analogously to the Hebr. pi".
In order to understand this " New Testament " idiom,
it is also necessary to distinguish here between the cases in
1 Mahafly, ii. [68]. 2 It should be stated that Mahaffy sets a ? to ftovs.
3 Mahaffy, ii. [75]. 4 Ibid. [79].
5 Gramm. des neutest. Sprachgebrauchs, p. 141.
6 34, 36, note 2 (p. 223 1). 7 Clavis*, p. 441.
* 7th edition, p. 907 = 8 , p. 956.
11
162 BIBLE STUDIES. [161, 162
which this "periphrastic" vlo<; or retcvov 1 occurs in trans-
lations of Semitic originals, and the instances found in texts
which were in Greek from the first. This distinction gives
us at once the statistical result that the circumlocution is
more frequent in the former class than in the latter. One
should not, therefore, uniformly trace the " New Testament "
passages back to the influence of an un-Greek " spirit of
language," but, in the majority of cases, should rather speak
merely of a translation from the Semitic. What occasioned
the frequent vlos or re/cvov was no " spirit of language "
which the translators may have brought to their task, but
rather the hermeneutic method into which they were un-
consciously drawn by the original.
First as regards vlos : such translations occur in the fol-
lowing passages, Mark 2 19 = Matt. 9 15 = Luke 5 34 , ol viol
rov vvpfywvos, a saying of Jesus. Mark 3 17 , viol fipovrrjs,
where the original, Boavepyes or Boavrjpye^, is also given,
and the equation ftoave or fioavrj = 153, * s certainly evident.
Matt. 8 12 = 13 38 , ol viol rr}s /3ao~i\eias, sayings of Jesus.
Matt. 13 38 , ol viol rov Trovrjpov, a saying of Jesus. Matt.
23 15 , vlbv 766^779, a saying of Jesus. Matt. 21 5 , vlbv
translation 2 of the Hebrew Mi2hfc, Zech. 9 9 .
1 The solemn expression viol or reicva Oeov has, of course, no connection
with this, as it forms the correlative to 6ebs -n-ar-fip.
2 One dare hardly say, with respect to this passage, that " Matthew "
" quotes " from the original Hebrew text ; the present writer conjectures that
"Matthew," or whoever wrote this Greek verse, translated its Hebrew
original, which, already a quotation, had come to him from Semitic tradition.
The Old Testament quotations of " Matthew " agree, in most passages, with
the LXX : wherever the Semitic tradition contained words from the Hebrew
Bible, the Greek translator just used the Greek Bible in his work, i.e., of
course, only when he succeeded in finding the passages there. The tradition
gave him, in Matt. 21 5 , a free combination of Zech. 9 9 and Is. 62 n as a word
of " the Prophet " : he could not identify it and so translated it for himself,
A similar case is Matt. 13 35 ; here the tradition gave him, as a word of " the
Prophet Isaiah," a saying which occurs in Ps. 78 2 , not in Isaiah at all ; but
as he could not find the passage, ^u^i/evo-e 8' avrk us fa Swards. Similarly.
in Mark I 2f -, a combination of Mai. 3 1 and Is. 40 3 is handed down as a
word of " the Prophet Isaiah " : only the second half was found in Isaiah
and therefore it is quoted from the LXX ; the first half, however, which the
Greek Christian translator could not find, was translated independently, and,
163] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 163
Luke 10 6 , mo? elpijvrjs, a saying of Jesus. Luke 16 8 and
20 34 , 01 viol rov alwvos rovrov, sayings of Jesus. Luke 16 8 ,
TOU? viovs rov <&>To?, a saying of Jesus. -Luke 20 36 , TT}?
viol, a saying of Jesus. Acts 4 36 , wo? Trapa-
, where the ostensible original, Bapva/Bas, 1 is also
given. The vie Sia/36\ov, Acts 13 10 , should also be men-
tioned here, as the expression clearly forms a sarcastic
antithesis to Bapiijaov, son of Jesus (verse 6).
As regards rewov, we have the same phenomenon in
(Matt. II 19 =) Luke 7 35 , r&v re/cvwv avrfjs [0-0^09], a saying
of Jesus.
Similarly quotations and manifest analogical formations
should not be taken into consideration in a critical exami-
nation of the original idiom; e.g., viol <o>T09 in 1 Thess. 5 5
(here also the analogical formation viol r)/j,epa<i) and John
12 36 (cf. reKva <a>T6?, Ephes. 5 8 ) should probably be taken
as a quotation from Luke 16 8 , or of the saying of Jesus pre-
served there, but in any case as an already familiar phrase ;
ol viol rwv Trpocfrrjrcov, Acts 3 25 , is a quotation of a combina-
tion which had become familiar from LXX 1 Kings 20 35 , 2
Kings 2 3 - 5 - 7 the following /cal [viol] rr}? Stat^/n?? is an
analogical formation ; o wo? rfj? aira>\uis, 2 Thess. 2 3 and
John 17 12 is an echo of LXX Is. 57 4 re/cva a-TnoXeta? ; ra
re/cva rov Sia/3ci\ov 1 John 3 10 is perhaps an analogical for-
mation from ol viol rov Trovrjpov, Matt. 13 38 .
There remain, then, the combination viol T% aTreiQdas
(Col. 3 6 ), Eph. 2 2 , 5 6 , and'its antithesis rexva vTrafcof)?, 1 Pet.
e7rayye\ias, Gal. 4 28 , Bom. 9 8 , and its
in the form in which it occurs in Matt. 11 10 and Luke 7 **, it is taken over
as an anonymous biblical saying. In all these passages we have to do with
biblical sayings which do not form part of the discourses of Jesus or of His
friends or opponents, and which therefore do not belong to the earliest
material of the pre-Synoptic Gospel tradition. But the peculiar character
of the quotations just discussed, which the author cannot interpret in any
other way, requires us to postulate that a sort of " synthetic text " (verbin-
dender Text), and, in particular, the application of certain definite 0. T.
words to Christ, had been added, at a very early period, to this primitive
Semitic tradition ; here and there in the Gospels we can still see, as above,
the method by which they were rendered into Greek.
1 See further p. 307 f. below.
164 BIBLE STUDIES. [164
antitheses Ka-rdpas retcva, 2 Pet. 2 14 , 7/cva opyrjs, Eph. 2 3
But it is not at all necessary, even for the explanation of
these expressions, to go back to the Hebrew spirit or to the
oriental genius of language. The system followed by the
Alexandrian translators of the Old Testament may furnish
us here with an instructive hint. In innumerable cases
their task was to render into Greek an exceedingly large
number of those characteristic Semitic turns of expression
formed with TSL. True, they rendered not a few of those
cases by the corresponding constructions with vtos ; but
very frequently, too, translating freely (as we might say),
they found substitutes for them in Greek expressions of a
different character. But such a procedure, in view of the
comparative scrupulosity with which in general they follow
the original, must surely surprise us, if we are to pre-suppose
in them, as in the early Christian writers, a certain Semitic
" genius of language " lying in reserve, as it were, and
behind their " feeling " for the Greek tongue. Had they
always imitated that characteristic J3, by using vlos, then it
might have been maintained with some plausibility that
they had seized the welcome opportunity of translating
literally and, at the same time, of giving scope to the non-
Hellenic tendencies of their nature in the matter of language ;
as they, however, did not do this, we may be permitted
to say that they had no such tendency at all. We give
the following cases, 1 from which this fact may be deduced
with certainty: "Son" of Man, Is. 56 2 , Prov. 15 n = avOpa-
7T09 ; son of the uncle, Numb. 36 n = dve^fnos ; son of the she-
asses, Zech. 9 9 = TroiXo? i/eo? ; 2 " son " of the month, often, =
/jirjviaios ; "son" of the dawn, Is. 14 12 = Trpcal' dvareXkwv ;
" son " of strangers, often, = d\\o<yevr]s or d\\6(f>v\os ; " son "
of the people, Gen. 23 n = Trohirrj? ; " son " of the quiver, Lam.
3 13 = tol 3 {fraperpas ; " son " of strength, 2 Chron. 28 6 = Svva-
1 These might be added to.
2 The translator of the same combination in Matt. 21 6 has scrupulously
imitated the original by his vibs farofaiov.
3 Thus the unanimous tradition of all the Codices except 239 and the
Syro-Hexaplar (Field, ii., p. 754) which read viol Qaperpas, an emendation
prompted by the Hebrew text.
165,166] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 165
TO? la-'xyl ; " son " of misery, Prov. 31 5 = aa-Oevr)^ ; " son " of
strokes, Deut. 25 2 = af to? TrXrjycov. And if, on the other
hand, cases can be pointed out in which the LXX imitate *
the characteristic \% 9 then the vlos of the Greek text is not
to be forthwith explained as caused by the translators' ori-
ental way of thinking, but rather as due to the original. At
the very most we might speak of a " Hebraism of transla-
tion," but not of a Hebraism simply. 2 But we are of
opinion that it is not at all necessary, in this matter, to
have recourse to a Hebraism in every case ; we cannot, at
least, perceive why such constructions 3 as LXX Judg. 19 22
viol Trapavofjiwv, 1 Sam. 20 31 vto? Qavdrov, 4 2 Sam. 13 28 viol
2 Esd. [Hebr. Ezra] 4 1 , 10 7 16 [not 6 19 ] viol
Hos. [not Ezek.] 2 4 reicva vropveias, Is. 57 4 re/eva
a7rco\eias, should be looked upon as un-Greek. 5 It is true, of
course, that a Corinthian baggage-carrier or an Alexandrian
donkey-driver would not so speak the expressions are
meant to be in elevated style and to have an impressive
sound ; but for that very reason they might have been used
by a Greek poet. Plato uses the word e/cyovos 6 in exactly
the same way : Phaedr., p. 275 D, efcyova TT?? Zcoypatfrias and
Bep., pp. 506 E and 507 A, efcyovo? TOV ayadov (genitive of
TO ayadov). In the impressive style of speech on inscriptions
and coins we find vios in a number of formal titles of honour 7
such as vib$ TT}? <yepovcrla<$, vib<; TT)? TroXeo)?, vibs TOV
1 The author does not know in what proportion these cases are dis-
tributed among the several books of the LXX, or to what degree the special
method of the particular translator influenced the matter.
2 The genus "Hebraisms" must be divided into two species, thus:
" Hebraisms of translation," and " ordinary Hebraisms".
3 These are the passages given by Cremer 7 , pp. 907 and 901 ( = 8 , pp.
956 and 950) with the references corrected.
4 In the passage 2 Sam. 2 7 , cited by Cremer for viAs davdrov, stands
SwaTofa. Probably 2 Sam. 12 5 is meant.
5 LXX Ps. 88 [89] M vtos dvo/ifas, and 1 Mace. 2 47 vlbs rfc
may be added to these.
6 The references to this in the Claws 3 , p. 429, at the end of the article
T&KVOV, are not accurate.
7 Particulars in Waddington, iii. 2, p. 26.
8 On this cf. also Paton and Hicks, The Inscriptions of Cos, p. 126 f.
vlos yepova-ias is also found in these, Nos. 95-97.
166 BIBLE STUDIES. [166, 167
vib? 'AQpoSicriecov, etc. And thus, though the vlos of the
biblical passages above may have been occasioned, in the
first instance, by the original, yet no one can call it un-
Greek. W. Schulze has also directed the author's attention
to the vlbs rvxys in the Tragedians, and films fortunae in
Horace.
Our judgment, then, in regard to the philological history
of the above-cited expressions (Greek from the first) in Paul
and the Epistles of Peter, may be formulated somewhat in
this way. In no case whatever are they un-Greek ; they
might quite well have been coined by a Greek who wished to
use impressive language. Since, however, similar turns of
expression are found in the Greek Bible, and are in part
cited by Paul and others, the theory of analogical formations
will be found a sufficient explanation.
o vibs rov Oeov.
It is very highly probable that the " New Testament "
designation of Christ as the Son of God goes back to an " Old
Testament " form of expression. But when the question is
raised as to the manner in which the " Heathen-Christians "
of Asia Minor, of Rome, or of Alexandria, understood this
designation, it seems equally probable that such " Old Testa-
ment presuppositions " were not extant among them. We
are therefore brought face to face with the problem whether
they could in any way understand the Saviour's title of
dignity in the light of the ideas of their locality. If this
solemn form of expression was already current among them
in any sense whatever, that would be the very sense in which
they understood it when they heard it in the discourses of
the missionary strangers : how much more so, then, seeing
that among the " heathen " the expression Son of God was
a technical term, and one which therefore stamped itself all
the more firmly upon the mind. When the author came
upon the expression for the first time in a non-Christian
document (Pap. Berol. 7006 l (Fayyum, 22nd August, 7 A.D.):
Toi>9 \K\TOV KOL TpiaKO(TTov [r?}?] KaiGapos /cpartfa-ecos Oeov
1 BU. vi., p. 180, No. 174.
167, 159, 160] LANGUAGE Otf THE GREEK BIBLE. 167
viov, where without doubt the Emperor Augustus is de-
scribed as 6eov wo?), he had no idea how very frequently
the title is used for Augustus in the Inscriptions. Since
that time he has become convinced that the matter stands
thus : uJo? deov is a translation of the dim filius which is
equally frequent in Latin Inscriptions.
Since, then, it is established that the expression uto?
6eov was a familiar one in the Graeco-Roman world from
the beginning of the first century, 1 we can no longer ignore
the fact ; it is indirectly of great importance for the history
of the early-Christian title of Christ. The fact does not of
course explain its origin or its primary signification, but it
yields a contribution to the question as to how it might be
understood in the empire. 2 It must be placed in due con-
nection with what is said by Harnack 3 about the term
as used in the imperial period.
Friend was the title of honour given at the court of the
Ptolemies to the highest royal officials. " Greek writers, it
is true, already used this name for the officials of the Persian
king ; from the Persian kings the practice was adopted by
Alexander, and from him again by all the Diadochi ; but we
meet it particularly often as an Egyptian title." 4 The LXX
1 Particular references are unnecessary. The author would name only
the Inscription of Tarsus, interesting to us by reason of its place of origin,
Waddington, iii. 2, No. 1476 (p. 348), also in honour of Augustus :
A.vroKpdropa Kai]<rapa Oeov vlbv "SePaffrbv
6 8TJfji]os 6 Tapffewv.
Perhaps the young Paul may have seen here the expression Son of God for
the first time long before itgcame to him with another meaning.
8 It may be just indicated here that the history of the terms used by
Christians of the earlier time teaches us that other solemn expressions of
the language of the imperial period were transferred to Christ.
3 Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, i. 2 , Freiburg, 1888, pp. 103, 159. [Eng.
Trans., i., pp. 116 f., 179 f.]
4 Jacob, ZAW. x., p. 283. The examples in the Papyri and the Inscrip-
tions are exceedingly numerous. Cf., in addition to the literature instanced
by Jacob, Letronne, Bech., p. 58, A. Peyron, i., p. 56, Grimm, HApAT. iii.
(1853), p. 38, Letronne, Notices, xviii. 2, p. 165, Bernays, Die heraklitischen
Brief e, p. 20, Lumbroso, Bech., pp. 191 ff., 228.
168 BIBLE STUDIES. [ieo, 161
were, therefore, quite correct (from their standpoint) in trans-
lating ^to prince by </\o9, Esth. 1 3 , 2 18 , 6 9 , a fact not
taken into consideration in the Concordance of Hatch and
Redpath and the same usage is exceedingly frequent in
the Books of Maccabees. 1 We think it probable that the
Alexandrian writer of the Book of Wisdom was following
this idiom when he spoke of the pious as <tA,ou? 6eov (Wisd.
7 27 , cf. v. u ) ; similarly the Alexandrian Philo, Fragm. (M.)
ii., p. 652, 7r9 CT0005 06ov <j)l\os, and De Sobr. (M.) i., p. 401,
where he quotes the saying in LXX Gen. 18 17 (in our text
ov p>rj /cpv-^ra) eya) airo 'Afipaajj, rov TratSo? JJLOV) thus : fiy
7riKa\v^lrci) e<yco CLTTO 'A/Bpaap rov <j)i\ov z fiov. In explaining
this, reference is usually made to Plato Legg. iv., p. 716, o
/lev o-axpptov 6ea> <pi\o<?, opoios yap ; but, although it is not to
be denied that this passage may perhaps have exercised an
influence in regard to the choice of the expression, yet the
Alexandrians would, in the first instance, understand it 3 in
the sense to which they had been pre-disposed by the above-
mentioned familiar technical usage of <f>l\o$ : (f>i\o<; deov
denotes high honour in the sight of God 4 nothing more
nor less. The question whether friend of God is to be inter-
preted as one who loved God or as one whom God loved, is not
only insoluble 5 but superfluous. Philo and the others would
hardly be thinking of a " relation of the will . . . . , such, how-
ever, that the benevolence and love of God towards men are
to be emphasised as its main element ", 6
In John 15 15 ov/cert \eyco y/^a? SouXov? . . . v/^a? Be
1 The expression <(>l\os rov Kalffapos, John 19 12 , is doubtless to be under-
stood in the light of Roman usage ; but, again, amicus Caesaris is most likely
dependent upon the court speech of the Diadochi.
2 Cf. James 2 s53 , Clem. Rom. 1 Cor. 10 *, 17 2 .
3 The expression Gottesfreund (friend of God), again, used by the Ger-
man mystics, is certainly dependent on the biblical passages, but they use
it in a sense different from that mentioned in the text.
4 The designation of Abraham in particular (the standard personality
of Judaism and of earlier Christianity) as the (f>l\os Qeov accords with the
position of honour which he had in Heaven.
8 W. Beyschlag, Meyer, xv. 5 (1888), p. 144.
6 Grimm, HApAT. vi. (1860), p. 145.
167, 168] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 169
eipr/tca <t\ou9, as can be seen by the contrast, c^Xo? has, of
course, its simple sense of friend.
In Corinth the Gospel was understood otherwise than
in Jerusalem, in Egypt otherwise than in Ephesus. The
history of our Religion, in its further course, manifestly
shows distinct phases of Christianity : we see, in succession
or side by side, a Jewish Christianity and an International
a Roman, a Greek, a German and a Modern. The historical
conditions of this vigorous development are to be found to a
large extent in the profusion of the individual forms which
were available for the ideas of the Evangelists and the
Apostles. The variation in the meaning of religious terms
has not always been to the disadvantage of religion itself :
the Kingdom of God is not in words.
III.
FUETHEE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTOKY
OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE,
BEING NEUE BIBELSTUDIEN, MARBURG, 1897.
6 & dyO
(TTW 6 KO<T/XOS.
FUETHEE CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE HISTOEY OF
THE LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE.
In the third article 1 of Bibelstudien we endeavoured
to correct the widespread notion that the New Testa-
ment presents us with a uniform and isolated linguistic
phenomenon. Most of the lexical articles in that section
were intended to make good the thesis that a philological
understanding of the history of New Testament (and also of
Septuagint) texts could be attained to only when these were
set in their proper historical connection, that is to say, when
they were considered as products of later Greek.
Friedrich Blass in his critique 2 of Bibelstudien has ex-
pressed himself with regard to this inquiry in the following
manner :
The third treatise again 3 begins with general reflections, the purport
of which is that it is erroneous to regard New Testament, or even biblical,
Greek as something distinct and isolated, seeing that the Papyrus documents
and the Inscriptions are essentially of the same character, and belong simi-
larly to that " Book of Humanity " to which " reverence " (Pietdt) is due. 4
1 I.e. the foregoing article. The present article was published later by
itself.
2 ThLZ. xx. (1895), p. 487.
3 This again refers to a previous remark in which Blass had " willingly
conceded " to the author his " general, and not always short, reflections ".
4 Blass has here fallen into a misunderstanding. The present writer
remarked (above, p. 84) that he who undertakes to glean materials from
the Inscriptions for the history of the New Testament language, is not
merely obeying the voice of science, " but also the behests of reverence to-
wards the Book of Humanity". The "Book of Humanity" is the New
Testament. We are of opinion that every real contribution, even the
slightest, to the historical understanding of the N. T. has not only scientific
value, but should also be made welcome out of reverence for the sacred
Book. We cannot honour the Bible more highly than by an endeavour to
attain to the truest possible apprehension of its literal sense.
174 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 2
This appears to us to be the language of naturalism rather than of theology ;
but, this apart, it remains an incontestable fact that, in the sphere of Greek
literature, the New Testament books form a special group one to be pri-
marily explained by itself ; first, because they manifest a peculiar genius,
and, secondly, because they alone, or almost alone, represent the popular
in contrast to the literary speech of their time in a form not indeed wholly,
but yet comparatively, unadulterated, and in fragments of large extent. All
the Papyri in the world cannot alter this even were there never so many
more of them : they lack the peculiar genius, and with it the intrinsic value ;
further, they are to a considerable extent composed in the language of the
office or in that of books. True, no one would maintain that the N. T. occu-
pies an absolutely isolated position, or would be other than grateful x if some
peculiar expression therein were to derive illumination and clearness from
cognate instances in a Papyrus. But it would be well not to expect too
much.
The author must confess that he did not expect this
opposition from the philological side. 2 The objections of
such a renowned Graecist renowned also in theological
circles certainly did not fail to make an impression upon
him. They prompted him to investigate his thesis again,
and more thoroughly, and to test its soundness by minute
and detailed research. But the more opportunity he had of
examining non-literary Greek texts of the imperial Roman
period, the more clearly did he see himself compelled to
stand out against the objections of the Halle Scholar.
Blass has meanwhile published his Grammar of New
Testament Greek. 3 In the Introduction, as was to be ex-
pected, he expresses his view of the whole question. The
astonishment with which the present writer read the fol-
lowing, p. 2, may be conceived :
. . . The spoken tongue in its various gradations (which, according to
the rank and education of those who spoke it, were, of course, not absent
from it) comes to us quite pure in fact even purer than in the New Testa-
ment itself in the private records, the number and importance of which are
1 Blass writes denkbar, conceivable, but the sentence in that case seems
to defy analysis. After consultation with the author, the translator has sub-
stituted danhbar, and rendered as above. Tr.
2 He noticed only later that Blass had previously, ThLZ. xix. (1894),
p. 338, incidentally made the statement that the New Testament Greek
should " be recognised as something distinct and subject to its own laws ",
3 Gottingen, 1896. [Eng. Trans., London, 1898.]
N. 3] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 175
constantly being increased by the ever-growing discoveries in Egypt. Thus
the New Testament language may be quite justly placed in this connection,
and whoever would write a grammar of the popular language of that period
on the basis of all these various witnesses and remains, would be, from the
grammarian's point of view, taking perhaps a more correct course than one
who should limit himself to the language of the N. T. 1
If the present writer judges rightly, Blass has, in these
sentences, abandoned his opposition to the thesis ahove
mentioned. For his own part, at least, he does not perceive
what objection he could take to these words, or in what
respect they differ from the statements the accuracy of
which had previously been impugned by Blass. When in
the Grammar we read further :
Nevertheless those practical considerations from which we started will
more and more impose such a limitation, for that which some Egyptian or
other may write in a letter or in a deed of sale is not of equal value with that
which the New Testament authors have written
it can hardly need any asseveration on the author's part that
with such words in themselves he again finds no fault. For
practical reasons, on account of the necessities of biblical
study, the linguistic relations of the New Testament, and of
the Greek Bible as a whole, may continue to be treated by
themselves, but certainly not as the phenomena of a special
idiom requiring to be judged according to its own laws.
Moreover, that view of the inherent value of the ideas
of the New Testament which Blass again emphasises in the
words quoted from his Grammar, does not enter into the
present connection. It must remain a matter of indifference
to the grammarian whether he finds edv used for av in the
New Testament or in a bill of sale from the Fayyum, and
the lexicographer must register the Kvpiaicos found in the
pagan Papyri and Inscriptions with the same care as when
it occurs in the writings of the Apostle Paul.
The following investigations have been, in part, arranged
on a plan which is polemical. For although the author is
now exempted, on account of Blass's present attitude, from
any need of controversy with him as regards principles, still
1 In the note to this Blass refers to the author's Bibelstudien, p. 57 f.
(above, p. 63 f.).
176 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.4
the historical method of biblical philology has very many
opponents even yet.
In this matter, one thinks first of all of the unconscious
opponents, viz., those who in the particular questions of
exegesis and also of textual criticism stand under the charm
of the " New Testament " Greek without ever feeling any
necessity to probe the whole matter to the bottom. Among
these the author reckons Willibald Grimm (not without the
highest esteem for his lasting services towards the reinvigora-
tion of exegetical studies), the late reviser of Wilke's
Clavis Novi Testamenti Philologica. A comparison of the
second, 1 and the little-changed third, 2 edition of his work
with the English revision of Joseph Henry Thayer 3 the
best, because the most reliable of all dictionaries to the
N. T. known to us reveals many errors, not only in its
materials, but also in its method. His book reflects the
condition of philological research in, say, the fifties and
sixties. At least, the notion of the specifically peculiar
character of New Testament Greek could be upheld with more
plausibility then than now ; the New Testament texts were
decidedly the most characteristic of all the products of non-
literary and of later Greek which were then known. But
materials have now been discovered in face of which the
linguistic isolation of the New Testament even that more
modest variety of it which diffuses an atmosphere of vener-
able romanticism around so many of our commentaries
must lose its last shadow of justification.
Among the conscious opponents, i.e., those who oppose
in matters of principle, we reckon Hermann Cremer.
His Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch der neutestamentlichen
Gracitat 4 has for its fundamental principle the idea of the
formative power of Christianity in the sphere of language.
This idea, as a canon of historical philology, becomes a
fetter upon investigation. Further, it breaks down at once
in the department of morphology. But the most conspicu-
1 Leipzig, 1879. 2 Ibid., 1888 [quoted in this article as Clavis 3 j.
3 The author quotes the Corrected Edition, New York, 1896.
4 8th Edition, Gotha, 1895.
N. 5] LANGUAGE OP THE GBEEK BIBLE. 177
ous peculiarity of " New Testament " Greek let us allow
the phrase for once is just the morphology. The canon
breaks down very often in the syntax also. There are
many very striking phenomena in this department which
we cannot isolate, however much we may wish. The few
Hebraising expressions in those parts of the New Testament
which were in Greek from the first 1 are but an accidens
which does not essentially alter the fundamental character
of its language. The case in regard to these is similar to
that of the Hebraisms in the German Bible, which, in spite
of the many Semitic constructions underlying it, is yet a
German book. There remains, then, only the lexical ele-
ment in the narrower sense, with which Cremer's book is,
indeed, almost exclusively occupied. In many (not in all,
nor in all the more important) of its articles, there appears,
more or less clearly, the tendency to establish new " biblical "
or " New Testament " words, or new " biblical " or " New
Testament " meanings of old Greek words. That there are
" biblical " and " New Testament " words or, more cor-
rectly, words formed for the first time by Greek Jews and
Christians and alterations of meaning, cannot be denied.
Every movement of civilisation which makes its mark in
history enriches language with new terms and fills the old
speech with new meanings. Cremer's fundamental idea
is, therefore, quite admissible if it be intended as nothing
more than a means for investigating the history of religion.
But it not infrequently becomes a philologico-historical
principle : it is not the ideas of the early Christians
which are presented to us, but their " Greek ". The correct
attitude of a lexicon, so far as concerns the history of
language, is only attained when its primary and persistent
endeavour is to answer the question : To what extent do the
single words and conceptions have links of connection with
contemporary usage ? Cremer, on the other hand, prefers
to ask: To what extent does Christian usage differ from
heathen ? In cases of doubt, as we think, the natural course
1 Those parts of the N. T. which go back to translations must be con-
sidered by themselves.
12
178 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 6
is to betake oneself placidly to the hypothesis of ordinary
usage ; Cremer prefers in such cases to demonstrate some-
thing which is distinctively Christian or, at least, dis-
tinctively biblical.
In spite of the partially polemical plan of the following
investigations, polemics are not their chief aim. Their
purpose is to offer, 1 towards the understanding of the New
Testament, positive materials 2 from the approximately con-
temporary products of later Greek, and to assist, in what
degree they can, in the liberation of biblical study from the
bonds of tradition, in the secularising of it in the good
sense of that term. They take up again, one might say, the
work of the industrious collectors of " observations " in last
century. The reasons why the new spheres of observation
disclosed since that time are of special importance for the
linguistic investigation of the Greek Bible in particular, have
been already set forth and corroborated by examples. 3 In these
pages the following works have been laid under contribution :
1. Collections of Inscriptions : the Inscriptions of Per-
gamus 4 and those of the Islands of the ^Egean Sea, fasc. I. 5
1 On the other hand, the Greek Bible contains much, of course, which
may promote the understanding of the Inscriptions and Papyri.
2 No intelligent reader will blame the author for having, in his investi-
gations regarding the orthography and morphology, confined himself simply
to the giving of materials without adding any judgment. Nothing is more
dangerous, in Textual Criticism as elsewhere, than making general judgments
on the basis of isolated phenomena. But such details may occasionally fte
of service to the investigator who is at home in the problems and has a
general view of their connections.
'Above, pp. 61-169; cf. also GGA. 1896, pp. 761-769: and ThLZ.
xxi. (1896), pp. 609-615, and the other papers cited above, p. 84.
4 Altertilmer von Pergamon herausgegeben im Auftrage des Kb'niglich
Preussischen Ministers der geistlichen, Unterrichts- und Medicinal- Angelegen-
heiten, Band viii. ; Die Inschriften von Pergamon unter Mitwirkung von Ernst
Fabricius und Carl Schuchhardt herausgegeben von Max Frankel, (1) Bis zum
Ende der Kbnigszeit, Berlin, 1890, (2) Rb'mische Zeit. Inschriften auf Thon,
Berlin, 1895 [subsequently cited as Perg. or Frankel].
6 Inscriptions Graecae insularum Marls Aegaei consilio et auctoritate
Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae editae. Fasciculus primus : Inscrip-
tiones Graecae insularum Rhodi Chalces Carpathi cum Saro Casi . . . edidit
Fridericus Hiller de Gaertringen, Berolini, 1895 [subsequently cited as IMAe.].
N. 7] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 179
2. Issues of Papyri : the Berlin Egyptian Documents,
vol. i. and vol. ii., parts 1-9 ; l also the Papyri of the Arch-
duke Eainer, vol. i. 2
In reading these the author had in view chiefly the
lexical element, but he would expressly state that a re-
perusal having regard to the orthographical and morpho-
logical features would assuredly repay itself. He desiderates,
in general, a very strict scrutiny of his own selections. It is
only the most important lexical features that are given here.
The author, not having in Herborn the necessary materials
for the investigation of the LXX at his disposal, had, very
reluctantly, to leave it almost entirely out of consideration.
But he has reason for believing that the Berlin and Vienna
Papyri in particular, in spite of their comparative lateness,
will yet yield considerable contributions towards the lexicon
of the LXX, and that the same holds good especially of
the Inscriptions of Pergamus in connection with the Books
of Maccabees.
It may be said that the two groups of authorities have
been arbitrarily associated together here. But that is not
altogether the case. They represent linguistic remains from
Asia Minor 3 and Egypt, that is to say, from the regions
which, above all others, come into consideration in connec-
tion with Greek Christianity. And, doubtless, the greater
part of the materials they yield will not be merely local, or
confined only to the districts in question.
The gains from the Papyri are of much wider extent
than those from the Inscriptions. The reason is obvious.
We might almost say that this difference is determined by
the disparity of the respective materials on which the writing
1 Aegyptische Urkunden aus den Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin heraus-
gegeben von der Generalverwaltung : Qriechische Urkunden. Erster Band,
Berlin, [completed] 1895 ; Zweiter Band, Heft 1-9, Berlin, 1894 ff. [subse-
quently cited as BU.].
2 Corpus Papyrorum Raineri Archiducis Austriae, vol. i. Griechisclie
Texte herausgegeben von Carl Wessely, i. Band : Rechtsurkunden unter Mit-
wirkung von Ludwig Mitteis, Vienna, 1895 [subsequently cited as PER.'}.
3 We need only think of the importance of Pergamus for the earlier
period of Christianity.
180 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 8
was made. Papyrus is accommodating and is available for
private purposes ; stone is unyielding, and stands open to
every eye in the market-place, in the temple, or beside the
tomb. The Inscriptions, particularly the more lengthy and
the official ones, often approximate in style to the literary
language, and are thus readily liable to affectation and
mannerism ; what the papyrus leaves contain is much less
affected, proceeding, as it does, from the thousand require-
ments and circumstances of the daily life of unimportant
people. If the legal documents among the Papyri show
a certain fixed mode of speech, marked by the formal-
ism of the office, yet the many letter- writers, male and
female, express themselves all the more unconstrainedly.
This holds good, in particular, in regard to all that is, re-
latively speaking, matter of form. But also in regard to the
vocabulary, the Inscriptions afford materials which well repay
the labour spent on them. What will yet be yielded by the
comprehensive collections of Inscriptions, which have not
yet been read by the author in their continuity, may be
surmised from the incidental discoveries to which he has
been guided by the citations given by Frankel. What
might we not learn, e.g., from the one inscription of
Xanthus the Lycian ! l
Would that the numerous memorials of antiquity which
our age has restored to us, and which have been already
so successfully turned to account in other branches of
science, were also explored, in ever-increasing degree, in
the interest of the philologico-historical investigation of the
Greek Bible ! Here is a great opportunity for the ascertain-
ment of facts !
1 See below, sub Kadapify, fiido/j.ai, i\dffKO/j.at.
I.
NOTES ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY.
The orthographical problems of the New Testament
writings are complicated in the extreme. But, at all events,
one thing is certain, viz., that it is a delusion to search for
a " New Testament " orthography if that is understood
to signify the spelling originally employed by the writers.
In that respect one can, at most, attain to conjectures
regarding some particular author : " the " New Testament
cannot really be a subject of investigation. 1 The present
writer would here emphasise the fact that notwith-
standing all other differences he finds himself, in this
matter, in happy agreement with Cremer, who has overtly
opposed the notion that an identical orthography may,
without further consideration, be forced upon, e.g., Luke,
Paul and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 2 The
first aim of the investigation should perhaps be this : to
establish what forms of spelling were possible in the imperial
period in Asia Minor, Egypt, etc. We need not, of course,
pay any attention to manifest errors in writing. The fol-
lowing observed facts are intended to yield materials for this
purpose.
1. VAEIATION OF VOWELS.
(a) The feminine termination -La for -eta. 3 That in
2 Cor. 10 4 o-rparia^ (= crrpareta?), and not GTpanas, is
1 See above, p. 81. W. Schmid makes some pertinent remarks in
GQA. 1895, p. 36 f.
2 Cremer 8 , p. xiii. (Preface to the 4th edition).
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 13 c (p. 44) ; Blass, Grammatik, p. 9 [Eng.
Trans., p. 8].
182 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 10
intended, should no longer be contested. It is really super-
fluous to collect proofs of the fact that arpareia could also
be written <7rparLa. Nevertheless, the mode of spelling the
word in the Fayyum Papyri should be noted. In these
there is frequent mention of campaigns, the documents
having not seldom to do with the concerns of soldiers either
in service or retired, o-rpareia is given by PER. i.s (83-84
A.D.), BU. 140ii.23 (ca. 100 A.D.) 581 4. 15 (133 A.D.), 256 15
(reign of Antoninus Pius), 180 15 (172 A.D.), 592, i.e (2nd
cent. A.D.), 625 M (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) ; (rrparia by 195 39
(161 A.D.), 448 [= 161] u (2nd half of 2nd cent. A.D.), 614 20
(217 A.D.). Also in 61323 (reign of Antoninus Pius), where
Viereck has arpanctis, the author would prefer the accentu-
ation
(b) Interchange of a and e. Of eyyapevco (Matt. 5 4l
N, Mark 15 21 N*B*) for aryyapevw, 1 Tischendorf says in con-
nection with the latter passage, " quam formam in usu fuisse
hand incredibile est, hinc nee aliena a textu ". A papyrus of
cent. 4 shows also the spelling with e, in the substantive :
BU. 21, iii. 16 (locality uncertain, 340 A.D.) evyaptas.
ia, 2 Tim. 4 10 C and others (A., Aep^arLa) for
according to Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 20 c (p. 50),
is "probably Alexandrian, but perhaps also the original
form". BU. 93 7 (Fayyum, 2-3 cent. A.D.) gives e in
&\[jLaT(,Kr) ; on the other hand, FEB. xxi. ie (Fayyum,
230 A.D.) has BaX./jLariicrj. We should hardly postulate an
" Alexandrian " spelling.
(c) The contraction of leu = ii to t, long 5 in the (New
Testament) cases rapelov and Trelv, occurs also in the
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 20 c (p. 50) ; Blass, Orammatik, p. 21 [Eng.
Trans., p. 20 f.].
2 " Delm. as well as Dalm. occurs also in Latin " (Blass, Gramm.,
p. 21. [Eng. Trans., p. 21.] P. Jiirges has called the author's attention
also to the excursus GIL. iii. 1, p. 280.
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 23 b (p. 53 f.) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 23 [Eng.
Trans., p. 23].
N.10,11] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 183
Papyri. The author met with rafiteiov only once, BU. 106 5
(Fayyum, 199 A.D.) ; everywhere else 1 ra^elov : PEE. 1 13. 30
(83-84 A.D.), BU. 75 ii. 12 (2nd cent. A.D.), 15 ii. w (197 A.D. ?),
156e (201 A.D.) 7 i.s (247 A.D.), 8 ii.so (248 A.D.), 96s (2nd
half of 3rd cent. A.D.). Uelv occurs in BU. 34 ii. 7. 17. 22. 23,
iii. 2, iv. 3. 10 (place and date ?), irlv ibid. iv. 25 2 and once more
BU. 551 e (Fayyum, Arabian period).
2. VARIATION OF CONSONANTS.
(a) Duplication. The materials with regard to appa/3a)v
given in Winer- Schmiedel, 5, 26 c (p. 56 f.) may be supple-
mented : the author found appaffcov only in BU. 240 6 (Fay-
yum, 167-168 A.D.) ; 3 apafiw, on the other hand, in BU. 446
[ = 80] 5. 17. is (reign of Marcus Aurelius, a fairly well written
contract), (in line 26 of the same document, in the imperfect
signature of one of the contracting parties, we find a\a/3a)v),
601 11 (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D., a badly written private letter),
PEE. xix. 9. i6. 21. 24 (Fayyum, 330 A.D. a well written record
of a legal action). The assertion of Westcott and Hort (in
view of their usual precision a suspicious one), that apa/B&v
is a purely " Western " reading, is hardly tenable. The
author, moreover, would question the scientific procedure of
Winer- Schmiedel's assertion that the spelling appaffav is
" established " by the Hebrew origin of the word. 4 It
would be established only if we were forced to pre-
suppose a correct etymological judgment in all who used
the word. 5 But we cannot say by what considerations they
1 All the Papyri cited here are from the Fayyum.
2 F. Krebs, the editor of this document, erroneously remarks on p. 46 :
" ireiv = iriveiv ". In connection with this and with other details W. Schmid,
GGA. 1895, pp. 26-47, has already called attention to the Papyri.
3 This passage is also referred to by Blass, Gramm., p. 11. [Eng. Trans.,
p. 10, note 4.]
4 Blass similarly asserts, Gramm., p. 11 [Eng. Trans., p. 10], that the
duplication is " established " in the Semitic form.
5 The matter is still more evident in proper names. For example,
'Apeflos, as the name of Nabatsean kings, is undoubtedly " established "
by etymological considerations ; on the other hand, the Inscriptions and
other ancient evidence, so far as the author knows, all give 'Aperoy, and thus
'Aptra in 2 Cor. II 32 may be considered " established " without the slightest
184 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 12
were influenced in orthographical matters. It can no longer
be questioned that the spelling apaficov was very common.
Who knows whether some one or other did not associate
the non-Greek word with the Arabs ? ! A popular tradition of
this kind might, in the particular case, invalidate the ety-
mological considerations advanced by us from the standpoint
of our present knowledge, and so induce us to uphold an
etymologically false spelling as " established ".
ryewrjfMa and yevrjfjua. The spelling with a single v
and, consequently, the derivation from <yiveo-0ai have been
already established by the Ptolemaic Papyri. 2 It is con-
firmed by the following passages from Fayyum Papyri of the
first four Christian centuries, all of which have to do with
fruits of the field : 3 BU. 197 13 (17 A.D.), 171s (156 A.D.), 49 5
(179 A.D.), 1889 (186 A.D.), 81 7 (189 A.D.), 67s (199 A.D.), 61
i.s (200 A.D.), 529e and 336 7 (216 A.D.), 64s (217 A.D.), 8 1.23
(middle of 3rd cent. A.D.), 411 e (314 A.D.) ; cf. also yevr/paTo-
ypafatv in BU, 282 19 (after 175 A.D.).
A fluctuation in the orthography of those forms of
ryevvdco and fylvopai which are identical except for the v (v)
has often been remarked ; 4 thus, yevr/Oevra, undoubtedly
from yewdct), occurs also in the Papyri : BU. 110 u (Fayyum,
138-139 A.D.) and 28 ie (Fayyum, 183 A.D.). Both documents
are official birth-notices. On the other hand, the " correct "
ryevvrjOefc is thrice found in vol. i. of the Berlin Papyri.
The uncertainty of the orthography 5 is well indicated in
misgiving. It is exceedingly probable (according to the excellent conjecture
of Schiirer, Gesch. d. jttd. Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, i., Leipzig, 1890,
p. 619 [Eng. Trans., i., ii., p. 359]) that this spelling was influenced by the
desire to Hellenise the barbaric name by assimilation to oper^. Moreover,
also Blass, Gramm., p. 11 [Eng. Trans., p. 11], takes this view in regard to
1 Cf. the case of aXafifav for apaftuv, as above, with the well-known
for apafiapxris.
2 Above, p. 109 f. ; cf. Blass, Gramm., p. 11 [Eng. Trans., p. 11].
3 The author has not found the spelling with vv anywhere in the Papyri.
4 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 26 a (p. 56).
5 The problem of orthography became later a point of controversy in
the History of Dogma ; cf. A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, ii. 3 ,
Freiburg and Leipzig, 1894, p. 191 f. [Eng. Trans., iv., p. 12 ff.]
N. 13] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 185
BU. Ill (Fayyum, 138-139 A.D.), where line 21 has eVt-
; line 24, e
(b) Interchange of consonants. 2fJ>vpva, Zfj,vpva. 1 Perg.
203 3. 11. 17 (pre-Christian) Upvpva, IMAe. 148 1 (Khodes, date ?)
2pvpvalos, 468 (Ehodes, date ?) ^nvpvaios. On the other
hand, Perg. 1274 (2nd cent. B.C., cf. Frankel, p. 432)
mo9, BU. In (Fayyum, 3rd cent. A.D.) pvpov /cal
o-Trvpis, a-fyvpls. The Ptolemaic Papyri have both
spellings ; 3 the author found the diminutive twice in the
later Papyri from the Fayyum, and, indeed, with the vulgar
aspiration : o-foplSiov PEE. xlvii. 5 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) and (a
vulgar abbreviation) 4 fftfrvpiruf* 1 *, BU. 2473.4.6. (2nd-3rd
cent. A.D.).
1 Cf. Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 27 d (p. 59) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 10. [Eng.
Trans., p. 10.]
2 Cf. also BU. 69e (Fayyfan, 120 A.D.) vop.iCp.a.ros. 3 Above, p. 158.
4 Examples of this abbreviation from the Inscriptions are given by
Frankel, p. 341.
n.
NOTES ON THE MOEPHOLOGY.
The New Testament references are again very seldom
given in the following ; they can easily be found in the cited
passages of the Grammars.
1. DECLENSION.
(a) <T7relpa<s was not found by the author in the Papyri :
they seem always to have o-Tre 1/0779 : l BU. 732 (Fayyum,
135 A.D.), 18622 (Fayyum, 135 A.D.), 142 10 (159 A.D.), 447
[ = 26] 12 (Fayyum, 175 A.D.), 241 3 (Fayyum, 177 A.D.). The
materials from the Inscriptions of Italy and Asia Minor
which Frankel adduces in connection with o-Trelpa = Thiasos,
also exhibit 77 in the genitive and dative.
(b) The Genitive ^pia-ovs 2 is found in PEE. xii.e
(93 A.D.), BU. 328 ii.22 (138-139 A.D.), PEE. cxcviii. 17 etc.
(139 A.D.), BU. 78 11 (148-149 A.D.), 223 L (210-211 A.D.),
PEE. clxxvi. is (225 A.D.) ; all these Papyri are from the
Fayyum. A form noteworthy on account of the genitive
TOV rj/jiia-ov in the LXX, 3 occurs in BU. 183 41 (Fayyum, 85
A.D.), viz., riiuaov yu-epo?. This may be a clerical error (line
21 has the correct TJ^LO-OI [01 = v] pepos), but it is more
probable that here also we have a vulgar form 77 /-u 0-09 which
was common in Egypt.
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 8, 1 (p. 80 f.) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 25 [Eng. Trans.,
p. 25], gives other examples from the Papyri.
2 Winer-Schmiedel, 9, 6 (p. 87) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 27 [Eng. Trans.,
p. 27].
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 9, 6 (p. 87), note 4 ; here we already find the
Papyrus, Notices, xviii. 2, 230 (154 A.D.), cited in reference to the form.
N. 15] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 187
(c) Svo. 1 The following forms in the Fayyum Papyri
are worthy of notice: 2 Svco BU. 208* (158-159 A.D.), $va>v
BU. 28225 (after 175 A.D.), Sveiv BU. 256s (reign of Anto-
ninus Pius), SvriBU. 197s (17 A.D.) PEE. ccxlii. 10 (40 A.D.),
1.7 (83-84 A.D.), BU. 538e (100 A.D.), 86 e (155 A.D.), 166 7
(157 A.D.), 282 10 (after 175 A.D.), 326 ii. i (189 A.D.), 303 19
(586 A.D.).
2. PROPER NAMES.
Abraham is Graecised "Appa^o? (as in Josephus) in BU.
585 ii. 3 (Fayyum, after 212 A.D.) Haa/Sco? 'Aftpdpov, on the
other hand, in Fayyum documents of the Christian period,
*A/3padjj,io? 395? (599-600 A.D.), 401 13 (618 A.D.), 367 5 etc.
(Arabian period) ; not Graecised, 'Afipad/j, 103, verso i
(6th-7th cent. A.D.).
y Afcv\as. Clavis*, p. 16, simply gives 'AicvXov as the
genitive for the N. T., although a genitive does not occur
in it. The Fayyum Papyri yield both 'Afcv\ov BU. 484 6
(201-202 A.D.) and 'Aicv\a 71 21 (189 A.D.). The name of
the veteran C. Longinus Aquila, which occurs in the last-
mentioned document, is written *A/cv\a<; in 326 ii. 19 (end
of the 2nd cent. A.D.) and 9 Aicv\\as in the fragment of a
duplicate of the same document which is there cited ; this
doubling of the X is not unknown also in New Testament
manuscripts. 3
*AvTiTra[Tpo] 5. It is not wholly without interest
that the name of an inhabitant of Pergamus, which occurs
in Rev. 2 13 , is still found in Pergamus in the beginning of
the 3rd cent. A.D. : Perg. 524 2 (not older than the time of
Caracalla ?) ['A] vTnrdrpov.
Bapvaftas. On p. 310 below the author expresses
the conjecture that the name Barnabas* arose from the
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 9, 11 (p. 90).
2 Exhaustiveness is not guaranteed : it was only lately that the author
directed his attention to the point. In particular, he has no general idea as
to the usage of the common forms in the Papyri.
3 Cf. Tischendorf on Eom. 16 3 and Acts 18 2 .
4 Cf. A. Meyer, Jesu Mutter sprache, Freiburg and Leipzig, 1896, p. 47 f.,
and E. Nestle, Philologica sacra, Berlin, 1896, p. 19 f.
188 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 16
Graecising of the Semitic Bapveftov^ or Bapvafiovs, which
could readily happen by the alteration of the Semitic
termination -oO? into -a?. 2 The termination -a? was in
general a very popular one in the Graecising of Semitic
proper names : of this there occur numerous biblical ex-
amples. An example somewhat out of the way, but in itself
worthy of .notice, may be noted here. Probably the oldest
of the Inscriptions found at Pergamus is the dedicatory
Inscription Perg. 1, Ilaprapa^ 'A&rjvakji, which, from the
character of the writing, is to be assigned to the 4th cent.
A.D. " The Greek dedicatory Inscription is preceded by two
lines, the script of which I am unable to determine; but
there is no doubt that they contain the dedication in the
language of the dedicator, whose name marks him as a
foreigner. The foreign script runs from right to left, since,
assuming this direction, we can recognise without difficulty
the name of the dedicator with its initial B, as the beginning
of the second line " (Frankel, p. 1, ad loc.). There is no
mention here of a fact which could certainly not remain
unnoticed, viz., that the "foreign" script, at least at the
beginning (i.e., at the right) of the second line, is plainly
Greek with the letters reversed : Greek letters undoubtedly
occur also in other parts of the mutilated text. One may
assume that the Semitic (?) text is given in Greek "reverse-
1 The reference from the Inscriptions for this name which is given
below belongs to the 3rd or 4th century A.D. P. Jensen has called the
author's attention to a much older passage. In the Aramaic Inscription of
Palmyra No. 73, of the year 114 B.C. (in M. de Vogue's Syrie Centrale, In-
scriptions S&mitigues . . ., Paris, 1868, p. 53) mention is made of a Barnebo
2 Blass, ThLZ. xx. (1895), p. 488, holds this supposition to be absolutely
impossible. According to A. Hilgenfeld, Berl. Philol. Wochenschr., 1896, p.
650, it deserves consideration, but also requires to be tested. The author
stands by his hypothesis quite confidently the more so as Blass has not
mentioned his counter-reasons. He has been informed by several well-
known Semitists that they accept it ; cf. most recently, G. Dalman, Die
Worte Jesu, vol. i., Leipzig, 1898, p. 32. From the genitive Bapva, GIG.
4477 (Larissa in Syria, ca. 200 A.D.) we may most likely infer a nominative
Eapvas. The author does not venture to decide whether this might be a pet
form of Bapvaftas (cf. Heinrici, Meyer, v 8 . [1896], p. 525).
N. 17] liANGTJAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 189
script " (Spiegelschrift) in the first two lines. The stone-
cutter who, as Frankel also thinks, was perhaps the dedi-
cator himself, had, on this view, the Semitic (?) text before
him, transcribed it letter by letter into Greek, and, more-
over, lighted upon the original idea of one by one revers-
ing the Greek letters (now standing in Semitic order). It
is, of course, possible that this hypothesis is fundamentally
wrong. It is certain, however, that the Greek name
naprapas occurs in the "foreign" text in the doubly-
divergent form Baprapa. The letter which follows Baprapa
cannot be a sigma ; the non-Greek form is Baprapa, by
all analogies a personal name formed with "to son. The
author does not venture to make any assertion with regard
to the second constituent -rapa ; l he has not met with the
name elsewhere. By the addition of a 9 the name has been
Graecised, Baprapa? or according to the carver, Ilaprapa^. 2
Ao picas. The examples 3 in connection with Acts
9 36. 3 9> may fc e supplemented by IMAe. 569 (Ehodes, date?).
'laaic. The spelling "la-aic (for 'lo-aa/c), in Cod. ^, in both
of D, often implied in the old Latin versions, and probably
also underlying the Graecised "lo-afco? of Josephus, is found
in PER. xliv. 9 (Fayyum, 3rd-4th cent., A.D.), in which an
Avpr)\io<; 'Icraic is mentioned ; often also in the Fayyum
documents of the Christian period : JBU. 305 5 (556 A.D.), 3037
(586 A.D.), 47e and 173s (6th-7th cent. A.D.).
3. VERB.
(a) Augment, qvol<wv* (Mark 7 35 , Acts 12 10 , Kev. 11 19 ,
15 5 ): BU. 326 ii.io (Fayyum, 194 A.D.) ^vvyrj [v = 01], said
of a will. 5
1 Aram, ^Hl ? i.e., son of the palace ? Or son of Therach, Terah
(LXX appa and Qap'a, but, as a place-name, with T for j"|, Numb. 33 v * Tapa6) ? ?
2 The author does not know of any other examples of TT for ^. The
accentuation -as should probably be preferred to the Ilaprdpas given by
Frankel.
3 Cf. Wendt, Meyer, iii. 8 / 7 (1888), p. 235.
4 Winer-Schmiedel, 12, 7 (p. 103).
6 For the reading see ibid., Supplement, p. 859.
190 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 18
(b) Conjugation, rereu^a 1 is fairly well authenticated in
Heb. 8 6 ; cf. BU. 332 6 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.)
, unnecessarily altered by the editor to
^fa 2 (Luke 13 34 , 2 Pet. 2 5 , Acts 14 27 D) : BU. 607 is
(Fayyum, 163 A.D.) /carij^av.
e\ei^a z (Acts 6 2 , Luke 5 11 D, Mark 12 19 ^, always
in the compound /eareXet^a) also occurs in the following
Fayyum Papyri : BU. 183 19 (85 A.D.) /cardKei^rj, 176 10 (reign
of Hadrian) KaraXetyai,, 86 7. is (155 A.D.) /caraXetyr)* 467 6
(no note of place, ca. 177 A.D.) /earaXettya?, 164 is (2nd-3rd
cent. A.D.) Karaket^rai. The same compound is found also
in the passages Clem. 2 Cor. 5 1 , 10 1 , and Herm. Similit. 8,
3 5 cited by Blass, also in LXX 1 Chron. 28 9 , and GIG.
4137 s f. (Montalub in Galatia, date?); 4063 er. (Ancyra,
date?) has eWaraXn/re. It is possible that the use of the
form is confined to this compound.
rfpTrdyrjv 5 (2 Cor. 12 2> 4 ) occurs also in the fragment
of a document 6 which relates to the Jewish war of Trajan,
BU. 341 12 (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.). On p. 359 of vol. i.
of that collection, rjpird^ria-av is given as the corrected
reading of this.
The attaching of 1st aorist terminations to the
aorist 7 is of course very frequent in the Papyri. The author
has noted the following :
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 2, Note 2 (p. 104) ; Blass, Granim., p. 57. [Eng.
Trans., p. 57.]
2 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 10 (p. 109) ; Blass, Grwwm., p. 42. [Eng.
Trans., p. 43.]
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 10 (p. 109) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 43. [Eng.
Trans., p. 43.]
4 The Editor, P. Viereck, makes the unnecessary observation, " I. [read]
5 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 10 (p. 110) ; Blass, Gramm. , p. 43. [Eng.
Trans., p. 43.]
6 Cf. above, p. 68.
7 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 13 (p. Ill f.) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 44 f. [Eng.
Trans. , p. 45 f .]
N.18,19] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 191
eyevdprjv: PER. i. 25 (Fayyum, 83-84 A.D.) yevduevo?
along with the frequent yevopevos, BU. 464 7 (132-133 A.D.)
yevdfjueva together with yevopevr/fy] in line 10, 300 11 (Fayyum,
148 A.D.) Trapayevdfjievos, 301 4 (Fayyum, 157 A.D.) yevafievov,
115 ii.25 (Fayyum, 189 A.D.) yevapzvois, 490s (Fayyum, 2nd
cent. A.D.) yevajjievrj, 531 ii. 17 (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.)
Tra[p}ayevdfJLevos, 21 ii.2 (340 A.D.) yevapevov, 824 (Fayyum.
605 A.D.) yevapevcov.
^\6a : BU. 530 11 (1st cent. A.D.) ^X(9a?, 72 6 (191 A.D.)
eVi}X0ai/, 515 is (193 A.D.) eir^t]afj\0av t 146s (2nd-3rd cent.
A.D.) eirfi\0av t 103 1 (6th-7th cent. A.D.) r)\6av, all these
Papyri come from the Fayyum.
$<rx a ( Acts 757 D > o-vvtaxav): BU. 451s (lst-2nd cent.
A.D.) I<rjtt/Al>.
e\aj3a: BU. 56221 (Fayyum, beginning of 2nd cent.
A.D.) 6^e\aj3a, 423 9 (2nd cent. A.D.) eXaa, 261 is and 449s
(both from the Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) \a/3a.
The use of the terminations -a, -0-9 in the imperfect 1 is
shown in BU. 595 9 (Fayyum, 70-80 A.D.) eXeyas, 515s
(Fayyum, 193 A.D.) ^ei\afjLev, 157s (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent.
A.D.) efidara&v. We might add 44s (Fayyum, 102 A.D.)
6(j)i\aT6 : the augment is wanting, as in BU. 281 12
(Fayyum, reign of Trajan) o<j*[i,]\v, and 340 11 (Fayyum,
148-149 A.D.)
The termination -crav for -v in the 3rd phiral 3 is attested
by BU. 369 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) eTrr]\6ocrav, and (in
a contracted verb) 251 4 (Fayyum, 81 A.D.) Trpoey^a^ovaav ;
also in the document by the same hand 183 6 (Fayyum, 85
A.D.) Trpoeyapovcrav ; 4 the last two examples occur in the
phrase /caBa? KOI TrpoeyafMovaav, most likely a formula in
marriage-contracts.
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 13 (p. 112) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 45. [Eng.
Trans., p. 46.]
2 Most likely an assimilation to y^eAoi/.
" Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 14 (p. 112 f.) ; Biass, Gramm., p. 45 f. [Eng.
Trans., p. 46.]
4 The editors accentuate irpoeyd
192 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.19,20
The termination -av for -a at in the 3rd plural perfect 1
occurs in BU. 597 19 (Fayyum, 75 A.D.) yeyovav (Eom. 16 7
N AB, Eev. 21 6 N c A) and 328 i. 6 (Fayyum, 138-139 A.D.)
The termination -e? for -as in the 2nd singular perfect and
aorist* is found with remarkable frequency in the badly-
written private letter BU. 261 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent.
A.D. ?): line H SeSco:e9, 17 r/ prices (= eipr/tces), 23 GV oZSe?, 24 f.
eypaifres : the last form occurs also in the private letter 38 u
(Fayyum 1st cent. A.D.).
SiSafit,: 4 The Papyri yield a number of examples of
St'So> (SiSw?) for S/S&vu all from the Fayyum. In BU.
261 21 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D. ?, badly written) is found ovSev eyco
BiBto (8*8w ?), 6 972i (201-202 A.D.) eV^'So), 6 38 19 (1st cent.
A.D.) St'St as 3rd sing. pres. ( = SiSet). SiSw ( = &Soa>) is indi-
cated by 8622 (155 A.D.) SI&OVVTOS, and already by 44 15 (102
A.D.) avS&ovvra 1 (but in line 14 SiSovra).
riOr/fjii. According to Winer-Schmiedel, 14, note 11
(p. 121) there appear to be no indubitable derivations from
a verb ridco. But the well- written Papyrus BU. 326 i. 16
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 15 (p. 113) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 45. [Eng.
Trans., p. 46.]
2 Conversely, -curt for -av in BU. 275s (Fayyum, 215 A.D.) &r4\0acn.
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 13, 16 (p. 113 f.) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 46. [Eng.
Trans., p. 46.]
4 Winer-Schmiedel, 14, 11 ff. (p. 121 f.) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 48 f. [Eng
Trans., p. 49 f.] Neither writer takes notice of 1 Cor. 7 3 A eb-oSiSeroo.
5 It is true that line 23 has ^ StSt avrfj (cf. Supplement, p. 358). The
editor, F. Krebs, accentuates SISi, and explains thus : " Z. [read] SlSet = StSwa-i ".
The present writer considers this impossible: 8181 (= SlSei) is rather an im-
perative of Stiwfjii, formed in accordance with riOei. Similarly BU. 602
Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.) tSetSi (^e'St'Set) on the analogy of Meet. Other
assimilations to the formation of rlOinu in the Fayyum Papyri are: 360s
(108-109 A.D.) the imperative irapdSere, and 159s (216 A.D.) Q&ero; the latter
form already in PER. ccxxii. is (2nd cent. A.D.).
6 eVtStSw could also be an abbreviation of eVtSi'Soyu, specially as it occurs
in a common formula. Hence the editor, U. Wilcken, writes &n8&(/).
7 Apocope of the preposition, like BU. 86? (Fayyum, 155 A.D.) /ca\e% ;
in contrast with line 12 of the same Papyrus Karatefyri (not, however, iraSAcru
BU.SQw which has been corrected, in accordance with a more exact reading
p. 354, to cwro5cS<r). Cf. Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 22 c, note 47 (p. 53).
N. 20, 21] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 193
(Fayyum, 189 A.D.) yields Trapa/caraTido/jiai. ndca ( = Tt,0ea))
is indicated by BU. 350 is (Fayyum, reign of Trajan) VTTO-
riOovaa, which, however, perhaps depends in this place
merely on euphony ; it stands in the following connection :
evoucoSofjiovo-a ical 7ricrK6vd^ova-a Kal 7ro\ovo-a 8ic Kal VTrort-
dovcra Kal erepow /jLeraSiSovo-a.
Svvouai, 1 is often attested in the Fayyum Papyri:
BU. 246 10 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.), 388 ii. 8 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.),
159s (216 A.D.) Swonevos also 614 20 (217 A.D.) . In 348s
(156 A.D.) there occurs &>? av Svvoi,, which must certainly be
3rd singular ; this would involve a
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 14, 17 (p. 123) ; Blass, Gramm., p. 48. [Eng.
Trans., p. 49.]
2 The particular sentence (from a private letter) is not quite clear to the
author, but he considers it impossible that the form could be derived from
the well-known 5iW. F. Krebs also places Svvoi in connection with 5iW/xai
in his index.
13
III.
NOTES ON THE VOCABULAEY AND THE SYNTAX.
1. SO-CALLED HEBRAISMS.
and dvaarpocfrij.
Quite a multitude of examples, all of the Koman period
(after 133 B.C.), of the moral signification of the verb, 1 which
is not to be explained as a Hebraism, and to which attention
was called above, p. 88, are yielded by the since-published
second volume of the Inscriptions of Pergamus. Putting
aside Perg. 252 39, where the word is got only by a violent
restoration, the author would refer to 459 5 /eaXtw? KOI evBoj-Gx;
avaarpa^rjvaL (cf. Heb. 13 18 /caXeo? dvacrrpe^eorOai, James 3 1S ,
1 Pet. 2 12 Ka\r) dvao-Tpcxptf), 4704 [eV ira<r\iv dvea[Tpafji]fj,vov
d%i(t)S [T?}? 7roX,eo>9] and 496 5 ff. \_a\vacrr pe^ofjbivrjv /caXw? KOI
eucre/3w5 KOI af/co? rijs TroXew? (cf. the Pauline Trepnrareiv
agio)? c. gen.); also 545 avaa-rpa^ev\ra\. IMAe. 1033 7 f.
(Carpathus, 2nd cent. B.C.?) </>\o8ofa>9 ave\cr\Tpa7r\Tai\ may
be still older than any of these. Frankel, p. 16, cites further
GIG. 1770 (letter of Flaminin) ol OVK a-rro rov
For avao-Tpotyr}, in the ethical sense, IMAe. 1032 e (Car-
pathos, 2nd cent. B.C.) should be noted.
15.
The use of et? for expressing the purpose of donations,
collections or other expenditure (discussed above, p. 117 f.),
1 It is significant that Thayer should note this usage in Xenophon (An.
2, 5, 14) and Polybius (1, 9, 7 ; 74, 13 ; 86, 5, etc.), while Clavis 3 does not.
2 P. Wendland, Deutsckt, Litter aturzeitung, 1895, col. 902, refers further
to Schenkl's Index to Epictetus, and to Viereck, Sermo graecus, p. 75.
N. 23] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 195
which is not to be interpreted as a Hebraism, is confirmed
also by the later Papyri. For example, in the very compre-
hensive account BU. 34 (date and place uncertain), the
separate items of expenditure are very often introduced by
et9. r9 et9 rbv Mdpwva .... olfcovoiiias, PER. i. 11 (Fayyum,
83-84 A.D.) is correctly translated by the editor as the en-
dorsement of Maron's account; cf. PEE. xviii. 12 f. (Fayyum,
124 A.D.) et9 aXXoz' riva ypdcftew SiaOrjfC'rjv, to draw up a will in
favour of any other person. Leaving aside the New Testa-
ment passages, we find this et9 elsewhere as well ; the usage is
therefore no mere Egyptian idiom. Thus, in a list of donors
to a religious collection, Perg. 554 (after 105 A.D.), the purpose
of the various items of expenditure is expressed by et?, 1 e.g.,
line 10, et9 ravpo/36\iov. The abrupt efc in the expenses-list
Perg. 553 K (reign of Trajan) may also be mentioned as an
example. The author has found this et9 in other Inscriptions
as well.
Cremer 8 , p. 415, says : "in New Testament Greek also
request ...... an application of the word which
manifestly arose through the influence of the Hebr. ^Nt? "
But, as against this, Winer-Liinemann, p. 30, had already made
reference to some profane passages, 2 which Clavis? p. 175,
appropriates and extends though with the accompanying
remark, " ex imitatione hebr. /JSttZ?, significatu ap. profanos
rarissimo ". The author has already expressed his disagree-
ment with the limitation of this really vulgar-Greek usage
to the Bible. 3 The Fayyum Papyri yield new material :
epardv request occurs in BU. 509 (115 A.D.), 423 n (2nd cent.
A.D.), 417 2 f. (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.), 624 15 (reign of Diocletian).
1 Frankel, p. 353.
2 Winer- Schmiedel, 4, 2 a (p. 27), counts this usage among the "im-
perfect " Hebraisms. It would be better to abolish this term from Winer's
Grammar.
3 Below, p. 290 f., with a reference to the examples of Wilamowitz-Moel-
lendorff in Guil. Schmidt, De Flavii losephi elocutione observationes criticae,
Fleck. Jib. Suppl. xx. (1894), p. 516.
196 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 24
To these should be added the adjuration-tablet of Adru-
metum (probably belonging to the 2nd cent. A.D.), line 31.
(See p. 276.)
KaOapbs diro TWOS.
The erroneous idea that this construction (Acts 20 26 and
in Old Testament passages) is a Hebraism, has been long
refuted not only by passages from late-Greek writers, but
even by Demosthenes, 59 rs. 1 That the error, in spite of all,
is still prevalent is shown by Clavis 3 , p. 217, " ex hebr. add. CLTTO
TWOS, .... ap. natives Graecos c. nudo gen." . It will there-
fore do no harm to supplement the extra-biblical examples
by the following passages from the Fayyum Papyri: BU.
197 M (17 A.D.), 177 12 (46-47 A.D.), 112 11 (ca. 60 A.D.), 184 25
(72 A.D.), PER. i. 16 (83-84 A.D.), BU. 536 6 (reign of Domitian),
193 19 (136 A.D.), 240 24 (167-168 A.D.), PEE. ccxx. 10 (1st or
2nd cent. A.D.), BU. 94 is (289 A.D.). In all these passages,
which are distributed over a period of nearly three hundred
years, we find the formula free of a money-debt. To these
there may be added a still older example in the Inscription
of Pergamus 255 7 ff. (early Roman period), airo Be rd^ov KOI
eK$op[a<s\ . . . /caOapol
1. This word occurs in Acts I 15 , Kev. 3 4 , II 13 , with
the meaning of person. Clavis 5 , p. 312, explains this usage
ex imitatione hebr. J"VtottJ. But the hypothesis of a Hebraism
is unnecessary ; the Papyri demonstrate the same usage,
which, of course, sufficiently explains itself: BU. 113 11 (143
A.D.) eKaarw ovofjuari, r jrapa(^evofjievw), 265 is (Fayyum, 148
A.D.) [e/ea<rT&> ovo^an irapa,K[ei\Tai? 531 ii. 9 f. (Fayyum, 2nd
1 The passage in Demosthenes had been cited by G. D. Kypke, Observa-
tiones sacrae, Wratisl. 1755, ii., p. 109 ; after him by Winer for example (e.g.,
4 [1836], p. 183, 7 [1867], p. 185, and Blass, Gramm.,p. 104 [Eng. Trans., p.
106]. The author's attention was called to Kypke by Wendt on Acts 20
(Meyer, iii. 6 / 7 [1888], p. 444. The right view is advocated also by Cremer 8 ,
p. 489.
2 In regard to both of these passages, Professor Wilcken of Breslau
observes, in a letter to the author, that ovop.a is there used " for the possessor
N. 25] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 197
cent. A.D.) ra Trepiyeivo/jieva 810 evoLiaa Trpbs eicacrrov ovo^a
rfav rpvya)vru)v ypa^rcoi SIC , 388 i. 16 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent.
A.D.) Ta/3e\\aL Su[o] eXevOep&aecov rov avrov ovOfjMTO? Sia-
%p6voi<; (cf. ii. 35 TTW? \_o\vv rov EvKaupov Su[o] ra{Se\\ai,
2. To the authorities for the formula et'<? TO
, given on p. 146 ff. above, may be added BU. 256s
(Fayyum, reign of Antoninus Pius) ra vTrdpyovr\a\ efc ovo^a
Sveiv sic , that which belongs to the name (i.e., property or means)
of the two ; here the form is used in the same way as in the
expression (belonging to Asia Minor) KT^^ar^vr]^ els ro rov
Oeov ovofia, p. 147 above. For other examples see ThLZ.
xxv. (1900), p. 73 f. The formula eV ovoparos is similarly
used in the Papyri BU. 226 15 f. (Fayyum, 99 A.D.) irdvrwv
rwv eV ovo/jiaros T/}? /j,r)rp6<; fjuov . . . et? avrovs vTrap^ovroov ; x
further, BU. 2319 (Fayyum, reign of Hadrian) should pos-
sibly be restored thus : [eV o^oj^aro? TT}? Ovyarpos <rov. 2
3. On p. 147 above, the conjecture was made that the non-
discovery hitherto of the phrase Troieiv n ev rco ovofjbari nvos in
any extra-biblical source is to be attributed solely to chance.
But the author has meanwhile met with it not, indeed, in
the construction with eV, but in the very similar one with
the dative alone. The oath of fealty to the Emperor Cali-
gula taken by the inhabitants of Assos in Troas (Ephemeris
epigraphica, v. [1884], p. 156, 37 A.D.) is signed by 5 Trpea--
fievrai, after which group of names occur the concluding
of the name, the person" but that the translation name answers quite well.
The present writer would, with Luther, render the word by name in the
New Testament passages also, so that the special character of the usage
might not be obliterated.
1 In Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, i. 1, 270, note, L. Mitteis translates
this passage : alles Vermb'gen meiner Mutter ist in seinem Besitz [all the pro-
perty of my mother is in his possession].
2 A different case is 153 27 (Fayyum, 152 A.D.) aTroypd^a<reai eV rp rwv
Ka/iTjAwi/ a7ro7pa</>77 . . . TT' oy6/j.aros avrw. What we have here is the entering
on the list of a camel under the name of its new owner. Still, that which is
specified as !' 6v6naros of any one is, in point of fact, his property. One
sees that here, as also in the above formulae, there can be no thought of a
new meaning of the word, but only of a realising of its pregnant fundamental
meaning.
198 BIBLE STUDIES. [N 26.
words : oZrtz/e? KOI vjrep 7-779 Taiov Kaiaapo? 2ej3ao-Tov Tep-
<ro)T7)pia<; evgd/juevoi Ail Ka7riT<D\iw sic Wvaav roS rfjs
wo/Juan,. Here we have most likely the same usage
as in James 5 10 A e\d\rjo-av rc3 ovo/jLari KvpLov ; * and the
hypothesis of Cremer 8 , p. 712, viz., that " it was Christianity
which first introduced the use of the phrase ' in the name of,
etc.,' into occidental languages " should thus be rejected.
2. SO-CALLED " JEWISH-GBEEK " "BIBLICAL" OB
TESTAMENT " WOEDS AND CONSTRUCTIONS.
The articles which follow should make it clear that the
non-occurrence in extra-biblical literature of many biblical
words is a matter solely of statistical contingency. (In some
cases the question, moreover, is not one of non-occurrence at
all, but merely of non-notification.) Many of this particular
class of words have been already noticed in the second treatise
of this work. The author observes, further, that reference
is made by Blass, GrammatiTc des Neutest. Griechisch, p. xii.
[see Eng. Trans., p. 127, note], to evav-ri in Inscriptions ; p.
69 [Eng. Trans., p. 68], to <^L\w7rpwrev(t) in an Inscription,
and p. 68 [Eng. Trans., p. 68] to ^pevaTrar^ in a Papyrus.
The number of "biblical" or "New Testament" words
will certainly still further melt away and without prejudice
to the distinctive inner character of biblical ideas.
In the German edition of Bibelstudien (Marburg, 1895),
p. 80, there was cited, in reference to ayaTrrj, the Paris
Papyrus 49 (between 164 and 158 B.C.), in which citation
the author adopted the reading of the French editor (1865).
Subsequently, Blass, in his critique, 2 questioned the accuracy
of this reading, and, in virtue of the facsimile, proposed
rapafflv instead of dydTnrjv. The facsimile is not a photo-
graphic one ; the author considered that dyaTnrjv was, at
least, not impossible. Blass, however, is most probably
right. A re-examination of the passage in the original, as
1 But not in Mark 9 ^ A and Matt. 7 K , where the dative is instrumental,
2 TliLZ. xx. (1895), p. 488.
N. 27] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 199
has been kindly communicated to us by M. Pierret, the
Conservator of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre, has had
the result " qu'on ne trouve, dans le papyrus N 49, aucune
trace du mot ayaTrrjv, mais seulement & la ligne 6 la vraisemblance
d'une lecture rapa^ijv ". The author, therefore, has no hesi-
tation in here withdrawing his reference to this Papyrus. 1
[The note in question has, of course, been omitted in this
translation.]
Nevertheless, this does not imply the removal of the
doubt as to whether the word is a specifically "biblical"
one, and the conjecture that it was used in Egypt can now
be confirmed. Only, one does not need to go to Paris in
order to find the word. The statements of v. Zezschwitz, 2
Clavis 3 and Crerner 4 notwithstanding, it is found in Philo, to
which fact, so far as the present writer is aware, Thayer
alone has called attention in his lexicon. 5 In Quod Deus
immut. 14 (M., p. 283), it is said : Trap' o JJLOI, So/eel rot?
Sv<rl KefyaKaiois, TO) re " 009 avOpwiros " teal ra5
rros o #eo9," 6 erepa $vo <rvvv<>r]vaL dic6\ov6a ical
), </>o/3oz/ re real dyaTrr/v. Here then we have dyaTrrj,
and in such manner as to repel the supposition that Philo
adopted the word from the LXX. Further, djaTrrj is here
used already in its religious-ethical sense, for the connection
shows that the reference is to love to God, the antithesis of
which is fear of God (c/., in the next sentence, r) ?rpo? TO
wyairav r) 737309 TO $>o{3ela6ai TOV Qvia. The analogy to 1 John
4 18 is quite apparent.
1 Cf. W. M. Ramsay, The Expository Times, vol. ix., p. 567 f.
2 Profangraecitaet und bibliscJier Sprachgeist, Leipzig, 1859, p. 62 :
" 'AyctTTTj does not occur as a genuine term, so far as the references in the Lexica
avail, in the Koivri either ".
3 Clavis 3 , p. 3 : " In Philone et Josepho legi non memini" (after Bret-
schneider).
4 Cremer 8 , p. 14, " this word, apparently formed by the LXX, or, at any
rate, in their circle (Philo and Josephus do not have it) ".
5 The present writer had not the book by him when he wrote the article
in the German Bibelstudien.
6 The passage relates to the apparent contradiction between LXX Deut.
and Numb. 23 la .
200 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 28
For the sake of completeness it may be permitted to
notify still another passage, which, however, does not afford
an altogether certain contribution to the answering of our
question either way. In a scholion to Thuc. ii. 51, 5, we
find fyCkavOptoTTias /cal dyaTrr)? as a gloss to dperrjs (ed. Poppo,
ii. 2, p. 92, or A. Schoene [1874], p. 20925). Our opinion of
the gloss will depend upon our answer to the question
whether the glossator was a Christian or not. But no
certain answer to this question can be given. In the
present state of scholiastic research it is impossible to
speak definitely about the age of any particular scholium
or of any philological term in the scholia. Still, the sort of
gloss which savours of interlinear explanation, and which
explains only by remodelling the expression, has always
against it (in the opinion of Professor G. Wissowa of Halle,
who has most willingly furnished us with this information)
the disadvantage of late age.
Hitherto authenticated only in 2 Mace. 4 47 , Tit. 2 8 and
in ecclesiastical writers. Clavis 3 , p. 14, is content to confirm
this state of the matter; Cremer 8 , p. 245, isolates the word
thus : " only in biblical and ecclesiastical Greek ". The
formation and meaning of the word, however, support the
hypothesis that we have to reckon here with a matter of
statistical chance. In point of fact, the word occurs in the
epitaph GIG. 1971 65 (Thessalonica, 165 A.D.), applied to
the deceased ; also in the poetical epitaph in the Capitoline
Museum at Eome IGrSI. 1 2139s (date-?), applied to the
deceased (ayu,e//,7rro9, d/caTayvwo-To?) 2 ; finally, also in a deed
of tenure, which certainly belongs to the Christian period,
but which can hardly be deemed a memorial of "ecclesi-
1 Inscriptions Graecae Siciliae et Italiae additis Graecis Galliae His-
paniae Britanniae Germaniae inscriptionibus consilio et auctoritate Academiae
Litterarum Begiae Borussicae edidit Georgivs Kaibel, . . . Berolini 1890.
2 Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, Berlin, 1878, p.
295 f., treats the Inscription under No. 728 as a Christian one, but without
giving his reasons.
N. 29] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 201
astical " Greek in Cremer's sense: BU. 308s (Fayyum,
Byzant. period) eTrdvayfces eVfcTeXeo-oytez' ra irpos rrjv fca\\iep-
ryiav TWV dpovpwv epja trdvra d/caTayvcodr^a)^. 1
edv.
1. A. Buttmann 2 observes in reference to edv with the
indicative 8 : "It cannot be denied, indeed, that the examples
of this construction are almost as nothing compared with the
mass of those which are grammatically regular, whatever
doubts may be raised by the fact that hardly a single quite
trustworthy passage with the indicative has come down to
us ". But he is right, with regard to those passages in which
both the indicative and the subjunctive appear in the text,
in attributing the latter to the copyists. Only a very few
absolutely certain examples, belonging to a relatively early
period, can be pointed out. The following have been noticed
by the author in Papyri : BU. 3005 (Fayyum, 148 A.D.) /eav
Beov rfv* 48 is (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) eav Be firj evrjv 5 ;
in each case the form is properly a perfect. 6 Further, with
the present or future indicative following, we have the Paris
Papyrus 18 (imperial period?), 7 in the middle, eav palaver iv
per eaov ol dSeXtyoi GOV, according as we accentuate pcLyovGLv
or fjiaxovo-w 8 ; BU. 597 6 (Fayyum, 75 A.D.) KCLI eav eiTroo-et,, 9
1 So the editor, Wilcken, restores ; the author considers that
yvuffr[oi] is also possible.
2 Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachgebrauchs, Berlin, 1859, p.
192.
3 Strictly speaking, this point is out of place in the above paragraph, but
it is discussed here in order to avoid breaking up the article eo.
4 The editor's proposal to change 3\v into ^ seems to the present writer
wrong. Cf. also the passage jB U. 543 6 quoted below.
5 lav with the subjunctive is found three times (lines 4. 12. 17) in the same
Papyrus.
6 Winer-Liinemann, p. 277, ft at the foot.
7 Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliotheque impgriale, vol. xviii.,
part 2, Paris, 1865, p. 232 f.
8 For n&xu> cf. the analogous cases in Winer-Liinemann, top of p. 244.
9 This peculiar form (developed from e1irov ?) must in any case be inter-
preted as indicative.
202 fclBLE STUDIES. [tf. 30
c/. 607 23 (Fayyum, 163 A.D.) oirorav 1 dvaip\o\vvrai and the
passages cited below, 86 10, 22.
2. Winer-Liinemann, p. 291, writes as follows, in refer-
ence to the frequent edv instead of dv in relative clauses:
" In the text of the N. T. (as in the LXX and the Apocrypha
. . ., now and then in the Byzantine writers, . . .), av after
relatives is frequently displaced, according to most authorities
and the best, by edv [here the passages are given], as not
seldom in the Codices of Greek, even of Attic, writers.
Modern philologists . . . substitute dv throughout. . . .
The editors of the N. T. have not as yet ventured to do
this, and in point of fact edv for dv may well have been a
peculiarity of the popular language in later (if not, indeed, in
earlier) times." A. Buttmann, p. 63 f., is of a like opinion :
"We may at least infer with certainty, from the frequent
occurrence of this substitution, that this form, certainly in-
correct (but still not quite groundless), was extant among
later writers". Schmiedel 2 also recognises this edv as late-
Greek. But even in 1888 Grimm, Clavis f p. 112, had ex-
plained it "ex usu ap. profanos maxime dubio". The case is
extremely instructive in regard to the fundamental question
as to the character of the language of the Greek Bible.
That this small formal peculiarity, occurring abundantly 3 in
the Greek Bible, should be, as is said, very doubtful among
"profane" writers, is conceivable only on the view that
"biblical Greek" constitutes a philological-historical mag-
nitude by itself. If, however, we take the philological
phenomena of the Bible out of the charmed circle of the
1 oTr6rav and '6rav with the future indicative in the Sibyllists are treated
of by A. Rzach, Zur Kritik der Sibyllinischen Orakel, Philologus, liii. (1894),
p. 283.
2 HC. ii. 1 (1891), p. 98, ad loc. 1 Cor. 6 18 .
3 In the LXX in innumerable passages (H. W. J. Thiersch, De Penta-
teuchi versione Alexandrina libri tres, Erlangen, 1841, p. 108) ; in the Apocry-
pha, Ch. A. Wahl, Clavis librorum V. T. Apocryphorum philologica, Leip-
zig, 1853, p. 137 f., enumerates 28 cases ; in the N.T. Clavis 3 gives 17. Many
other cases, without doubt, have been suppressed by copyists or editors.
U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff considers & edv, 3 John B , to be an " ortho-
graphic blunder " (Hermes, xxxiii. [1898], p. 531), but this is a mistake.
N. 31] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 203
dogma of " biblical Greek," we may then characterise the
possible non-occurrence of " profane " examples of the present
phenomenon as, at most, a matter of accident. But the
Papyri prove that the biblical edv so far at least as regards
New Testament times x was in very frequent use in Egypt ;
they confirm in the most marvellous way the conjecture of
Winer and A. Buttmann. The New Testament is, in this
matter, virtually surrounded by a cloud of witnesses : the
author has no doubt that the Ptolemaic Papyri 2 and the
Inscriptions yield further material, which would similarly
substantiate the edv of the LXX and the Apocrypha. On
account of the representative importance of the matter, a
number of passages from the Papyri 3 may be noted here,
which furnish, so to speak, the linguistic-historical frame-
work for the New Testament passages : BU. 543 5 (Hawarah,
27 B.C.) TI S(TG)v eav rjv, PEE. ccxxiv. 10 (Fayyum, 5th-6th
cent. A.D.) TI oa-cov evav sic #, 4 BU. 197 10 (F., 17 A.D.) 77 oa-cov
eav aip\r)Tai\, ibid. 19 ols eav aipijrai, 177 7 (F., 46-47 A.D.) 77
eav waiv, PEE. iv.ii (F., 52-53 A.D.) 77 oawv eav &ai,
ft>9 e'ai; /3ov\r) T ai, BU. 251 6 (F., 81 A.D.) []<' jj[? e]av
[air]aiTJ<rei tie t PEE. i.io (F., 83-84 A.D.) co? eav {J3ov\to]vTai 9
ibid.w rj oa-ai eav wai, BU. 183 8 (F., 85 A.D.) a$ 979 eav
diraiTrjdfj, ibid. 19 oaa irore eav fcaTaXetyy 8ic , ibid. 25 ot? eav
j3ov\r)Tai, 2606 (F., 90 A.D.) O7r6Se sic eav alprj, 252 9 (F., 98
A.D.) &$ fo [ea]v aTra^T^ef,, 538s (F., 100 A.D.) ^ oacov eav
wai, PEE. clxxxviii.2o (F., 105-106 A.D.) tw? eav aipwvrai,,
ibid, si TI [ocrajt eav wcri, xi. 26 (F., 108 A.D.) a[<?] eav aipfjrai,
1 It is only the Papyri of the (early and late) imperial period which
have been collated by the author in regard to this question.
2 This conjecture is confirmed by a Papyrus in the British Museum,
from the Thebaid, belonging to the year 132 A.D. ; given in Grenfell's An
Alexandrian Erotic Fragment and other Greek Papyri chiefly Ptolemaic, Ox-
ford, 1896, No. xviii. 27, p. 40 : Kal e| o5 ea/ alp^rai.
3 In almost every case the editors of the Berlin and the Vienna Papyri
prefer to read &v instead of edv, but what we have to do with here is not really
a clerical error. &v should be read in every case, just as it is written. In
Vol. II. of the Berlin documents, fdv has for the most part been allowed to
remain, and rightly so.
4 Pap. : TJ. Wessely, p. 255, accentuates 3**.
204 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 32
xxviii.7 (F., 110 A.D.) ola eav ey/3f) sic , ibid.u rj ocrwv eav coat,
BU. 1019 (F., 114 A.D.) ef ov eav alpfj /ue/oou?, ibid. is efi bv
eav . . . xpovov, 444 7 (reign of Trajan) rj 6cnjL sic eav fj, 113*
(143 A.D.) 7T/305 9 eav fiera^v djdycoo-i, 300 11 (F., 148 A.D.)
0*5 eav 7T/>o? ravra eim-eXecy, 86 7. 13 (F., 155 A.D.) &v eav
Kara\etyrj iic , ibid. 19 i^e^pi eav . . . yevo[vrai] sic , ibid. 22 O7r[o]re
eav . . . ryevovrat,, 80 [=446]u (F., 158-159 A.D.) OTrore
ea[v aipvjrat], ibid. 24 oirore alav sic alp[fj], 542 13 (F., 165 A.D.)
o eav alprjrai,, 28228 (F., after 175 A.D.) rj oaoi eav wo-i, ibid.z&
ft)? eav alpfjrai,, 24125 (F., 177 A.D.) [rj ocrai] eav c5crt, ibid. 28
rj oaai [ea]i> coon, ibid. 38 ft)[? e\av aipfjrai,, 326 i. 10 (F., 189 A.D.)
el TI, eav dv[@]pcti7ri,v[ov] 7rd[0r)], ibid. ii. 2 el TI eav eya) . . .
/caTa\i7rco, 1 432 ii. 29 (190 A.D.) O,TL eav irpd^rjs, 46 17 (F.,
193 A.D.) ev ot? eav jBov\wpai TOTTOLS, 233 15 (F., 2nd cent. A.D.)
O,TI eav aip\_wvraL\, 236 4 (F., 2nd cent. A.D.) rj oacov eav wai,
248 19 (F., 2nd cent. A.D.) &>? eav SoKifidfy?, 33 ie (F., 2nd-3rd
cent. A.D.) OTTOV eav 6e\r)<$, ibid. 21 ^ Sia oiov eav evpys, 13 10
(F., 289 A.D.) ft)? eav aipy, 380 is (F., 3rd cent. A.D.) /juera ov
eav evpco, PER. xix. 23 (F., 330 A.D.) cov eav . . 7rpoa-(f)covr)o-r) )
BU. 364 10 (F., 553 A.D.) oo-cov eav oW, 303 12 (F., 586 A.D.)
oVa? eav ayo-iv, ibid, verso i oa-cov [e]av wai.
Surveying this long list, one is struck by the fact that
edv is used in many constantly recurring formulae, but,
nevertheless, in spontaneously-formed clauses as well. We
should also notice that the documents in which it occurs
1 Proceeding from this twice-occurring et witli (ta.v = ) &v following, we
can understand the peculiar negative et ^ ri &v in 1 Cor. 7 5 . Schmiedel,
HC. ii. 1 (1891), p. 100, explains thus: "el rf n &v = eaj/ mi\ n, as Origen
reads ". This equation ought not to be made ; it only explains the meaning
of the combination, but not its special syntactic character, el /dj ri &v has
philologically nothing to do with the e'cw/ in ear p-f) ri ; &v, occurring here after
et, is rather exactly the same as if it occurred after a hypothetical relative,
thus : unless in a given case, unless perhaps. The fact that the verb (say,
ewn>(TTef>7?Te or yei/rjrai) has to be supplied is absolutely without importance for
the grammatical determination of the case. Blass, Gramm., p. 211 [Eng.
Trans., p. 216], counts el ^ TI &v among the combinations in which et and
lAv are blended together. We consider this hypothesis untenable, on account
of the &v. A. Buttmann, p. 190, note, agrees with it, though indeed he also
refers to the explanation which we consider to be the correct one, pp. 189,
bottom line, and 190, first two lines. It is confirmed by the ct &v of the
Papyrus.
N. 33] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 205
are of very various kinds, and are not merely official papers,
with regard to which we might always be justified in sup-
posing that what we had there was only a peculiarity of the
official language. The first and second centuries A.D. consti-
tute its definite classical period ; it seems to become less
frequent later. The author has met with the " correct " dv
only in the following passages : BU. 372, ii. 17 (Fayyum, 154
A.D.) e ov av . . . TrporeOf), 619 7 (F., 155 A.D.) a^pt, av
egeTao-Ofj, 3485 (F., 156 A.D.) o>9 av SoKeipdo-rjs, ibid. 7, &>?
av Svvoi sic , 419 11 (F., 276-277 A.D.) a%/ot9 av Trapayevcofjiai,
31621 (Askalon in Phoenicia, 359 A.D.) ov av alpfjre rpoirov,
ibid. 26. 32 KOL oaov av .... Siatyeprj, ZQ ayv av . . e.'niKTif]-
<rr)[r]e sic ; he does not of course guarantee that this is an
exhaustive list. The hypothesis that edv for dv is an Alex-
andrianism, in support of which the repeated dv of the last-
mentioned document from Askalon might be put forward,
seems to the present writer to be groundless. We must
deal very circumspectly with all such tendencies to isolate
We actually find oaot eav o-vv^ev^Bwa-iv twice on a leaden
tablet from Carthage (imperial period), GIL. viii. suppl.
12511.
Blass also refers to the use of edv for dv in the Papyri,
Gramm., p. 61 [Eng. Trans., p. 61], where he cites BU. 12,
13, 33, 46, " etc." ; and also p. 212 [Eng. Trans., p. 217],
where he cites the London Aristotelian Papyrus (end of 1st
cent. A.D.).
el (el ?)
el fjujv occurs on good authority in Heb. 6 14 (as already
in LXX, e.g., Ezek. 33 27 , 34 8 , 35 6 , 36 5 , 38 19 , Numb. 14 28 ,
Job. 27 3 , Judith I 12 , Baruch 2 29 ) as used to express an
oath. F. Bleek, ad loc., 1 has gone into the matter most
thoroughly ; he concludes his investigation as follows :
" These examples [i.e., from the LXX] prove that el ^v in
the present passage also was, for the Alexandrian Jews,
no meaningless form, as Tholuck describes it ; and this case
may serve to convince us how much we must be on our guard
i Der Brief an die Hebracr erlautert, part 2, Berlin, 1840, pp. 248-250.
206 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 34
against the temptation to reject forthwith a reading which
is vouched for by the agreement of the oldest authorities of
various classes and from various localities, on the alleged
ground of its meaninglessness, and without more strict in-
quiry as to whether it may not be established or defended
by biblical usage ". This ''biblical" usage, according to
him, arises from " a blending together of the Greek form of
oath r) ufa with the wholly un-Greek el firj, which originates
in a literal imitation of the Hebrew form " (top of p. 250).
Clavis 3 , p. 118, and Winer- Schmiedel, 5, 15 (p. 46), still
consider this blending as possible, unless, perhaps, it be
a case of itacistic confusion of ?? with ei, and fj ^v be
intended. But 0. F. Fritzsche, 1 again, asserts this latter
supposition to be the only admissible one, and finds in the
opinion of Bleek an example of "how easily the obstinate
adherence to the letter of the traditional text leads to con-
fusion and phantasy ".
The whole matter is exceedingly instructive. How
plausible does an assertion like Bleek's, accepted from him
by so many others, seem to an adherent of the notion of
" biblical " Greek ! On the one hand the Greek % fi^v, on
the other the Hebrew iST 5 DN = el /juj by blending the two
the genius of the biblical diction constructs an el fjbtfv ! True,
it might have made an 97 //,?? from them, but it did not it
preferred el ftrjv. Pity, that this fine idea should be put out
of existence by the Papyri. 2 BU. 543 2 . (Hawarah, 28-27
B.C.) runs : o/^v/u Kaiaapa Avro/cpdropa Oeov vlov el /JLTJV
Trapax^p^creiv . . . rov . . K\r)po[y~], and we read, in PEE.
ccxxiv. iff. (Soknopaiu Nesos in the Fayyum, 5-6 A.D.) :
ofMvvo sic [ . . Kaiaapa] AvroKpdropa Oeov v\lbv~\
el firjv evpevew ev iracn rofc ryeyelvrj/JLevois Kara rr)]v ypa^rjv
.... Here, in two mutually independent cases, we have el
1 HApAT. ii. (1853), p. 138 ; cf. i. (1851), p. 186.
2 Further, the hypothesis of blending, considered purely by itself,
is inconceivable. If el ^v is a Hebraising form, as regards one half of
it, then el must have the sense of Qfr$. But then also the formula takes on
a negative sense, so that, e.g., Hebr. 6 14 would read : Truly if I bless thee and
multiply thee[scil. : then will I not be God, or something similar].
N. 35] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 207
(el?) wv as a form of oath on Papyrus leaves whichare
some hundred years older than the original text of Hebrews,
and which come from the same country in which the LXX
and, most probably, the Epistle to the Hebrews, were written.
Whatever, then, may be its relation to this el (el?) ^v, thus
much, at all events, is clear : it is no specific phenomenon
of biblical or of Jewish J Greek It is either a case of mere
itacistic confusion of 77 with et, 2 as Fritzsche assumes in
regard to the biblical, Krebs 3 and Wessely 4 in regard to the
Papyrus passages ; or else the expression is a peculiar form of
oath, only authenticated as regards Egypt, about the origin
of which the author does not venture to express an opinion.
The abundant and excellent evidence in biblical MSS. for
the ei in this particular combination, 5 and its occurrence, in
the same combination, in two mutually independent Papyrus
passages, deserve in any case our fullest consideration.
Blass, too, has not failed to notice the el pr^v, at least
of the first passage, BU. 543: he writes thus, Gramm., p.
9 [Eng. Trans., p. 9]: "Elwvtoi ij rfv, Heb. 6 14 (^ABD 1 ),
is also attested by the LXX and Papyri [Note 4, to this
word, is a reference to BU. 543, and to Blass, Ausspr. d. Gr. s ,
pp. 33, 77] ; all this, moreover, properly belongs to orthoepy,
and not to orthography ". Then on p. 60 [Eng. Trans., p.
60] : " i}, more correctly el, in el wv," and p. 254 [Eng.
Trans., p. 260]: " Asseverative sentences, direct and indirect
(the latter infinitive sentences) are, in Classical Greek, intro-
1 That the author of either Papyrus was a Jew is impossible.
2 Thus, e.g., in the Berlin MS., immediately before, we have, conversely,
Xpi]<*v for xpeuov. (The document is otherwise well-written, like that of
Vienna). Cf. also BU. 316 12 (Askalon, 359 A.D.) et [ = *)] Kal e? rivi erepy
6v6fj.an /caA?T6, and, conversely, 261 is (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) TJ ^, with-
out doubt for et /*^.
3 Krebs writes e? in the Berlin MS., and adds the note : " I. [i.e., read]
3".
4 Wessely writes et** 5 wv, and adds " 1. [ = read] 7j ^v ".
6 The note on p. 416 of the Etymologicum magnum, viz., ?j
6pKiic6j/ forep Kal Sia 8i(j>d6yyov ypdQerat, has in itself no weight ; it but re-
peats the documentary information found in the passage quoted in connectiori
with it, Hebr. 6 14 = Gen. 22".
208 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 36
duced by r) wv, for which, in Hellenistic-Eoman times, we
find el (accent ?) iirjv written ; so LXX and consequently
Heb. 6 14 ". The author cannot rightly judge from this as to
the opinion of Blass concerning the spelling and the origin of
the formula : in any case it is evident from the last-quoted
observation that he does not consider the accentuation eZ,
which he seems to uphold, to be wholly free from doubt.
The above-quoted work of Blass, Uber die Aussprache des
Griechischen*, Berlin, 1888, p. 33, shows that this formula of
swearing is used also in the Doric Mystery-Inscription of
Andania in the Peloponnesus (93 or 91 B.C.) ; the op/co?
yuvai/covojjiov begins, in line 27, el pav e^euv eTri^ekeiav irepl re
rov ei/jLaria-jjiov (Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 388, p. 570).
Blass observes regarding this : "El fidv seems, nevertheless,
rather to be a jussum speciale of the language than to rest
upon general rules ".
e\at,ci)v.
This word is undoubtedly found in Acts 1 12 , airo opov?
rov Ka\ov/jLevov e'Xatwz>o9 ; according to Clavis 3 , elsewhere
only in the LXX and Josephus : " a/pud Graecos non exstat ".
A matter of statistical chance : in the Berlin Papyri, vol.
i., alone, eXaoz>, olive-grove or olive-garden, occurs in nine
different documents, of which BU. 37s (51 A.D.), 50 e (115
A.D.) are of " New Testament " times ; there may be added
from vol. ii., JB*7. 379i2.i4 (67 A.D.), 595 10 (perhaps 70-80
A.D.)' The Papyri named are all from the Fayyum. The
formation of the word is correctly given in Clavis? 1 but it is
a misleading half-truth to say : terminate cov est nominum
derivatorum indicantium locum Us arboribus consitum, quae
nomine primitivo designantur. The termination -cov is used,
quite generally, and not only in regard to the names of trees,
to form words which designate the place where the particu-
lar objects are found. Equally strange is the identification
with which- Grimm supplements the above : olivetum, locus
oleis consitus, i.e. [!] mons olearum. As if an eXaiav could not
1 A. Buttmann, p. 20, refers to the similarly-formed Greek names of
mountains (KiQaipw, 'EAt/cwv, etc,).
N. 37] LANGUAGE OP THE GREEK BIBLE. 209
just as well be in a valley or anywhere else, ehaicov does
not, of course, mean " Olive-Mount " in Acts I 12 either, but
"place of olives" or, if one prefers, "olive-wood". 1 The
word is, doubtless, used here as a place-name ; but when a
particular mountain has the name ekaubv, it cannot be in-
ferred therefrom that the lexicographer has a right to render
eXaiwv by " mons " olearum. To do so would be quite as pre-
posterous as to translate \eyia>v, in Mark 5 9 , etc., by legion
of demons.
The circumstance that the word has been but scantily
authenticated hitherto must have had a share in sometimes
keeping it from its rights in another respect. Luke 19 29
reads, according to universal testimony, 777)09 TO opo? TO
Ka\ovfj,evov \CILWV ; similarly 21 37 , eh TO opo? TO KaXov/Jievov
\aic0v, and, 2 in Mark II 1 , the Vaticanus reads 777)09 TO
0/909 TO e\ai(t)v, the Bobbiensis, ad montem eleon; in Luke
22 39 , A Sangallensis has eh TO 6po9 e\aicov. In the two
first-named passages, e\aiwv was formerly taken as the
genitive plural of e\ala probably universally, and accentu-
ated eKaiwv. Schmiedel 3 still considers this view possible,
and, in point of fact, the abbreviated form of speech which
we must in such case admit would not be without analogy :
in BU. 227 10 (Fayyum, 151 A.D.) the author finds ev TOTT(W)
Katvrjs Aicopvyos \eyo[/jLei'w] ; similarly in 282 21 (Fayyum,
after 175 A.D.), ev TOTTW Olfcias Kaw[. \\eyofAevov sic , and in
1 The author is not quite able to determine whether the mistake in pro-
cedure which underlies the above-named identification should be attributed
to W. Grimm, or whether it is a result of the erroneous view of Chr. G.
Wilke. In any case we may characterise the mistake in the pertinent words
of the latter (Die Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments systematisch dargestellt,
zweiter Theil : die hermeneutische Methodenlehre, Leipzig, 1844, p. 181) :
" Exegetes are frequently in the habit of giving to this or the other word a
meaning which belongs only to some word which is combined with it, and
which does not apply to the word in question, either in this combination or
elsewhere".
2 The passages which follow, so far as the author knows, have in no case
been previously noticed.
3 Winer-Schmiedel, 10, 4 (p. 93) ; the author perceives here that also
Niese and Bekker always write e\ai>v in Josephus. The relevant passages
are cited in Clavis 3 , p. 140.
14
210 BIBLE STUDIES. N. 38
Iine24f., ev
PER. xxxviii. 9 (F., 263 A.D.) ev TOTTW Wtfiicrrdvew
Nevertheless the case is a somewhat different one in the
Papyrus passages ; the author would only bring the above
forward in case of extreme necessity. But such a case would
only exist if e\aiu>v were necessarily a genitive. Now, since
we may without misgiving accentuate ekaiav 2 , the question
alone remains whether this form, which is urged upon us
by Acts 1 12 , and which is & priori more probable than ekaiwv
without the article (which never occurs in Luke), is gram-
matically tenable. And the answer must unquestionably
be in the affirmative. Not, indeed, as A. Buttmann, p. 20,
thinks, because the word is to be " treated altogether as
an indeclinabile, and therefore as a neuter," 8 but by reference
to the more lax usage of later Greek, 4 our knowledge of
which is enlarged by the Papyri. In these the formulae, o
Ka\ovfjivos, eiTLica\ovfievo^, eVt/ce/cX^/Lte^o?, A^o^e^o?, for intro-
ducing the names of persons and places, are extremely
frequent. As a rule these words are construed with the
proper case ; thus, in Vol. I. alone of the Berlin Documents,
we find some thirty examples of the years 121-586 A.D. But
in several passages from the Fayyum Papyri, we may note
the more lax usage as well : in BU. 526 is f. (86 A.D.) ev rfj
Teao-p&fiis \efoop~\evns, and 235 6 (137 A.D.) II[a]cr[i]a)v[o<i]
A(f)po$i(rLov eTTiK(a\oviJLevov) Kevvis, Te<70-/3&V3is and Kevvis will
be nominatives ; in 277 i. 27 (2nd. cent. A.D.) we find ev
eTroitciG) 'AfivvTas, even without a participle, and in 349 it.
(313 A.D.) there occurs ev K\r]p<p KaXovfievov* ' Afypuciavos.
Thus hardly any further objections can be made to the
accentuation e'Xcua>z> in Luke 19 29 and 21 87 ; it should also be
applied in Mark 11 J B and Luke 22 39 A. Another question
1 The editor, Krebs, writes olicias, but the word most likely belongs to the
name of the field, and should thus, according to our custom, be written with
a capital. The two names, in the author's opinion, should be set in the
Index sub Oiidas Kavv[.] and OiVc/os 2a[ ..... ]Xox-
2 The later editors accentuate thus.
3 This could be asserted only of the reading in Mark 11 * according to B.
4 Winer-Schmiedel, 10, 4 (p. 93), and Winer 7 , 29, 1 (p. 171).
N. 39] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 211
which appears to the author to deserve a more exact investi-
gation, can only be slightly touched upon here, viz., Which
Greek reading for the name of the Mount of Olives is implied
by the Vulgate ? In Matthew, according to our texts, the
Mount of Olives is always (21 1 t 24 3 , 26 30 ) called TO 0/005 r&v
e\at,wv, in the corresponding passages in the Vulgate mons
oliveti ; similarly (except in Luke 19 29 , 21 37 and Acts 1 12 ,
passages which on account of e\aicov require no explanation)
in Luke 19 37 and John 8 1 , where also mons oliveti corresponds
to the 0/90? T&V e\ai&v. The matter would have no further
importance if the Mount of Olives were always designated,
thus in the Vulgate. But in Mark always (II 1 , 13 3 , 14 26 )
and Luke 22 39 , as in Zech. 14 4 , TO 0/005 r&v eKai&v is rendered
by mons olivarum. 1 Does this state of the case not prompt the
conjecture that the Vulgate somehow implies e\ata>v in the
first-mentioned passages? How is the Mount of Olives
named in the other ancient versions? 2
Blass, in his Grammar of New Testament Greek, several
times expresses himself with regard to the question in a
manner that evokes the present writer's strongest opposition.
On p. 32 [Eng. Trans., p. 32] he says : " 'E\ai(av, olive-mountain,
as a Greek translation, cannot be indeclinable ; hence, like
the TO 0/005 T&V e\ai)v elsewhere, so 6^005 (ace.) TO /cd\ov-
fjievov eXaiwz/ (not *E\au&v) in Luke 19 29 , 21 37 ; in Acts 1 12
all MSS., 6'/oou5 rov /ca\ov/ji6vov E\aicovo<;, it is wrongly
inflected for eXcuw; cf. 33, 1". In 33, 1 (p. 84) [Eng.
Trans., p. 84 f.], again, we read: "When names are intro-
duced without regard to the construction they seem some-
times to be put in the nominative case, instead of the case
which the construction would require But otherwise
they are always made to agree in case Accordingly,
it is incredible that the Mt. of Olives should be translated o
'E\ai(ov and that this word should be used as an indeclinable
in Luke 19 29 , 21 87 0/005 (ace.) TO KaKovpevov l\aicov, but we
1 Tischendorf's Apparatus ignores the whole matter.
2 Specially the Peschito must be taken into consideration ; cf. Winer,
p. 171. So far as the author can decide, it implies t\atd>v in all the passages
in Luke. But he cannot guarantee this.
212 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 39,40
must read e\aiwv (TO opo? r <w v eX in Luke 19 37 and else-
where), and, in the single passage Acts 1 12 (opovs rov Kahov-
ftevov) e'Xatwi/o?, we must correct to e\aiwv (as also in
Josephus, A. 7, 92)." But, in the first place, the nominative
does not merely " seem 1 ' to be used sometimes in a more lax
way : it actually is sometimes so used : to the already well-
known biblical and extra -biblical passages there are to be
added the above-quoted examples from the Papyri. "But
otherwise they are always made to agree in case," without
doubt ! For that more lax usage of the nominative is of
course an exception. But it cannot be doubted that the
exception is possible. Hence it does not seem particularly
convincing that Blass should base upon his " otherwise
always " the opinion : " Accordingly it is incredible that the
Mt. of Olives should be translated o 'E\at,a>v, and that this
word should be used as an indeclinable". This sentence,
moreover, contains at the same time a slight but important
displacement of the problem. We have no concern what-
ever with the question whether ekaiwv is used, in the passages
quoted, as an indeclinable word (cf. Blass, p. 32 "indecl."),
but only with the question whether, according to more lax
usage, the nominative is used there instead of the proper
case. 1 Why should the more lax usage not be possible here ?
Had it been, indeed, the acceptance of the more lax usage of
the nominative in Luke 19 29 and 21 37 only, which compelled
us to admit e\aid>v into the New Testament lexicon, then
we might have had our doubts. But the word comes to us
in Acts 1 12 on the unanimous testimony of all authorities,
and, moreover, in a form which is not liable to doubt, viz.,
the genitive. We may well admire the boldness with which
Blass here corrects eXatowo? into eXaiwv, but we are unable
to follow his example.
1 To mention a similar case : When we read the title of a book, e.g.,
" Jesu Predigt in ihrem Gegensatz zum Judenthum. Ein religionsgeschicht-
licher Vergleich von Lie. W. Bousset, Privatdocent in Gottingen," we would
not say that Privatdocent is used as an indeclinable, but would decide that it
is one of the many cases of a more lax usage of the nominative in titles of
books. [In German we ought, properly speaking, to write " Privatdocentew,"
i.e., the dative. TB.]
N.40,41] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 213
H. A. A. Kennedy l assigns the " adverb " eWoTrtoz/, which
is used in the Bible as a preposition, to the class of " bibli-
cal " words, i.e., those belonging to the LXX and the N. T.
only. According to A. Buttmann, p. 273, the "preposition"
is " probably of Eastern " origin, and according to "Winer-
Liinemann, p. 201, " the preposition eva>7riov (^jprO itself,"
may be said to belong almost entirely to "the Hebrew
colouring of the language." These statements are not par-
ticularly informative ; but, at all events, their purport is
easily gathered, viz., eva-mov is a new formation of " biblical "
Greek. 2 But BU. 578 (Fayyum, 189 A.D.) attests the adver-
bial use of the word as regards Egypt. That the Papyrus is
comparatively late does not signify. Line i runs : yLteraS(o?)
V(t)7Ti(oi>) o>? Ka6r]ic(ei) TO!? Trpoareray/ji^evo^) d/co\ov[6a)<;] ; 8
similarly line 71. might be restored thus : TOV SeSojjievov viro^vr]-
fjLaros avTL'yp(a$ov) /J,6Ta8o0r)Tco GO? v7r6fc[eiTat, IvtoTnov}. It is
evident that ^e-ra^ovai ev^iriov is an official formula. Pro-
fessor Wilcken of Breslau was good enough to give the
author the following information on this point. He thinks
that the formula, which is otherwise unknown to him,
signifies to deliver personally : "the demand for payment shall
be made to the debtor, face to face, for the greater security of
the creditor ".
It is not an impossible, but an improbable, supposition
that this adverbial evaiTrtov was used first of all with the
genitive in the LXX : e[z/]&)7rto[z/] nva)v is already found in
a Papyrus of the British Museum from the Thebaid, and of
the 2nd or 1st cent. B.C. in Grenfell, 4 No. xxxviii. 11, p. 70.
1 Sources of New Testament Greek, Edinburgh, 1895, p. 90.
2 Cf. also Blass, Gramm., p. 125 [Eng. Trans., p. 127 1] " evdnriov .....
. . . . , evavri . . , Karevavrt . . are derived from the LXX, and are
unknown in profane authors even of later times". Yet on p. xii. Blass refers
to cvavri as being profane Greek ! f
3 Also in line 6 the editor, Krebs, restores ^v\unri\ov ; in that case the
combination neraSidtvai evwiriov would be repeated here also. Wilcken, how-
ever, questions the correctness of this restoration, and proposes ev[rei\]ov, ag
he has informed the author by letter.
4 See above, p. 203, note 2.
214 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.41,42
In the discussion of this word, so far as we have
seen, no attention has been paid to an interesting observa-
tion of Grimm not even by himself in the Clavis. He
makes a note to 2 Mace. 1 8 (irpoa^veyKa^ev Ova-Lav /cal a-e^i-
8a\iv /cat efyfaa/jLev TOV? \v%vov<i /cal TrpoeOriKa^ev rovs aprou?)
as follows : "An arbitrary but, on account of Matt. 6 11 and
Luke 11 3 , a remarkable amplification in three Codd.
Sergii, viz., rov? eTriova-Lovs".* This signifies the show-bread
offerings. What connection has it with this reading ? What
can be learned of these MSS. (unknown to the author) ?
We are now (1900) in a position to answer these
questions through a friendly communication of Professor
Nestle of Maulbronn (cf. also B[lass], Lit. Centralblatt, 1898,
p. 1810).
The " Codices Sergii " are not, as one might expect,
Greek MSS., but are probably identical with the Armenian
codices mentioned in the Praefatio ad Genesin of Holmes [and
Parsons'] edition of the LXX, i., Oxford, 1798, p. v., which
were collated in 1773, in the Library of St. James at
Jerusalem, by the Armenian priest Sergius Malea (Novum
Testamentum Graece, ed. Tischendorf, 8th edition, vol. iii.,
by Gregory, p. 914). So far as we are aware, it has not
been shown that Malea collated Greek MSS. also. In 2
Mace. 1 8 , Malea has probably re-translated an amplification
found in his Armenian MSS. into Greek. Thus there still
remain the following questions to be answered :
1. How does this addition run in these Armenian MSS.?
2. Is this Armenian word identical with the Armenian
word for eTnovcnos in the Lord's Prayer ?
(and
Cremer 8 , p. 160 f. says of evdpeo-ros: " except in Xen.
Mem. 3, 5, 5 : Bo/cel JJLOI ap^ovn evapeo-repcos nc [read evapeo"ro-
Sia/celaOai, 97 TroXt? unless (contra Lobeck, Phryn., p.
1 The testimony of Origen renders it probable that this word is actually
a " biblical " one ; thus, strictly speaking, it should not be treated here.
z HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 35.
N.42,43] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 215
621) evapecr/coTepws should be read here as better suiting the
meaning only in bibl. and eccles. Greek. In any case, like
its derivatives, belonging otherwise only to later Greek." As
this passage from Xenophon possibly authenticates the
adverb, it should not be mentioned in connection with the
adjective ; the adverb is specially discussed by Cremer, and,
indeed, with the correct piece of information, p. 161 : " now
and then in Epictetus". The adverbial cases being put
aside, Cremer's statement that evdpeo-ros is " only " biblical
and ecclesiastical, seems to become more probable : though,
indeed, the " otherwise " in the next sentence leaves open
the possibility that the word also occurs elsewhere. All
doubt as to the point, however, must disappear in the light
of the passage from an Inscription of Nisyros (undated, pre-
Christian ? Mittheilungen des athen. Instituts 15, p. 134) line
11 f. : 'yevojjLevov evapecnov Trdcrt. 1 Moreover, the occurrence
of the adverb in [Xenophon (?) and] Epictetus ought to have
warned against the isolating of the adjective, evapeara)? is
also found in GIG. 2885 = Lebas, Asie, 33 (Branchidae, B.C.) :
JV v$po<f)op[av
iepa,T6vc0.
Cremer, 8 p. 462 : " not used in profane Greek ; only occa-
sionally in later writers, e.g., Herodian, Heliodorus, Pausanias".
Now, first of all, Josephus, the earliest of the " later writers,"
is omitted here. Next, it is a contradiction to say, first, that
the word is not used, and then to bring forward a number of
authors who do use it. It would have been more accurate
to say : " used in later Greek ". This would imply of course
that it is no longer justifiable to isolate the word as a biblical
one. Kennedy 2 draws the conclusions of the theory of
Cremer by making the conjecture that since leparevco does
not occur before the LXX, it was possibly formed by them
and was transmitted from " Jewish-Greek " into the common
1 The author is indebted for this and the following passage to a refer-
ence of Frankel, p. 315, relating to Perg. 461.
2 Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 119.
216 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.43,44
tongue. 1 In these circumstances it is very fortunate that the
Inscriptions yield quite a multitude of examples of this very
word, which go back to the age of the LXX, and infallibly
prove that one may safely say: "very common in later
Greek ". Of the examples which occur in the two collections
of Inscriptions investigated by the author, viz., those of the
.5Cgean Sea (fasc. i.) and of Pergamos, let it suffice here to
mention only the pre-Christian ones : IMAe. 808 2 (Khodes,
3rd cent. B.C.), 811 (Khodes, 3rd cent. B.C.), 63 1.2 (Khodes,
2nd cent. B.C.), 3 5 (Khodes, 1st cent. B.C.) ; Perg. 167 3. 5. 15
(ca. 166 B.C.), 129 and 130 (before 133 B.C.).
Cremer, 8 p. 490, asserts it to be a fact " that /
is found only in Biblical 2 and (seldom indeed) in ecclesiastical
Greek ". But already Clams 2l 3 quotes Joseph. Antt. 11, 5, 4,
/ca0dpi%6 rr)v irepl ravra (rvvr)6eiav. More important still is
the occurrence of the word in the Inscriptions in a ceremonial
sense. The Mystery-Inscription of Andania in the Pelo-
ponnesus (93 or 91 B.C.) prescribes, in line 37 : avaypa^rdvrw
Se /cal a<$> &v Set tcaBapi^eiv /cal a fj.rj Set e^oi/ra? elcrTropeveo-Oat,
(Dittenberger, Sylloge No. 388, p. 571). Further, there come
into consideration the directions (preserved in a double form 3
in the Inscriptions) of Xanthos the Lycian for the sanctuary
of Men Tyrannos, a deity of Asia Minor, which he had founded:
CIA. iii. 74, 4 cf. 73 (found near Sunium, not older than the
imperial period). No unclean person shall enter the temple:
KaOap^6arco sic Se cnro o-[tc]opSa)v /ca[l %otpeW] tcu[l ryvvaueo<i],
\ovcra /juevovs Se Karafce(f)a\a avOrjfjbepbv et[o-7ropei;]e<7#at. In the
rough draught CIA. iii. 73 we find, further, KOI airo vexpov
KaOapicr^earai sic &e/ca[rai]av. The construction with drrro in
these instances is the same as in, e.g., 2 Cor. 7 1 , Hebr. 9 14 ,
1 He certainly discusses the other possibility, viz., that the word was
used previously to the LXX.
2 Italics from Cremer.
3 The one oopy CIA. iii. 73 is the rough draught, so to speak : the
other has had the language corrected, and gives a longer text.
4 = Dittenberger, Sylloge No. 379.
N. 44,45] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 217
which latter passage is to be interpreted in the light of
the well-known idea, exemplified in the above-mentioned
Inscription and frequently elsewhere, viz., that the touching
of a corpse renders one ceremonially unclean. 1
KVpLCLKQ?.
1. Clavis 3 , p. 254, still describes the word as vox solum
biblica et eccles., and A. Jiilicher 2 maintains, indeed, that the
Apostle Paul invented this " new " word. On the other hand,
Cremer, 8 p. 583, notes the extra-biblical usage : " belonging to
the lord, the ruler, e.g., TO /cvpca/cov, public or fiscal property;
synon. TO fiao-iXucbv (rare) ". This statement is probably to
be traced back to Stephanus, who cites " Inscript. JRichteri,
p. 416". But since the publication of the Eichter Inscrip-
tions by Johann Valentin Francke (Berlin, 1830), Kvpiaicos
has been comparatively frequently noticed in Inscriptions
and Papyri. We note the following cases. In the decree of
Ti. Julius Alexander, Prefect of Egypt, GIG. 4957 is (El-
Khargeh or Ghirge in the Great Oasis, 68 A.D), to which
Professor Wilcken of Breslau has called the author's atten-
tion, there occurs TWV 6<j)6i\6vTc0v et? /cvpiaKov \6<yov. The
KvpiaKos ^0709 is the Imperial Treasury : the Kvpios to which
the word relates is the Emperor 3 himself. Similarly, in B U.
lis f. (Fayyum, 3rd cent. A.D.) we read : a[t] teal &[ia]ypa(])6-
et? TOV tcvpiafcbv \6yov VTrep eTriKe<pd\,io\y\ TMV vTrepau-
lepecov, and these [the afore-mentioned sums] have also
been paid into the imperial treasury for the poll-tax of the super-
numerary priests*; and, in BU. 266 17 f. (Fayyum, 216-217
A.D.), we find the imperial service : et? ra? ev 2vpia /cvpi[a]rcas
vTrrjpecrias T&V ryevvaiOTa,Tw\y\ o-TparevfjidTwv TOV Kvpiov f)fjbwv
*AvTOKpa.Topo<s 2e[ov]r)pov *AvTu>vlvov. But there are also
1 Examples from classical antiquity in Frankel, p. 188 f.
2 Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 1st and 2nd edn. Freiburg and
Leipzig, 1894, p. 31.
3 Cf., in line is of the same edict, rats KvpiaKcfis ty-fiQois.
4 This [i.e., the German] translation is from a letter of Wilcken. The
author has since found in BU. 620 15 (Fayyum, 3rd cent. A.D.) Trpoo-eTeflr; <fr
218 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.45,46
examples from Asia Minor all of the imperial period. The
KvpidKos <j>icrKos is mentioned in GIG. 3919 (Hierapolis in
Phrygia), 1 and is to be obtained by restoration in the Inscrip-
tions GIG. 3953 h and i, also from Phrygia ; it occurs also in
GIG. 2842 (Aphrodisias in Caria), cf. 2827. Finally, the
/cvpia/cal vTrrjpeaLai are again found in GIG. 3490 (Thyatira
in Lydia). 2
2. With reference to the early Christian designation of
Sunday as f) tcvpLa/cr) rjfjuepa or, shortly, 17 /cvpia/crj* Cremer, 8
p. 583, observes that it appears to be analogous to the ex-
pression Kvpiaicov SeiTrvov ; H. Holtzmann 4 says still more
definitely: "The expression, moreover, is formed after the
analogy of SCCTTVOV /cvpia/cov". If we are to seek for an
analogy at all, there is another, found in the idiom of the
imperial period, which seems to the author to be much more
obvious. He gives it here though, of course, he would not
maintain that the Christians consciously took it as the pattern
for the formation of their own technical expression. In the
Inscription of Pergamus 374 B 4. 8 and D 10 (consecration of
the Pergamenian association of the v/jivwSoi Oeov Z
Kal deas 'Pa)^, reign of Hadrian), the abbreviation "
occurs three times. Mommsen (in Frankel, p. 265) gives the
following explanation of this : " 2 eft. in B 4. s and D 10 is
Sefiaarfj, and affords a brilliant confirmation of the conjec-
ture of Usener, viz., that the first of every month was called
Zefiaarrj in Asia Minor, just as the same is now established
in regard to Egypt ; cf. e.g., Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers,
part ii., vol. i., p. 695 "; 5 and Frankel, p. 512, cites a new
1 This is the Kichter Inscription named above.
2 0etos is also used in a corresponding manner : the 0emt StarJet?, in
Pap. Par. 69 iii. 20 (Elephantine", 232 A.D.), edited by Wilcken, Philologus,
liii. (1894), p. 83, cf. p. 95, are imperial arrangements.
3 The earliest passages are given in A. Harnack's BruchstUcke des
Evangeliums und der Apokalypse des Petrus z (TU. ix. 2), Leipzig, 1893, p. 67.
*HC. iv 2 (1893),p. 318.
6 The author is indebted to a communication of his friend B. Bess of
Gottingen for the information that Lightfoot, p. 694 f., gives the following
references for 2eaa-T^ : CIO. 4715 and Add. 5866 c (both of the time of Augus-
N.46,47] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 219
authority for Hefiao-Trj as first day of the month in the Inscrip-
tion of lasos, given by Th. Eeinach in the Eevue des fitudes
Grecques, vi. (1893), p. 159, line 25, ical rov /car eviawrov
TOKOV Scoo-et alel rov 7rape\6ovro<; eviavrov fir/vl
-rf). Just as the first day of the month was thus
called Emperor's day, so the first day of the week with all
its significant connection with the Gospel history would
be named, by the Christians, the Lord's day. The analogy
obtains its full importance when considered in relation to the
entire usage of
\oyeia.
We have succeeded in tracing this word in other
quarters ; 2 first, in Pap. Grenfell and Hunt (Oxford, 1897),
No. xxxviii.is (81 B.C.) and BU. 515 7 f. (Fayyum, 193 A.D.)
adopting the corrected reading of Wilcken given in vol. ii. of
the Berlin MSS., p. 357; also in a compound: BU. 538 iet
(Fayyum, 100 A.D.) /SoTawoy-tou? KOI crifyovoKoyelas 3 KOI
rrjv a\\rjv yeoypyiKrjv [y7rrj]p[eo-i]av. We would next call
attention to 2 Mace. 12 43 . 0. F. Fritzsche there reads:
re KCLT dv$po\oyiav /carao-Kevdo-fjiara et9 dpyvpiov
-^tXta? aTrecrretXez/ eZ? 'lepoaoXv/jua Trpoo-ayayew
irepi a^ap-rld? Ova-Lav. Grimm 4 translates the first words
when by means of a collection he had provided himself with money-
supplies, and explains thus: "av8po\oyia, on the analogy of
%evo\oyt,a, levying, collecting of soldiers for military service, can
here mean nothing else than collectio viritim facta : cf. \oyia,
which similarly does not occur in profane Greek,
tus), 4957 (Galba) from Egypt ; from Ephesus, an Inscription of the year 104
A.D. ; from Traianopolis, Lebas and Waddington, 1676 (130 A.D.). The
investigations of Usener are given in the Bullettino dell' Instit. di Cvrr.
Archeol, 1874, p. 73 fl.
1 The author hopes at some future time to be able to make an investiga-
tion of the use of 6 Kvpios and 6 ittpios TJ/J.UV to designate deities and emperors
in the imperial period.
2 Cf. p. 142 ff. above.
3 So reads the Papyrus : which ffiQcavfs are meant the author does
not clearly understand.
4 HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 183 f.
220 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.47,48
Since Codd. 44 and 71 give KCLT avSpa \oyiav (74 : tear avSpa-
\oyiav), and again Codd. 52, 55, 74, 106, and 243 omit
/caTaa-Kevdo-fjLara, one might feel tempted to regard the former
as the original reading and the latter as a gloss to \oyiav
unless perhaps /carao-Kevdo-fi. was too uncommon a word,
and the more familiar o-v\\ojrj was a more obvious gloss ".
We cannot comprehend how Grimm can thus speak of
dvSpo\oyia * as analogous to %evo\oyia : for this analogy
would precisely imply that avSpoXoyia means a levying of men.
Quite as certainly must it be questioned that the word can
signify a collection from each single man. But since this signi-
fication is required by the connection, the reading /car avSpa
\oyiav (read \o<ydav 2 ) certainly deserves serious considera-
tion ; on this view, /carao-Kevda/jLara may quite well be
retained : after he had taken a collection from each individual he
sent money to the amount of about 2000 drachmas of silver 5 to
Jerusalem. 4
Used in LXX Ps. 127 [Hebr. 128] 3 , 143 [144] 12 , Is. 5 7 ,
Job 14 9 , in its proper sense ; in 1 Tim. 3 6 , novice. Cremer 8 ,
p. 987, says : " a new growth ; elsewhere only in bibl. and
eccles. Greek (according to Poll, also used by Aristoph.) " ;
Clavis 3 , p. 295, quotes the Biblical passages, adding only
"script, eccles.". But the reference of Pollux to Aristophanes
ought to have warned against isolating the word in this way,
a procedure not supported in the slightest by its form or mean-
ing. veofyvros is found in BU. 563 i. 9. 14. ie, ii. e. 12 (Fayyum,
2nd cent. A.D.), 5 applied to newly-planted palm-trees (cf. LXX
1 The edition of Van Ess, like Wahl in the Clavis librorum V.T. Apocry-
phorum, p. 44, reads w8pa\oyia. This is a printer's error in Wahl, as is
av8pa<f>oi>ca a little farther on (cf. the alphabetical order). The author cannot
say whether av8pa\oyla is a possible form.
2 Above, p. 143.
3 A construction like e.g., eh e^/coj/ra ra\dvrcav \6yos, a sum of about
sixty talents.
4 Swete writes iroiri(Ta.p.fv6s re /car' ai/SpoXoyeTov els apyvpiou Spaxftas
5j<rx*Mas. . . . What /car' avSpoXoyelov is meant to signify we do not under-
stand.
5 " Of the time of Hadrian at the earliest " (Wilcken re this Papyrus).
N.48,49] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 221
Ps. 127 [128] 3 , veofyvra eKawv ; similarly in BU. 565 11 and
566s (fragments of the same document as 563).
Clavis*, p. 326, " Neque in graeco V. Ti. cod., neque ap.
profanos offenditur". This negative statement is at all events
more cautious than the positive one of Cremer 8 , p. 737:
" only in New Testament Greek ". But both are invalidated
by the Papyri. 1 The word, meaning debt (in the literal sense,
as in Matt. 18 32 ), is found in formulae in BU. 112 11 (ca. 60
A.D.) KaOapa CLTTO re o(j)i,\fjs * ic /cal v\7r]o6r)KJ]<s /cal iravros Sieyyvrj-
/JLCITOS, 184 25 (72 A.D.) [ica6]apov airo [o]$eiX(%) [teal] viroOrj/c^
/cal Trai/ro?] 8[i]evyv[ri/ji(aTo<;)] *, 536 6 f. (reign of Domitian)
tcaO[ap\a airo re o$eiX(%) [teal viro\9i]Kri<$ /cal iravros Siey-
y(vr/fJLaTos), PER. CCXX.io (1st cent. A.D. 2 ) /caOapbv air o0eA%
\ira\(T7)(s) Kal Trai/To? SievyvrjimaTos 816 , further in BU. 624 19
(time of Diocletian) iepa? firj apeXei, 6(f>i,\{j[s'] 8ic . s All these
Papyri are from the Fayyum.
OLTTO 7T6pVCri.
11 Many of these compounds [i.e. combinations of pre-
positions with adverbs of place and time] are found only
in writers later than Alexander, some only in the Scholiasts
..... ; others, such as airo irepva-i (for which Trpojrepva-i,
or ercTrepvo-i, was used) are not to be met with even there." 4
But we find OLTTO irepva-i (2 Cor. 8 10 , 9 2 ) in the Papyrus letter
BU. 531 ii. i (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.), also in the Oxyrhyn-
chos Papyrus (ed. by Grenfell and Hunt, London, 1898), No.
cxiv. 12 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) : airo Tvffi
1 The author has subsequently noticed in Pape that even the Etymo-
logicum Magnum quotes the word from Xenophon 1 ! The New Testament
lexicographers really ought to have noted this. The note of the Et. M. in
regard to o^etA.^ is as follows : . . . ffiravtws 8e efynjrai tv xp^cret evpto-Kerai 5e
irapefc KevoQcavTi *v rdis Hepl Hdpwv.
2 But on p. 296 this Papyrus is assigned to the 2nd cent.
3 We do not quite understand this ; the sacred debt is perhaps a debt
owing to the temple treasury.
4 Winer-Liinemann, p. 394.
222 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.49,50
1. According to Crenier 8 , p. 420, the word appears "not
to occur at all in profane Greek . . . and therefore to be a
word of Hellenistic formation, which follows the change
which had taken place in the use of Trpoo-evxea-Qcu, and which
is at the same time a characteristic mark of the difference
between Israel and the Gentile world ". But the fact that
Trpoo-ewxr), place of prayer, 1 is found also in connection with
pagan worship 2 tells against this isolating of the word.
2. The authorities for Trpoaevx'n in the sense of a Jewish
place of prayer 3 which up till now have been known and
applied are most likely all surpassed in age by an Inscription
from Lower Egypt, which probably belongs to the 3rd cent.
B.C., viz., GIL. iii. Suppl. 6583 (original in the Berlin Egyptian
Museum) : " Baa-iXia-o-r/s /cal /3ao-tA,eo>? Trpoa-ra^dvrwv avrl
TI}? Trpoavafcei/jbevrj^ Trepl Tr)<; avaOeaea)^ TT}? Trpocrevxfjs TrXa/co?
r] vTToyejpa/jLfjLevrj eirLypa^ra) B a or i\ev<s H r o\e fiaios
Ev6p<yeTr/$ rrjv TT p o cr e v%r) v acrv\ov. Eegina et rex
iusserunt." "As Mommsen has recognised, the queen and
the king who caused the synagogue Inscription to be re-
newed are Zenobia and Vaballath [ca. 270 A.D.]. Whether
the founder is Euergetes I. or II. he leaves an open ques-
tion." * Wilcken decides for Euergetes I. (f 222 B.C.) in
opposition to Willrich, who contends for Euergetes II. (f 117
B.C.). The reasons given by the former have satisfied the
present writer: to go into the matter more particularly
would meanwhile carry us too far from the point. But it
may be permitted to reproduce Wilcken's interesting con-
1 The author has not as yet met with the word, in the sense of prayer,
in heathen usage. But the question as to its "formation" is sufficiently
answered by showing that it occurs outside of the Bible. It is improbable
that the heathen usage is in any way to be traced back to Jewish influence.
2 Eeferences in Schiirer, Oeschichte des jUdischen VolJces im Zeitalter
Jesu Christi, ii. (1886), p. 370 = 3 ii., p. 444 (Eng. Trans, ii., ii., p. 69).
8 Eeferences ibid., and in Thayer s. v. The latter cites also Cleomedes
71, 16.
4 Wilcken, Berl. Philol. Wochenschr., xvi. (1896), col. 1493 (Be view of
Willrich, Juden und Griechen vor der makkab. Erhebung, Gottingen, 1895.
N.50,51] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 223
eluding remark about the Inscription (col. 1419): "Most
probably it has hitherto remained unnoticed that the omis-
sion of 0eo9 before Evepyerys is a unique phenomenon, as
the ascription of Divinity ought, according to rule, to stand
in official papers. We gather, then, that the king has here
renounced the use of #609 in consideration of the sensitive-
ness of the Jews."
Neither Clavis 3 nor Thayer gives any example of this l
outside of the N.T. But in the marriage-contracts, PER.
xxvii.7f. (190 A.D.) and xxi. 19 (230 A.D.), the o-ovSdpwv is
mentioned among the toilet articles of the dowry.
VTTOTToSlOV.
Winer-Schmiedel, 3, 2e (p. 23), continues to count
viroiroSiov (found first in the LXX) among the words which
the Jews themselves may possibly have formed by analogy,
but which may have been already current in the popular
tongue, though not as yet so found by us. Clavis 3 gives
extra-biblical examples from Lucian and Athenaeus. These
would, in the author's opinion, be sufficient to do away with
the idea of the Jewish origin of the word. But still more
decisive is its occurrence in the Papyri. In the two
marriage-contracts from the Fayyum, PER. xxii. s (reign of
Antoninus Pius) and xxvii. n (190 A.D.), among the articles of
furniture belonging to the bride there is mentioned a settle,
with its accompanying footstool, /cadeSpa crvv v
3. SUPPOSED SPECIAL " BIBLICAL " OB " NEW TESTAMENT "
MEANINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS.
To the older passages from the Ptolemaic Papyri, in
which the word is secularised (meaning help 2 ), there is to be
1 In the case of a Graecism like a-ovSdpiov (authenticated hitherto only
for the N.T.), if anywhere at all, we have to deal with a simple case of
chance.
2 Above, p. 92.
224 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.5i,52
added BU. 613 13 (Fayyum, probably of the reign of Antoninus
Pius).
"Even those terms which, among the Greeks, are debased
to common uses on account of their exclusive human appli-
cation, such as apea-/cet,a sic , the obsequiousness which suits
itself to everybody, obtain in the scriptures a higher con-
notation by reason of the predominance of their relation to
the Divine standard. The word occurs in Col. I 10 in an
undoubtedly good sense, and this transformation is to be
attributed chiefly to the prevailing usage of apeo-ros and
evdpeo-ros in the LXX and the New Testament." This asser-
tion of G. von Zezschwitz 1 ought not to have been made,
since Losner had long before pointed out quite a number
of passages in Philo in which the word has unquestionably
a good sense indeed, that of a relation towards God. 2
apeo-Keia is also used in a good sense in the Inscription in
Latyschev's Inscriptions regni Bospomni, ii. 5 (date ?) : yapiv
dp(Tfceia<;. 3
Used by the Greeks, according to Cremer 8 , p. 456, in a
good sense; "on the other hand" in 1 Cor. 10 6 , eTriOv^r^
/carcwv, " corresponding to the development of the idea which
has been noted under eiriOv^La ". But it is found in a bad
sense also in BU. 531 ii. 22 (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.) : oi/re
ovr
According to Cremer 8 , p. 471, the construction of this
word in " biblical " Greek deviates from the usage of profane
authors " in a striking manner ". In proof of this, the com-
1 Profangraecitaet und bibliscJier Sprachgeist, Leipzig, 1859, p. 61.
2 These references have rightly been adopted by Cremer 8 , p. 159.
3 This quotation is from Frankel, p. 315.
4 We have in this combination a synonym for aAAoTpioeTriV/coiros, hitherto
authenticated only for Christian usage ; this compound becomes intelligible
by comparison with
N. 52] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 225
pound e^ikda-KOjjiai is specially adduced, the usage of which
in "biblical" Greek, as contrasted with the constructions
of profane Greek, is said to be "all the more noteworthy
and all the more deserving of serious consideration ". Cremer
deems the biblical phrase e%i,\dcrKeo-0ai, ra<? d^aprLa^ to be
one of the " most striking in comparison with profane Greek ". l
It is, however, to be met with outside the Bible. In
the directions (preserved in a duplicated Inscription) of the
Lycian Xanthus for the sanctuary, founded by him, of Men
Tyrannos, a deity of Asia Minor, CIA. iii. 74, 2 cf. 73 (found
near Sunium, not older than the imperial period), there
occurs the peculiar passage : 09 av Be 7ro\v7rpayfjLov^o'rj ra rov
deov $i Trepiepydo-fjTai,? dftapTLav 6(f)(e)t\eTQ) Myvl Tvpdvvw, r)v
ov jjirj SWITCH, e^eiXdaaaBai 81C .
Further, the d^apriav o^etXw in this passage is also very
interesting ; it is manifestly used like %peo9 o</>aXo>, aj^apria
being thought of as debt.
\iKfjLaa).
In Luke 20 18 (cf. possibly Matt. 21 44 ) ira^ o -irewv eV
e/ceivov TOV \L0ov <rvv6\acr6r)creTai, e<' ov S' av Trecrrj, \iK^r\(ji
avrov, B. Weiss 4 and H. Holtzmann 5 take Xc/c/judv as winnow,
the only meaning hitherto authenticated. But, for one
thing, this does away altogether with the parallelism of the
two clauses, and, for another, gives us a figure which is
hardly conceivable, viz., every one upon whom the stone falls, it
will winnow. Should we decide, then, on internal grounds, we
arrive at a meaning for \LK^CLV which is synonymous with
avv6\av. In point of fact, the Vulgate understood the word
in this sense : Matt. 21 44 conteret, Luke 20 18 comminuet ; so
also Luther and most others : it will grind to powder (zer-
1 Cf. also Blass, Gramm., p. 88, note 1 [Eng. Trans., p. 88, note 3]:
"'IXdffKeffOai a/jLaprias, Heb. 2 17 , strikes as being strange by reason of the
object : the classical (|)tAa<r/c. Q*6v means ' to dispose Him in mercy towards
one'. Similarly, however (= expiare), also LXX and Philo."
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 379. Cf. p. 216 above hi reference bo
ifa.
3 Cf. 2 Thess. 3 u . 4 Meyer, i. 1 8 (1890), p. 363.
*HC. i. 2 (1892), p. 239 f.
15
226 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 53
malmen). Clavis*, p. 263, adopts this view, with the note
" usu a profanis alieno ". This is most probably one of the
cases where no reason whatever can be given for the par-
ticular alteration of meaning having taken place in " biblical "
Greek. If \IK^CLW = grind to powder be possible at all, then
it is only a matter of contingency that the word has not yet
been found with that meaning outside the Bible. There
is, however, a Papyrus which appears to the author to supply
the want. In the fragment of a speech for the prosecution,
BU. 146 sff. (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.), the prosecutor
reports : 67rrJ\dav 'Afya6ofc\r)<; /cal SoOXo? 2apa7riu)vo<; 'Ovva)-
/c[al a]XXo? feVM epyd[T7)s av]rov rrj aXavia fiov /cal
TO \ayavov l /cal ov% [o^\[i]yr)v f^[yLt]eta^ sic
What the crime of the three rogues
was is not altogether evident, but it is clear, neverthe-
less, that they had not winnowed the \d%avov : they had
trodden upon it, stamped upon it, or ruined 2 it in some way.
We might, perhaps, have recourse to the more general
meaning of destroy, which, moreover, will be found to
suit the New Testament passages exceedingly well. It is
conceivable that winnow might come to have this mean-
ing : the connecting link would be something like scatter,
which Clems 3 has established for LXX Jer. 38 [31] 10 and
other passages : the heap of corn mingled with chaff is,
by winnowing, separated into its constituent substances, is
scattered. This conjecture has at all events better support
than that made by Carr, 3 viz., that the meanings winnow and
crush were associated together in Egypt because in that
country there was drawn over the corn, before winnowing,
a threshing-board which crushed the straw (!).
\ovco.
Cremer 8 , p. 623 : " While vlfav or vl-nreiv was the usual
word for ceremonial washing in profane Greek ...... ,
the LXX use \ovaw as the rendering of the Heb. m, for
1 There is a second a. placed above the first a in the original.
2 Cf. Judith 2 27 TO ireSm ^e\iK/j.ijffe.
'* Quoted in Kennedy, Sources of N.T. Greek, p. 126 f.
N. 54] LANGUAGE OF THE GKEEK BIBLE. 227
the washings required under the theocracy for purposes of
purification". This sets up an unjustifiable antithesis be-
tween "profane" Greek and biblical, which Cremer himself
is unable to maintain, for immediately afterwards he finds it
necessary to grant that the word " does not, indeed, seem to
have been altogether unused in profane Greek for ceremonial
washing ; Plut. Probl. Rom. 264, D : \ovcraa-0at irpb r?}9
Over Las ; Soph. Ant. 1186 : rbv p>ev \ovaavTes dyvbv \ovrpov ".
Instead, then, of "not altogether unused" one may, since
the above antithesis does not need to be defended, quite well
say "used". Up to the present other three "profane"
passages have become known to the author ; the first two
are interesting also from a grammatical point of view on
account of the construction with ajro (Acts 16 33 ). Perg. 255,
an Inscription of the early Roman period relating to the
regulations of the temple of Athena at Pergamus, ordains in
line 4ff. that only ol . . diro ftev r?}? ISlas ry\yvai]icb<$ Kal rov
ibiov dvftpbs av0rj/JL6p6v, CLTTO Be d\\orpias ic[ai] dXXorpiov
Sevrepaiot, \ova-d/jL6voi, waavTcos 3e Kal diro Krjbovs /c[a]l re/covo-^
ywaitcbs Sevrepalo^} shall enter the sanctuary. Frankel, p.
188, makes the following remark upon this : " It is well-
known that sexual intercourse, the touching of the dead or
of women with child, rendered necessary a religious purifica-
tion previous to communion with the gods". The other
two passages are adopted from the references of Frankel, p.
189. In the regulations of the Lycian Xanthus for the
sanctuary of Men Tyrannos which he founded in Athens,
CIA. iii. 73 (found near Sunium, not older than the imperial
period), occurs quite similarly dirb Se yvvaL/cbs \ovo-dfjLevo\y ?].
Finally, the stone from Julis, given in Bohl, Inscr. antiqu., p.
395 (= Dittenberger, Sylloge, p. 468), contains the regulation
that those who have become unclean by touching a corpse
are purified if \ovaa^evovs irepl iravra TOV 'Xjp&ra {/Saro?
Trdpoifcos.
According to Cremer 8 , p. 695, it appears as if " profane"
and " biblical " Greek diverged from each other in the use of
this word, and, in particular, as it irdpoiicos in the sense of
228 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 55
alien were unknown in the former, which is said to use
perot/cos instead. But even in Clavis s , p. 341, we find a
reference to Philo, De Cherub. 34 (p. 160 f. M.), where
Trdpoifcos is used several times in contradistinction to TroXt-n??.
And if Philo is not to be counted a profane author in the
strict sense of the term, we have the Inscriptions to fall
back upon. In IMAe. 1033 9 (Carpathos, 2nd cent. B.C. ?) the
population is divided into TroXmu and Trdpoi/cot, ; still clearer
is Perg. 249 12. 20. 34 (133 B.C.), in regard to which Frankel, p.
173, remarks : " We are informed of the following classes of
the population : 1. Citizens (TroXtrat), 2. Aliens (Trdpoi/coi,),
3. Various classes of soldiers (a-Tpariwrai, . .), 4. Emancipated
persons (e%ekev6epoi) y 5. Slaves, Since the offspring
of manumitted slaves come to be counted as aliens in terms
of line 20 f. of the edict under notice, it is evident that the
6%\ev06poi, were not, as such, transferred to the rank of the
paroikoi, but in the first instance formed an intermediate
class. It was the same in Ceos, according to the Inscription
in Dittenberger's Sylloge, 348 10, and in Ephesus at the time
of the Mithridatic war according to Lebas, Asie, 136 a
(Dittenberger, Sylloge, 253), line 43 ir., where also, as in our
document, the Srjfjioo-iot [ = the public slaves] are immediately
raised to the class of Trdpoucoi, not having first to pass
through that of the e%e\ev6epoi" 1
4. TECHNICAL TEEMS.
dOerrjai? (and et9 dOerrjo-w).
Clavis z , p. 9, "raw apudprofanos inferioris aetatis, ut Cic.
ad Att. 6, 9. Diog. Laert. 3. 39, 66, ap. grammat. immobatio ;
saepius ap. ecclesiasticos scriptores ". The usage of the word
in Papyri from the Fayyum is particularly instructive in
regard to its employment in the Epistle to the Hebrews (7 18 ,
9 26 ) : BU. 44 ie (102 A.D.), conjoined with dtcvpwo-is in reference
1 The author gives this quotation because it yields further epigraphic
materials. Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 102, also refers to the
Inscriptions (CIG. 3595, " etc."). Cf. now also A. Schulten, Mittheilungen
des Kaiserlich-Deutschen ArchcLol. Instituts, Eomische Abtheilung, xiii. (1898),
p. 237
N. 56] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 229
to a document; quite similarly in 196 21 f. (109 A.D.), 281 isf.
(reign of Trajan), and 394 ut. (137 A.D.). In all these
passages a6eTi)<n$ is used in a technical juristic sense, being
found in the formula efc aderrjo-tv /ecu aicvpwa-iv. Compare
these with efc aQerijcriv in Heb. 9 26 , and with the usage of the
contrary formula efc fiefiaLwaw in LXX Lev. 25 23 , Heb. 6 16
and the Papyri. 1 The formula was maintained for long
afterwards : we still find efc aOerrjo-iv KOI d/cvpacriv in PER.
xiv. i7f. (Fayyum, 166 A.D.) and ix. 10 (Hermopolis, 271 A.D.).
The references given by Clavis 3 , p. 27, and Thayer, p.
41, for the meaning ad personam dignitate, aiictoritate, potestate
superior em sursum mitto (Luke 23 7 , Acts 25 21 ) from Philo,
Josephus and Plutarch can be largely increased from the
Fayyum Papyri: BU. 19 1.20 (135 A.D.), 5 ii.iot (138 A.D.),
613* (reign of Antoninus Pius?), 15 1.17 (194 A.D.), 16825
(2nd-3rd cent. A.D.).
In regard to the use of this word in Matt. 6 2 - 5 - 16 , Luke
6 ^j Phil. 4 18 , as meaning I have received, its constant occur-
rence in receipts in the Papyri is worthy of consideration.
Two cases may be given which are significant on account
of their contiguity in time to the above passages, viz., BU.
584 5f. (Fayyum, 29th December, 44 A.D.) /cal a7re%a> Trjv
crvvice'XGJp'riiJLevrjv TL^V iraaav /c TrXtrfpovs, and 612 2 f. (Fay-
yum, 6th September, 57 A.D.) aTre^co Trap* vpwv rbv <j>6pov TOV
eXa^ovpjiov, wv e^ere [y"-o]v ev fjitvOcbcrei. The words they
have their reward in the Sermon on the Mount, when con-
sidered in the light of the above, acquire the more pungent
ironical meaning they can sign the receipt of their reward : their
right to receive their reward is realised, precisely as if they
had already given a receipt for it. airo^r} means receipt
exactly, and in Byzantine times we also find
1 See p. 105 ff. above.
2 Wessely, Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, i. 1, 151 ; but no example is given
there. The word might signify receipt for rent or hire, not deed of conveyance
as Wessely supposes.
230 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 56, 57
The conjunction of the terms ftepaiovv or fiefiaicoo-is and
dppaficov ! is also found in BU. 446 [ = 80] 18 (reign of Marcus
Aurelius) ; the sentence is unfortunately mutilated.
In the technical sense of to try, to hear judicially (Acts
23 35 ; cf. LXX Deut. I 16 , Dion Cass. 36, 53 [36]), also BU.
168 28 (Fayytim, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.).
r
Frequent references given in connection with Luke
15 12 ; a technical formula, also used in the Papyri: BU.
234 is. s (Fayyum, 121 A.D.) TO Kal avrS eV^aXXoz/ //-epo?,
419 sf. (276-277 A.D.) TO 7nj3d\\ov poi /-tepo? of the paternal
inheritance; similarly 614 17 f. (Fayyum, 216 A.D.) rrjv eirt,-
Of this word as an official title Cremer 8 , p. 889, follow-
ing Pape, gives only one example outside the N. T. : "In
Athens the name was applied in particular to the able men
in the subject states who conducted the affairs of the same ".
But we find eTrlo-Koiroi as communal officials in Ehodes ; thus
in IM.AQ. 49 43 fir. (2nd-lst cent. B.C.) there is named a council
of five cTTLo-KOTroi, \ in 5034ff. (1st cent. B.C.) three eVtWoTrot are
enumerated. Neither Inscription gives any information as
to their functions ; in the first, the eV/cr/coTrot are found
among the following officials : [Trpvravel? (?)], ypafj,/jiaTv$
ySofXa?, vTToypafjLfJLarevs [/3]ou[Xa]t /cal 7r[p\VTaveva[i\, (TTpa-
rayoi, [eVt] rav xcbpav, [eVl] TO Trepav, ypafJL/jiaTv<f, [
eVt Kavvo\y\ aye/jLGDv ITTL Kapias,
eVl Avicias. In the second the order is as follows :
\TrpVTavei<$ (?)], [<TTpa]Tcvyoi } racial, eTrio-KOTroi, VTroypa/j.-
fuiTeiH} fBov\ai /cal [Trpvravevcn (?)]. But it is perhaps a still
more important fact that likewise in Ehodes eVtV/coTn^ was
1 Above, p. 108 f.
N. 57, 58] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 231
a technical term for the holder of a religious office. The
pre-Christian Inscription IMAe. 731 enumerates the following
officials of the temple of Apollo : three eVta-Tarat, one
<ypajj,/j,aT6vs lepocfrvhdfcwv, one 67r&o-/eo7ro5 1 in line s, six
lepo\_7T^oLoL, one [ra/u]a5, one v7ro[ypafjLjj,aTe~\vs lep[o^>\v\dica)v.
We must abstain from theorising as to the duties of this
eVtcr/eo7ro5. The fact that the word had already been admitted
into the technical religious diction of pre-Christian times is
sufficiently important in itself.
$60X0705.
This word has been admitted into the Clams on account
of its occurrence in several MSS. 2 as the designation of John
the writer of the Apocalypse. Frankel, p. 264 f ., in connec-
tion with Perg. 374 A So (dedication of the Pergamenian
Association of the v/j,vq>Sol Oeov ^efiao-rov KOI Oeas 'PcojjLrjs,
reign of Hadrian) has collected valuable materials for the
usage of Asia Minor : his notes are given as follows the
author was unable to test the quotations : " The office of a
$60X6705 (line so) is elsewhere shown to have existed in
Pergamus, and, in fact, seems to have been conferred as a
permanent one, since one and the same person, Ti. Claudius
Alexandros, held it under Caracalla and under Elagabalus
(see below, in reference to No. 525, lines). Another theo-
logian, Glykon, as an eponymous magistrate, is met with, in
Pergamon, upon a coin bearing the image of Herennius
Etruscus (Mionnet, Suppl. v., p. 472, No. 1160). It is strange
that P. Aelius Pompeianus, //,eXo7roto5 /cal payfrySbs Oeov
'A&piavov, who, according to an Inscription of Nysa (Bullet.
de corr. helUn. 9, 125 f., lines 4 and es) was a #60X0705 va&v rcov
ev IlepydfjiG), is described as a citizen of Side, Tarsus and
Ehodes, but not of Pergamus. It can be no matter of chance
can be read quite plainly, thereafter either an i or the frag-
ment of another letter. The editor writes eTriV/coTrot in his transcription. But
as only one name follows it would be more correct to read eVur/co7ro[s]. It
appears thus in the index, p. 235, which contains many a tacit correction.
2 Wessely reads PER. xxx.sf. (Fayyum, 6th cent. A.D.) rov aytov "iooavvov
rov ev\oyov KO.I fvayye\i(rrov, and translates of Saint John, the apostle and
evangelist. Should not 6fo\6yov be read ?
232 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 58, 59
that we find the title #60X0709 in the two cities of Asia
Minor (invested like Pergamus with the Neokoria) in con-
nection with which we were able to demonstrate the exis-
tence of the imperial Hymnodia as well : for Smyrna the
existence of theologians is attested by the passage from GIG.
3148, copied out above (p. 205, end) in connection with No.
269 [lines 34 ff. : oara everv^ofiev Trapa TOV /cvpiov Kaiaapos
'ASpiavov Sia *AvTa)vlov IIo\efjLcovo<; Sevrepov $6y/jt,a (rvytcXijTov,
/caO' o 5t9 vewtcopot, <y6yovafjL6v, dyuva lepov, areheiav, #60X0701^9,
vfjLvwSovs], and by GIG. 3348, where, as in our Inscription,
the same individual is u/w/wSo? /cal #60X0709 ; for Ephesus by
the Greek Inscr. in the Brit. Mus. iii. 2, No. 481, line 191 f. : o/Wo)9
/cal Tofc #60X070^9 /cal vfjLvwSois, in which one must, in conse-
quence of the article being used but once, likewise interpret
as ' theologians who were also hymnodists '. In Heraklea
in the Pontus there is a theologian for the mysteries : GIG.
3803, vTranrcbv KOI 6eo\6yov T>V 7776*6 fjuvcrTrjpiwv, and also
in Smyrna the female theologians, at #60X0704, whom we
find there along with the male, are engaged in the mysteries
of Demeter Thesmophoros : GIG. 3199, 3200."
This word, followed by a national name in the genitive,
often signifies not multitude simply, but people in the official
political sense. Thus we have TO 7r\r)0o$ T&V 'lovBaiwv
in 1 Mace. 8 20 , 2 Mace. 11 16 (like o %*09 T&V 'lovSaicov, ver.
**), Ep. Arist., p. 67 is (Schm.), and most likely also in Acts
25 24 . The Inscriptions yield further material in regard to
this usage : IMAe. 85 * (Ehodes, 3rd cent. B.C.) TO Tr\r)0o<$ TO
'Po8tW, similarly 90 7 (Ehodes, 1st cent. B.C.) ; further, 846 10
TO 7r\r)0o<; TO AwUwv (Ehodes, date ?), similarly 847 u (Ehodes,
1st cent. A.D.) and many other Inscriptions from Ehodes.
The word has a technical sense also in the usage of the
religious associations : it designates the associates in their
totality, the community or congregation, IMAe. 155 6 (Ehodes,
2nd cent. B.C.) T[O] ?rX^#o9 TO 'AkiaSav /cal \^A\ia\(TTav ;
similarly 156s. 1 Compare with these Luke I 10 , 19 37 , Acts
1 The editor, in the index, p. 238, remarks upon this " u-A.7}0os, i.q., KOIV&V ".
N. 60] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 233
2 6 , but especially 15 30 , where the Christian Church at
Antioch is called TO 7r\rj6o<;. Thus also TO Tr\r)0os in 4 32
should hardly be interpreted as multitude, mass, but as
community; similarly in 6 2 - 5 , 15 12 , 19 9 , 21 22 .
e^co TT^O? TWO,.
7rpa>y/j,a is very frequently used in the Papyri in the
forensic sense of law-suit; we cite only BU. 22 sf. (Fayyum,
114 A.D.) a7rXo>9 /J,r/Sev e%ov(ra TTpayfjua Trpbs e/u.e, in connection
with 1 Cor. 6 * Tt? VJJLWV TTpayfia e^wv 777)09 rbv erepov.
7Tp(T/3vTpO<?.
At p. 154 f. the attempt was made to demonstrate,
first, that Trpea-pvrepos was, till late in the imperial period,
the technical term in Egypt for the occupant of an office in
civil communities, a usage by which the LXX did not fail
to be influenced ; secondly, that a similar usage could be
established for Asia Minor. The application of the word in
its religious sense among Catholic Christians, which can be
made clear by the series Trpeo-pvrepos presbyter priest,
is illustrated by the fact that Trpeo-fivrepot, can also be
shown to have been an official title of pagan priests in
Egypt. In confirmation of this, a few sentences from F.
Krebs x may be given here. " The organisation of the priest-
hood in the different temples in the Roman period was still
the same as it had been, according to the testimony of
the decree of Kanopus, in the Ptolemaic period. To begin
with, the priesthood is divided according to descent into 5
(f)v\a,L as at that time " (p. 34). . . . " In Ptolemaic times the
affairs of the whole Egyptian priesthood were conducted by
an annually changing council of 25 members (irpeo-^vrepoi 2
1 Agyptische Priester unter romischer Herrschaft in the Zeitschrift fur
agypt. Sprache und Alterthumskunde, xxxi. (1893), p. 31 ff. Reference is
made on p. 34 to Wilcken, Eaiserl. Tempelverwaltung in Agypten, Hermes,
xxiii., p. 592, and Arsinoitische Tempelrechnungen, Hermes, xx., p. 430.
2 There is one passage belonging to the Ptolemaic period attesting
Trpifffivrepoi in this sense which is not cited here by Krebs. In GIG. 4717 2 f.
(Thebes in Lower Egypt, between 45 and 37 B.C.) it is said : [e5o]e TO?S curb
AKXTTToAews TT)[S fjLfya^s t]epfv<n ro[v peylffrov 0eoD 'Afiolvpaffiai/dijp ol rots irpe-
<r&vTfpois Kal rots &\\ois iracri. Here the Trpeo-jSurepot plainly belong to the priest-
hood.
234 fclBLE STUDIES. [N. 61, 62
or ftov\VTai). In our little provincial temple l we find
. . corresponding to it, a council also changed yearly
of ' five of the oldest of the five phylae of the god Sokno-
paios for the present 23rd year ' (i.e., of Antoninus Pius =
159-160 A.D.). This council gives in a report which the
Roman authorities had demanded from it concerning disci-
plinary proceedings against a priest of the temple " (p. 35).
The author has met with these Egyptian irpeafivrepot, in the
following Papyri from the Fayyum : BU. IGss. (159-160 A.D.
the passage quoted by Krebs), rcov e Trpeo-fivTepcov lepewv
irevrafyvKlas Oeov 2oKvo[Tr\aiov; 347 i. 5f. (171 A.D.), 2ara-
/3on-o9 7r[pe(r]/3vTepo[v tepeco]? 2 ; in 387 i. 7f. (between 177 and
181 A.D., much mutilated) the 5 Trpeapvrepot, iepels of Sokno-
paios are undoubtedly again spoken of; 433 51. (ca. 190 A.D.)
rcov fy r \jjrpeo-^\vrepo)v Ie[p]ec0v [VJ/acorj;? (f>v\ijs ; ibid., line 9 f.,
TWV e 7rpo-/3vTepa)[v lepecov 7T6VTa<f)v\]ias ^o/cvoTT^aiov 6e\ov ;
392 ef. (207-208 A.D.), ical Sia T&V lepewv Trpeafivrepw (here
follow the names, partly mutilated) rwv &. What the col-
legiate 3 relations of these Trpea^vrepot, t'epefc actually were
we do not definitely understand ; but thus much is certain,
viz., that TrpevfBvTepoi occurs here in the technical religious
sense of pagan usage in imperial times, which, according to
Krebs, goes back to the Ptolemaic period. 4
The Papyrus passages are the more important, as no
other examples of this usage, so far as we know, have
been found in pagan writers. That is to say, indubitable
examples. It is true- that the TrpecrfivTepot, of towns and
islands in Asia Minor, mentioned on p. 156, are considered
by many investigators, as we have meanwhile learned, to
have been a corporation which exercised authority in sacred
matters, but this hypothesis is opposed by others 5 ; were it
1 The Soknopaios-temple in the Fayyflm, belonging to imperial times,
is meant.
2 See the corrected reading in the Supplement, p. 397.
3 They seem always to have formed a college (of 3, 4 or 5 persons).
4 According to Krebs, p. 35, irpefffivrepot was thus used without the
addition of t'epeTs even in the Ptolemaic period [as above, CIG. 4717 2 f.].
6 Frankel, p. 321, in ref. to Perg. 477 (time of Claudius or Nero) : " This
and the following Inscription (478, imperial period) prove the existence in
N. 62, 63] LANGUAGE OF THE GK&EEK BIBLE. 235
proved, we should thus have two valuable analogies of the
early Christian Trpecr^vrepoi. But, nevertheless, the word in
the passages from Asia Minor would be used rather in its
original signification, and not in the more special sense
which finally developed into the idea of priest. In the
Papyri it has this sense or rather shows a tendency
towards this sense. We do not assert that it means
"priest " : that is impossible in view of the following lepevs.
What is of importance for the history of the word is the
circumstance that it was used as a distinctive appellation of
priests in particular. The transformation of the early
Christian elders into the Catholic priests, so extremely
important in its consequences, 1 was of course facilitated by
the fact that there already existed elder priests or priestly
elders, of whom both the designation and the institution were
but waiting for admission into a church which was gradually
becoming secularised. 2
" The higher classes of the priesthood [in Egypt], ac-
oording to the decree of Kanopus (1. sir.) and Rosetta (Let),
were, in ascending scale, the lepoypa/jL/jLareis, the irrepofyopoi,,
the lepo(TTO\Lorrai (TT/JO? rov (7T6\t,a-/jLov TWV #e<wi/), the irpo-
^rjrai,, and the dpxiepeis." 3 In Roman times we meet with
a 7rpo<f)ijTris 2ov%ov 0[eov fj,e<ya\]ov fieyaXov, BU. 149 3 f. (Fay-
yum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.). " This ' prophet ' receives for his
work 344 drachmas and half an obol annually a salary from
Pergamus of a Gerousia, for which institution, particularly frequent in
Roman Asia Minor, reference may be made to the careful discussion of
Menadier (Ephesii, p. 48 ff .) and its continuation by Hicks (Greek Inscriptions
in the Brit. Mus., iii. 2, p. 74 ff.). According to these, the Gerousia is to be
thought of as an official body whose authority lay in sacred affairs. Otherwise
Mommsen, Eom. Gesch. 5, 326."
1 A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, i. 2 (Freiburg, 1888), p.
385 [Eng. Trans., ii., p. 131] : " One might perhaps say that the internal form
of the churches was altered by no other development so thoroughly as by
that which made priests of the bishops and elders ".
2 Cf. the similar circumstances in regard to vpo^Trjs, p. 236.
3 F. Krebs, Agyptische Priester unter rSmischer Herrschaft in the
Zeitschrift filr ctgypt. Sprache und Alter thumskunde, xxxi. (1893), p. 86.
236 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 63, 64
the sinallness of which we may perhaps infer that the duties
of this office were not his chief occupation." l In BU. 488s f.
(Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.), if the restoration be correct, we
find a 7rpo(j)rJTr)<; of a god HvfcaTolfju,?. The author knows
nothing as to the duties of these Egyptian Trpoffircu. But
the fact that in Egypt 2 the prophets were priests is sufficiently
important for us. It helps us to understand the view held
by the Christians in the second century, viz., that "the
prophets and teachers, as the commissioned preachers of the
word, are the priests " ; 3 we can better understand such a
strange saying as Didache 13 3 , Scocrew rrjv airap^v rot? irpofyr)-
rat? avrol yap elaiv ol ap^iepeis V/JLWV particularly as it was
written in the country in which the Trpo^TJTai were priests.
Supplementary : An interesting piece of epigraphic
evidence for the priestly TrpocfriJTai, is found on a statue in the
collection of Consul-General Loytved at Beirut, which has
been published by A. Erman. 4 The statue comes from
Tyre, and represents a worshipper of Osiris, who holds before
him the image of his god. The workmanship is altogether
Egyptian; the pillar at the back bears an Inscription in
small hieroglyphics, which the editor cannot fully make out,
but from which he translates inter alia, " the Prophet . . ,
of Osiris," which is meant to signify the person represented.
Then, on the right side of the pillar at the back, the following
Inscription is roughly scratched :
SACERDOS ' OSIRIM
FERENS- IIPO$H//////
OSEIPINKfiM/H/l/l
ay////
1 F. Krebs, Agyptische Priester unter romischer Herrschaft in the Zeit-
schriftfiir dgypt. Sprache und Alterthumskunde, xxxi. (1893), p. 36.
2 There were priestly prophets in other places. We doubt indeed,
whether, in IMAe. 833 e ff. (Rhodes, 1st cent. B.C.) TrpoQarevo-as tv T$ &<rrei Kai
(iri\ax^v Ifpevs 'A\tov, the irpoQarffoas actually refers to priestly duties. Com-
pare, however, the passages in Kaibel, IGrSL Index, p. 740 sub Trpo^rtis.
9 A. Harnack, Leforbuch der Dogmengeschichte, i 2 , p. 183 [Eng. Trans.,
i., p. 214].
4 Eine agyptisclie Statue aus Tyrus in the Zeitschr. filr dgypt. Sprache
und Alterthumskunde, xxxi. (1893), p. 102.
N. 64, 65] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 237
This is to be read : Sacerdos Osirim ferens.
"Ocreipw jca>/i.[a]a>[i']. 1
On this Erman remarks as follows : " That the super-
scription, ' Priest who carries Osiris,' did not come from the
dedicator himself is evident, and is also confirmed by the
way in which it is applied. It is more likely that, in Koman
times, the votive gifts of the Tyrian temple were furnished
with altogether fresh inscriptions, and that, further, for pur-
poses of classification, the category under which they were
catalogued was marked upon them. In this way the statue,
the strange inscription on which was undecipherable, has been
made, not quite accurately, to represent a ' priest ' in general,
taking care of the image of his god." The present writer
does not quite see wherein the want of accuracy lies, since
the Greek part of the Inscription speaks of a TT/HX^T???.
But be that as it may, it is of interest to us that in this
Inscription of Koman times sacerdos is translated by 7rpo<f>ij-
r??9, and is itself most probably a translation of the Egyptian
word for prophet. We cannot permit ourselves an opinion
on the latter point, but it appears to us perfectly possible
that the writer of the bilingual Inscription understood
the hieroglyphic text : how otherwise should he have
rendered sacerdos by Trpo^rrj^ ? The reason, then, for his
not translating the Egyptian word for prophet by propheta is
either that this word had not yet become naturalised in
Latin, or that it did not seem capable of expressing the
specific sense of the Egyptian word. The case was very
different with Trpo^fnjs, the use of which, for a definite
class of priests, can be demonstrated in Egypt from Ptole-
maic times. If this hypothesis be correct, then our In-
scription, in spite of its Phoenician origin, would have to
be added to the Egyptian proofs for the existence of the
priest-prophets ; if not, it would be evidence for the fact that
7rpo</>7?T779 as the designation of a priest is also found in use
outside Egypt or, at least, outside the Egyptian range of
ideas.
1 K(i>fj.dfyv, carrying in the procession. This Inscription is a little remini-
scent of the passage from the Leiden Papyri on p. 354.
238 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 65, 66
This (as it appears) rare word is mentioned by New
Testament lexica as occurring outside the N. T. in Plu-
tarch only. In reference to the unfortunately mutilated
passage, Perg. 254s (Eoman period), in which it occurs,
Frankel quotes the following note from Mommsen, 1 which
gives what is most likely the oldest example of the word :
" It appears that the word o-v/jL/3ov\t,ov is, properly speak-
ing, not Greek, but is formed in the Graeco-Latin official
style, in order to represent the untranslateable consilium. It
is so found in a document of the year 610 A.TJ.C, [GIG.
1543 = Dittenberger, Sylloge, 242]. Cf. Plutarch, Rom. 14 :
ji,a%ov &e TOV 6ebv Kwv&ov, el're @ov\alov ovra,' KQ)v<ri\iov
6TI VVV TO (TVjJL^OV\l>OV Ka\OV(Tl,"
The author found the word also in BU. 288 14 (reign of
Antoninus Pius) K[a\9r}jjieva)v ev crvfjLJBovXlu) ev TM Trp(u[TwpL<p],
and 511 15 (ca. 200 A.D. 2 ) [e]v o-vjj,j3ov\eia> ...... e/cdOicrev.
In Eom. 15 28 Paul describes the collection on behalf of
Jerusalem which he had gathered among the Gentile Christ-
ians as /capTTos : when I have sealed to them this fruit I shall
travel to Spain. /capTrbv o-^pa^L^ea-Oai is certainly a very
remarkable expression. B.Weiss 3 sees in it an indication
" that Paul is assuring them by personal testimony how
love for the mother-church had brought this gift of love to
it ". Others, again, follow Theodore of Mopsuestia in
thinking that the apostle merely alludes to the regular method
of delivering the money to the church at Jerusalem ; so
most recently Lipsius : deliver properly into their possession*
We are of opinion that the latter view is confirmed by
the Papyri. In BU. 249 21 (Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.) Chaire-
mon writes to Apollonios, o-^pdyeiaov sic TO cretTapiov sic leal TTJV
, seal the wheat and the barley. Here we have quite
1 Hermes, xx., p. 287, note 7.
2 The Papyrus was written about this time ; the text itself may be older
3 Meyer, iv. 8 (1891), p. 595. 4 HC. ii. 2 (1894.), p. 184.
N. 66, 67] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 239
an analogous expression, 1 which Professor Wilcken, in a
letter to the author, explains as follows : seal (the sacks con-
taining) the wheat and the barley. The same thing is meant
in 15 ii. 21 [Fayyum, 197 (?) A.D., vpas Be crfoaylSav sic eVt-
/3d[\]\iv >ic e/cdcTTq) ovw>\ \ Ye shall set your seal upon every
ass, i.e., upon the sacks of every ass ". Our conjecture is
that the sealing of the sacks of fruit was to guarantee the
correctness of the contents. If the fruit is sealed, then
everything is in order : the sealing is the last thing that
must be done prior to delivery. In the light of this the
metaphorical expression used by the Apostle assumes a more
definite shape. He will act like a conscientious merchant.
We know well that in his labour of love he did not escape
base calumnies ; a sufficient reason for him that he should
perform everything with the greater precision.
vlodeaia,
This word is one of the few in regard to which the
"profane " usage of the Inscriptions is taken into considera-
tion in the New Testament lexica. Cremer 8 , p. 972,
observes : " rare in the literature, but more frequent in the
Inscriptions ". His examples may be supplemented by in-
numerable passages from the pre-Christian Inscriptions of
the Islands of the .SCgean Sea. Particular references are
superfluous. 2 The word is always found in the formula KCL&
vloOeaiav Se : A., son of B., /caO* viodecriav &e son of C.
The corresponding formula for the adoption of females is
Kara OvyarpoTrotav 3 Se, which occurs seven times. The
frequency with which these formulae occur permits of an
inference as to the frequency of adoptions, and lets us
understand that Paul was availing himself of a generally
intelligible figure when he utilised the term vloOea-ia in the
language of religion.
1 BU. 24840 (letter from the same person and to the same as in 249)
ra afj.6y5a\a <r(f)pay(i6fj.i'a) might also be added.
2 Cf. the Index of personal names in the IMAe. These Inscriptions
have o0<n'aj/. The formula /car* yeve<riv, 19 10 , 884 u (?) 964 add ., expresses
the antithesis to it.
3 The IMAe. mostly read so ; also evyarpoirouav in 646 2.
240 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 68
The other beast of Kevelation 13 llff -, causes 18 all, the
small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and
the bond, iva SOHTW avToi? ^dpayfjia eVl T?}? %e^o9 avrcov rr)s
Sefta? r) eVl TO /zercoTroz/ avrwv, 17 a/a pfj TIS Bvvrjrai, dyopdaai,
r) 7rc0\r)(7ai, el fir) 6 e%a>z/ TO %dpay/jia TO ovo^a rov Ofjpiov r) rbv
dpidfibv rov ovo/jLaros avrov. A recent commentator, W.
Bousset, 1 thinks that the fruitless guessing of exegetes about
the %dpa<yjji,a proves " that here again there has been adopted
from some lost older tradition a feature which no longer
accords with the figure before us or its application". But
one is not entitled to speak of a proof in this connection, even
if it were an established fact that the exegetes had sought
"fruitlessly". One might with equal justification suppose
that we have here an allusion to some familiar detail, not as
yet known to us, of the circumstances of the imperial period,
and the only question is, Which interpretation is the more
plausible : the reference to an ancient apocalyptic tradition,
or the hypothesis of an allusion to a definite fact in the
history of the times ? "A cautious mode of investigation will
accept the results obtained by reference to contemporary
history wherever such reference is unforced ..... it will
recognise genuine proofs and results arrived at by the tradi-
tional-historical method ; but, where neither is sufficient, it
will be content to leave matters undecided as also the possi-
bility of allusions to contemporary events which we do not
know. Finally, it will in many cases apply both methods
at once." The following attempt to explain the matter is to
be understood in the light of these statements of Bousset, 2
with which the present writer is in absolute agreement.
In his commentary, Bousset rightly repudiates the refer-
ence to the stigmatising of slaves and soldiers. One might
preferably, he thinks, take the ^dpay^a as being a religious
protective-mark (Schutzzeichen). Other expositors have thought
of the Roman coinage with image and superscription of the
Emperor. But these explanations also, he thinks, must be
1 Meyer, xvi. 5 (1896), p. 427. 2 Der Antichrist, Gbttingen, 1895, p. 7.
N. 69] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 241
rejected. The enigma can be solved only by the traditional-
historical method which sets the passage in the light of the
time-hallowed apocalyptic ideas. "It is, in fact, the ancient
figure of Antichrist that has been turned to account in
the second half of chap. 13." l The legend of Antichrist, how-
ever, has it " that the Antichrist compels the inhabitants of
the earth to assume his mark, and that only those who have
the mark on forehead and hand may buy bread in times of
want. Here we have the explanation of the enigmatic verses
16 and 17. " 2
Bousset is certainly well aware that to trace backwards
is not to explain. 3 And yet, should it be successfully de-
monstrated that the xapasypa belonged in some way to the
substance of the apocalyptic tradition of ancestral times, our
investigation would be substantially furthered thereby. With
no little suspense, therefore, the author examined the references
which Bousset adduces elsewhere. 4 But the citations there
are relatively very late passages at best, in regard to which
it seems quite possible, and to the author also probable, that
Rev. 13 has rather influenced them. And even if the mark
had been borrowed by John, the special characteristics of the
passage would still remain unexplained, viz., the fact that the
mark embodies the name or the number of the beast, 5 that it
has some general connection with buying and selling f and,
most important of all, that it has some special reference to
the Koman emperor who is signified by the beast. The tradi-
tional-historical method is hardly adequate to the elucidation
of these three points, and, this being so, the possibility of an
1 Meyer, xvi. 5 , p. 431. 2 Ibid., p. 432.
3 Cf. Der Antichrist, p. 8 : "At the same time I am quite conscious that
in the last resort I do not attain to an understanding of the eschatological-
mythological ideas".
4 Der Antichrist, p. 132 fi.
5 According to Bousset, the mark seems to have been originally a
serpent-mark : the reference to the name of the beast was added by the writer
of the Apocalypse (Der Antichrist, p. 133). But nothing is added: and
therefore in Meyer, xvi. 5 , p. 432, it is more accurately put that the mark
is " changed in meaning ".
6 In the passages cited by Bousset the buying (and selling) is inti-
mately connected with the famine.
16
242 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 70, 71
allusion to something in the history of the time, hitherto
unknown, presses for consideration.
Now the Papyri put us in a position where we can
do justice to this possibility. They inform us of a mark
which was commonly used in imperial times, 1 which
(1) Is connected with the Eoman Emperor,
(2) Contains his name (possibly also his effigy) and the
year of his reign,
(3) Was necessary upon documents relating to buying,
selling, etc., and
(4) Was technically known as
1. On Papyri of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. are often
found " traces, now more distinct, now very faint, of a red
seal, which, at first sight, resembles a red maculation ; but
the regular, for the most part concentric, arrangement of the
spots shows that they are really traces of written charac-
ters ". 2 But in addition to those se&l-impressions on papyrus,
which will be discussed presently in greater detail, there
has also been preserved a circular stamp-plate of soft lime-
stone having a diameter of 5*5 centimetres and a thick-
ness of 2*8 centimetres. On the face of the stamp are
vestiges of the red pigment. The plate is now in the Museum
at Berlin, and a fac-simile was issued by F. Krebs in con-
nection with BU. 183. We are enabled, by the kind
permission of the authorities of the Imperial Museum, ,to
give here a reproduction of the fac-simile.
The legend, in uncial characters, reversed of course, is
arranged in a circle, and runs as follows :
L Xe' Kaia-apos,
i.e., in the 35th year 3 of Caesar (== 5-6 A.D.).
1 Whether the use of this imperial x^P7/* * s found elsewhere is
unknown to the author. But he is of opinion that it is not ; otherwise it
would be inconceivable that Mommsen, who finds in John 13 16 *- an allusion
to the imperial money (Romische Geschichte, v. 4 , Berlin, 1894, p. 522),
should not have lighted upon the author's conjecture. Wessely also, in his
issue of PER., treats the matter as something new.
2 Wessely in ref. to PER. xi., p. 11.
3 L is the common abbreviation for crows.
N. 71, 72] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 243
In the middle, surrounded by the circle of these
letters, there are also the letters yp, which we do not
understand. Krebs resolves them thus : vp(a<f)eiov) ; in that
case the seal must also have contained the names of the
authorities.
IMPERIAL SEAL OF AUGUSTUS. BERLIN MUSEUM.
It was with such plates that the imperial seals 1 which
have been more or less distinctly preserved on some Papyrus
documents, were impressed. The following instances have
become known to us :
(a) PEE. i. (Fayyum, 83-84 A.D.), a bill of sale, has
endorsed on it the remains of two red seals of which the
words [Avr]oKp[dropo<;] and Ao^iTiavov], besides other traces
of writing, can still be recognised.
(6) BU. 183 (Fayyum, 26th April, 85 A.D.), a document
about the arrangement of the property and inheritance of
a married couple, has an endorsement of three almost wholly
obliterated lines by the same hand that wrote the text of
the document, and two impressions of a seal in red ink ;
diameter 7*8 centimetres, length of the letters 0*7 centimetre.
The characters (uncial) in a circular line, are as follows :
L 8' Avrotcpdropos Kaicrapos AO^ITIOVOV ^efiaaTov Tepfj,avi,Kov.
1 We have found only imperial seals in the Papyri.
244 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 72, is
(c) PEE. xi. (Fayyum, 108 A.D.), an agreement regarding
the sharing of two parts of a house, is a specially finely
preserved copy which Wessely has issued in fac-simile. 1 " On
the back is the red stamp, circular, and having a diameter of
9' 7 centimetres ; close to the outer edge there is a circular
line, then, inside this, a circle formed by the letters (each 1
centimetre in length) :
L iff' AvTO/cpdropos Kaio-apos Nepova Tpaiavov.
"Within this, again, is a smaller circle, which consists
of the letters (beginning under the L) :
2ej3a(TTOV Tep/jLavi,Kov Aaiciicov,
and, lastly, in the middle, the bust of the emperor, looking to
the right.
" Under the seal there is written in black ink :
fiap o-ea^ (Mdpwv crearj/jLeiwfjiai)"
(d) PEE. clxx. (Fayyum, reign of Trajan), a bill of sale,
bears on the back the red seal, of which about a third is pre-
served, and of which there can still be read, in the outer
circle :
[Avr]ofcpdTopos Kaicrapos N[epova Tpaiavov],
in the inner :
2. All these imperial seals, including that of Augustus,
have this in common, viz., that they contain the name of the
emperor ; one may assume with certainty, from the analogy
of those that are preserved in their completeness, that those
which are mutilated also originally contained the year of
his reign. One seal has also the effigy of the emperor : how
far this may be the case, or may be conjectured, in regard to
the others cannot be made out from the reproductions which
1 The author applied, March 15, 1897, to the directors of the Imperial
and Royal Printing Establishment at Vienna with the request to lend him the
cast of this fac-simile for his book. The directors, to their great regret, could
not grant this request, "as the editors of the work Corpus Papyrorum
Raineri are unable, on principle, to give their consent to it ". [Reply of 22nd
March.]
N. 73] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 245
have been issued. At all events, the seal of Augustus
bears no effigy.
3. As to the purpose of the seal there can hardly be any
doubt. Wessely 1 thinks indeed that one might "take it
to be a credential that the material written upon was pro-
duced in the imperial manufactory ; or to be the credential
of an autograph document ". But, in our opinion, the
former alternative cannot be entertained. The seal in
PEE. xi., for instance, is much too large for the factory -mark
of the Papyrus ; so considerable a space of the valuable
material would surely not have been from the first rendered
unfit for use by stamping. And there is yet another reason.
So far as the date of the preserved seals can still be made
out, it corresponds to the year of the particular document.
Now, if the seal be a factory-mark, this would be a remark-
able coincidence. It is rather intended to be the guarantee of
an autograph document. It is affixed to a contract by the
competent authorities, making the document legally valid.
This hypothesis is confirmed by the under-mentioned copy
of a similar document : on it there is no seal, but the legend
is faithfully copied on the margin. The seal, then, belongs
to the document as such, not to the papyrus.
Looking now at the stamped documents with respect to
their contents, we find that in five instances (including the
under-mentioned copy) there are three bills of sale or pur-
chase. The other two documents are in contents closely
allied to these. Wessely 2 has already called special atten-
tion to this in regard to the deed of partition; but BU. 183
also relates to a similar matter. 8
4. We are indebted to a fortunate coincidence for the
knowledge of the official name of this imperial seal. PEE.
1 In connection with PER. xi., p. 37.
2 In connection with PEE. xi., p. 34.
3 We are of opinion that, by a more exact examination of the frag-
ments of bills of sale and similar documents of the 1st and 2nd centuries,
so far as their originals are extant, we might discover traces of a seal in
other instances.
246 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 74, 75
iv. is the copy of a bill of sale from the Fayyum, belonging
to the 12th year of the Emperor Claudius (52-53 A.D.). It
consists of three parts, viz., the actual substance of the agree-
ment, the procuratorial signature, and the attestation by the
ypafalov, an authority whom Wessely describes as the
"graphische Registeramt ". Each of these three parts is
prefaced by a note stating it to be a copy, thus : avriypa^ov
oiKovo/jLia? 1 linei, avriypafov vTroypatyrjs line so; finally, on
the left margin, running vertically, avrujpa^ov %apay//,aT09.
Wessely translates " copy of the signature," but the " signa-
ture," or rather the necessary stamping, of the original has
been effected precisely by means of the imperial seal. This
is supported by the wording as copied :
L [*]/8' Tlftepiov KXavbiov Kaiaapos 2e/3aa-Tov Tepf^aviKov
AvTorcpdropos.
This is exactly the legend whose form is made known to
us by such of the original seals as have been preserved. . The
term xdpay/jia suits it excellently. In the lines which follow
we must needs recognise the manuscript note of the ypatyeiov,
placed below the seal, such as we find in PEE. xi., and most
likely in BU. 183 also. He adds the day of the month, 2
/jurjvbs Kaicrapei(ov) i&, and the designation of the attesting
authority, dvay(eypa7rrai) &a rov ev 'Hpa/cheia <ypa<peiov.
To sum up : %a/my/za is the name of the imperial seal,
giving the year and the name of the reigning emperor
(possibly also his effigy), and found on bills of sale and
similar documents of the 1st and 2nd centuries.
It is not asserting too much to say that in this ascer-
tained fact we have something to proceed upon. If the beast
be correctly interpreted as referring to a Koman emperor,
which the author does not doubt in the least, then, from
1 oiKovofj.ia = document is often found in the Papyri.
2 The supposition that the day of the month also belonged to the
seal is in itself improbable, as, in that case, the plate must have been altered
daily ; it is further opposed by the fact that the preserved seals only give the
year.
N.75,07] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 247
what we now know of the emperor's ^a/my/m, we can very
well understand the ^dpay^a of the beast. The ^dpay^a of
the Apocalypse is not, of course, wholly identical with its
contemporary prototype. The seer acted with a free hand ;
he has it that the mark is impressed on forehead or hand, 1
and he gives the number a new meaning. It is in this point
that ancient (apocalyptic ?) tradition may possibly have
made its influence felt. But it has only modified ; the
characteristic, not to say charagmatic, features of the proto-
type can be recognised without difficulty.
The technical signification bond, certificate of debt, authen-
ticated in reference to Col. 2 U by Clavis* and Thayer in
Plutarch and Artemidorus only, is very common in the
Papyri. Many of the original xeipoypatya, indeed, have been
preserved ; some of these are scored through and thus
cancelled (e.g. BU. 179, 272, PEE. ccxxix). The following
passages from Fayyum Papyri may be cited for the word :
PEE. i.29 (83-84 A.D.), xiii.s (110-111 A.D.), BU. 50 5. w. is (115
A.D.), 69 12 (120 A.D.), 2724.16 (138-139 A.D.), 300 3. 12 (148
A.D.), 301 17 (157 A.D.), 179 (reign of Antoninus Pius), PEE.
ix. 6. 9 (Hermopolis, 271 A.D.).
As in 1 Cor. 7 10t 1L 15 , a technical expression for divorce
also in the Fayyum Papyri. 2 In the marriage-contracts there
are usually stated conditions for the possibility of separation ;
these are introduced by the formula eav Be [ol <yafjLovvres]
Xwpi^covTai air a\\r]\wv ; thus BU. 251 6 (81 A.D., restoration
certain), 252? (98 A.D.), PEE. xxiv.27 (136 A.D.), xxvii.ie (190
A.D.).
1 Even if all the imperial seals were as large as that of Trajan in PEE.
xi., which, with its diameter of 9'7 centimetres, could find sufficient room
only on the brows of thinkers and the hands of the proletariat, yet our hypo-
thesis would lose nothing in probability ; surely we do not wish to control
the seer with the centimetre rod. But there was manifestly no prescribed
standard diameter for the seal; cf. that on BU. 183, or even the original
stamp of Augustus ; a seal of its size could quite well have found room on
forehead or hand.
2 Examples are also to be found in other places.
248 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 75, 76
5. PHRASES AND FORMULAE.
One might imagine the formula (LXX Zech. 11 6 , Mark
13 27 , Matt. 24 31 ) to be a mere imitation of the corresponding
Hebrew one. But it occurs also in PEE. cxv. 6 (Fayyum,
2nd cent. A.D.) [<yero]i/e9 e/c reo-a-dpcov dvejjucov ; notwithstand-
ing the mutilation of the document, there can be no doubt
that the four cardinal points are meant.
afto>9 TOV deov.
In 1 Thess. 2 l2 we have Trepiirareiv dgtcos TOV 6eov, in
/-\ i -i IA r* y c- / A / 9' M > /
Gol. 1 u TrepiTrarrjo-ai, a^tco? TOV /cvpiov e^9 Tracrav apecr/ceiav,
in 3 John 6 TrpoTre'/^a? af /a>9 TOV 6eov (cf. possibly Wisdom
3 5 Kal evpev avTovs a^iovs eavTov [= ^eoO] and Matt. 10 37f- ).
The formula was a very popular one in Pergamus (and doubt-
less also in other localities). In Perg. 248 7 ff. (142-141 B.C.),
Athenaios, a priest of Dionysus and Sabazius, is extolled as
c7u[^]reTeXeA;oT09 TCL lepa .... eucre/3co9 Me7 Kal dia)<? TOV
deov ; * in Perg. 521 (after 136 A.D.), lepao-a^evriv agio)? r^9
deov /col r?79 TraTpiSos, of a priestess of Athena, and in Perg.
485 3 ff. (beginning of 1st cent. A.D.), an dpxi@ovKo\os is
honoured 8ta TO evo~e/3ot)$ Kal dj;la)s TOV Ka0rjy6jji6vo<; Aiovvaov
7rpoio-Tao-0at, TWV Oelwv jjiva-Tijpicov. In Perg. 522 7 ff. (3rd cent.
A.D.) two priestesses of Athena are similarly commemorated
as lepaaa^evwv ...... eVSofo>9 Kal eTCLfyavws KaTa TO d^LwfjLa
Kal TO jjieyeOos rr}9 Qeov. The Inscription of Sestos (Wiener
Studien, i., p. 33 ff., ca. 120 B.C.) has, in line 87, Xa^Trpav Troirjad-
/jievos Tr]v V7ro$o%r)v Kal d^iav TO>V de&v Kal TOV Brfpov.
euftevct) (ev) Traa-t, rot9 jypa^fjbevoi^.
LXX Deut. 27 26 einKaTdpaTos iras avOptoiros 09 OVK
/jL/jievei ev iracri rot9 Xo^yo^ TOV VOJJLOV TOVTOV is quoted "freely"
by Paul in Gal. 3 10 thus : eVt/cara/)aT09 ?ra9 09 OVK efipevei, ev
Tracriv rot9 yeypa^jnepot,^ ev TW J3if$\ia> TOV VOJJLOV. Certainly
an immaterial alteration, such as any one may unconsciously
make in a quotation from memory. We should not need to
1 CA, if the restoration be correct, Perg. 223 (ca. 156 B.C.) ava<rr[pe<po.
jwei/7j> Ka\[<s] al evffepws Kal d[|iws rrjs 0eas], said of Bito, a priestess of Athena.
N. 76, 77] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 249
trouble any further about it, were it not that the Papyri
indicate how Paul may have come to make this particu-
lar insignificant change. In the deed of partition PEE.
xi. 23 f. (Fayyum, 108 A.D.) we read ev/juevercoa-av [ol] O/JLO\O-
ev Tofc e/covcricos o)jjLO\oyr)[fjLevoi,s] KOI Sieipr)-
Here we have a legal formula familiar in the official
style of such documents, which occurs earlier in a similar
form in the Turin Papyrus 8 (2nd cent. A.D.) : eppevew Be
a/A<f)OTepov<} ev rot? TT/JO? eavrovs Sico/jLoXoyrujievois. 1 The
formula varies as to its verb, but preserves the constancy of
its form intelligible in the case of a legal expression by
the fact that e^evav, with or without ev, is followed by the
dative of a participle, mostly in the plural. It so runs in
PEE. ccxxiv. 5f. (Fayyum, 5-6 A.D.) ev/jieveiv ev iraai 7049
ryeye[vr)/jLevoi,<$ Kara rrf\v <ypa<f)r)v rfjs 6/j,o\,(o<yias 2 ) r\v (rvvye-
rypa/j,fj,ai aot. Note here the addition of a new word, TTCLCTL.
And, finally, let us read BU. 6006 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent.
A.D.) evfj,ev(0 TTCLG-I rafc 7rpo<yeypa{jLev[a]i,$ 8 . ic [eVJroXafc, a form
of which the biblical quotation of Paul, with its distinctive
variation, is undoubtedly reminiscent. In these circum-
stances, the Apostle may be supposed to have continued the
biblical ejifievei ev iracri row ... by a participle, unconsciously
adopting the cadence of the legal formula. We are un-
aware whether this form of expression is to be found
elsewhere, or outside Egypt; its unquestionably formulaic
character speaks for its having belonged albeit in mani-
fold variation to the more widely known material of the
language. Moreover, the use of a legal form of expression
is particularly easy to understand in the case of Paul. 3
etc.
The authorities given on p. 113 f . for the legal character
of the formula of quotation #a#a>9 (tcaOaTrep) yeypaTrrat, can
still be largely added to. 4 In IMAe. 761 41 (Ehodes, 3rd cent.
1 As the author has not the Turin Papyri by him, he quotes according
to Corp. Papp. Raineri, i. 1, p. 12.
2 6/jio\oyia = contract. 3 See p. 107 f.
4 It was remarked on p. 114, note 3, that the formula is also found with-
out this technical meaning. As examples of this we have the
250 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 78
B.C.) we have icada teal ev rofc vofjiois yefypaTnat. In the
decree Perg. 251 35 (2nd cent. 3.0.), with reference to a pas-
sage immediately preceding, there occur the words xaOdirep
yeypaTTTai, ; similarly, in the documents BU. 252 9 (Fayyum
98 A.D.) icaOa yeypaTTTcu, and PEE. cliv. 11 (Fayyum, 180 A.D.)
fy[eryp]a7TTai. There may also be added KaOort Trpoye-
BU. 189 (Fayyum, 7 A.D.), and PEE. iv. 17 f.
(Fayyum, 52-53 A.D.) ; /ea#o>9 vTroyeypaTrrai,, relating to an
oracle quoted later, in the Inscription of Sidyma No. 53
Db 11 f. * (post-Hadrianic) ; /ca6a SiayefypaTrrcu in an Inscrip-
tion from Cos 2 (date ?)
Other formulae of quotation used by the New Testament
writers are vouched for by the legal language : Kara ra
7rpoye<ypa/j,fjL6va PEE. iv. 24 (Fayyum, 52-53 A.D.) cf. Kara
TO ryeiypa/A/juevov 2 Cor. 4 13 ; [/cara rrj\v rypatytfv, with re-
ference to a contract, PEE. ccxxiv. e (Fayyum, 5-6 A.D.),
and Kara ypatyds, with reference to the laws, BU. 136 10 (135
A.D.), cf. Kara TO-? <ypa(f>d<; 1 Cor. 15 3f> , and Kara TTJV ypatyrjv
James 2 8 .
TO yvtfcriov.
2 Cor. 8 8 TO T?}9 uyLt6Tepa9 dyaTrys yvrjaiov : cf. Inscription
of Sestos (Wiener Studien, i., p. 33 ff., ca. 120 B.C.), liner, irpo
7r\,i(7TOV Genevas TO TTyoo? Tvjv TraTpiSa yvrjaiov /cal ef
TTotovfiat (Phil. I 4 of supplication) is used quite
generally for request in BU. 180 17 (Fayyum, 172 A.D.) Si/calav
Se[rj(7^Lv TOLov/uLevos ; on the other hand, Serfcreis nroiov^ai^ as
in Luke 5 83 , 1 Tim. 2 \ of supplication, also in Pap. Par. 69
of Josephus (references in Hans Driiner, Untersuchungen ilber Josephus,
Thesis, Marburg, 1896, pp. 54 note 1, and 85), Arrian (cf. Wilcken, Philologus,
liii. [1894], p. 117 f .), and most likely of other authors as well. I am indebted to
a kind communication of Dr. Hans Driiner for the information that Josephus
frequently employs avayeypaTrrcu for O.T. references also, while he certainly
uses 77pa7TTot very seldom for these ; y^ypairrai in c. Ap. ii. 18 refers to a
non-biblical quotation.
1 Benndorf and Niemann, Beisen in Lykien und Karien, i., Vienna,
1894, p. 77 ; for the date see p. 75.
2 Hermes xvi. (1881), p. 172, note ; cited by Prankel, p. 16.
N. 79] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 251
ii. 11 (Elephantine, 232 A.D.) evOa cr7rovSd[<; re teal
In Perg. 268 C (98 B.C.) the Pergamenians offer them-
selves as peace-makers in the quarrel between the cities of
Sardis and Ephesus : they send a mediator (line 10 f.) : [rbv
7rapa/ca]\ecrovTa Sovvat, r[a]<; %e/>a9 y/*w efc crv\\v(7tv]. 2 On
this Frankel observes, p. 201 : " ' to give the hands towards
an agreement (to be brought about by us) '. I have not
found any other example of this use (corresponding to the
German) of the phrase Sovvai, ra? %et/?a9." We have here a
case where the elucidation of the Inscriptions can be to some
extent assisted by the sacred text; the expression give the
hand or hands 3 is very common in the Greek Bible though
in the form Sef tav (or Scf *a?) SiSovat, : 1 Mace. 6 58 , 11 50 - 62 ,
13 50 , 2 Mace. II 26 , 12 n , 13 22 , Gal. 2 9 (Be&? eSa/cav . . .
KotvcDvias ; cf. Sefyav (or Sef w) \a,fji/3dvi,v 1 Mace. 11 66 , 13 50 ,
2 Mace. 12 12 , 14 19 . 4 Then exegetes have also adduced clas-
sical analogies ; most exhaustively Joannes Dougtaeus,
Analecta sacra, 2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1694, Part ii., p. 123.
Clavis 3 , p. 88, cites only Xen. Anab. 1, 6, 6 ; 2, 5, 3 ; Joseph.
Antt. 18, 19 [should be 9], 3.
TO
Apart from the Epistle to the Hebrews, authenticated in
Appian, B. civ. 1, 4; found in IMAe. 786 ie (Khodes, imperial
period) : Terei^^evo^ ** e? TO St,eve/ce$ 8ic , also in Apollodorus
of Damascus, 42.
e09, Kara TO
The word is used in the Fayyum Papyri almost entirely
for law, ritus, in the narrower sense, as often in Luke and
1 The citation is made from the issue of this Papyrus (from Notices et
extraits, xviii. 2, pp. 390-399) by Wilcken in Philologies, liii. (1894), p. 82.
2 The restorations are certain.
9 With this we must not confound e/cStS^ai rV x e ?pa> BV. 405.
(Fayyum, 348 A.D.) where ^et'p means manuscript, document.
4 See also Grimm on 2 Mace. 4 s4 , HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 93.
252 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 79, 80
Acts. Note especially the formula Kara TO Wos (Luke I 9 ,
2^): BU. 250 IT (reign of Hadrian) /caOapos Kara TO edos,
131 5 (2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) and 96 15 (2nd half of 3rd cent. A.D.)
/caTa TO, 'Pwpalwv edtj, 1 347 i. 17, ii. 15 (171 A.D.) and 82 12 (185
A.D.) 7rept,T/jLrj0f)va{, KaTa TO #09 (cf. Acts 15 l TrepiTfMijdiJTe ro5
edet
Manifold authorities for the phrase in connection with
2 Cor. 12 M , 1 Pet. 4 5 , Acts 21 13 ; it is found also in the Fayyum
documents of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, BU. 24027 and
80 [= 446] 17. The construction can be made out in the
latter passage only ; as in all the New Testament passages it
is followed by the infinitive.
TOV Oeov OeXovTos, etc.
Similar pagan formulae have long since been referred
to in connection with the New Testament passages. The
Fayyum Papyri reveal how widespread its use must have
been, even in the lower strata of society With TOV Oeov
OeXovTos in Acts 18 21 is connected TWV Oe[&i]v OekovTwv BU.
423 is (2nd cent. A.D., a soldier's letter to his father) ;
615 4 f. (2nd cent. A.D., private letter) eTriyvova-a OTL Qe&v
6e\6vTu>v &e<7o>#?79, used in reference to the past ; similarly in
line 21 f.; further, 6ewv Se ^ov\ofieva)v 248 iir (2nd cent. A.D.,
private letter), 249 13 (2nd cent. A.D., private letter). With
eav o Kvpios eTriTpetyrj 1 Cor. 16 7 , edvTrep eiriTpeTry o 0eo?
Heb. 6 3 , compare 6e&v einTpeTr6v\T]wv 451 10 f. (lst-2nd cent.
A.D., private letter), also T% Tv^rj^ eTTiTpeiro va^s 248 15 f. (2nd
cent. A.D., private letter). Allied to KaOcos [6 Oebs] r)0e\rjo-ev
1 Cor. 12 18 , 15 38 is 9 o ^609 jj0e\ev in BU. 27 11 (2nd-3rd
cent. A.D., private letter). It is a specially significant fact
that it is precisely in private letters that we find the
specified examples of the use of these formulae.
etc TOV jjueaov
Thayer, p. 402, cites Plut. De Curios. 9, Is. 57, 2 in con-
nection with Col. 2 14 . The phrase is used in BU. 388 ii. 23
1 This formula often occurs in the PEE. also.
N. 81} LANGUAGE Otf THE GBEEK BIBLE. 253
(Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) like e medio tollo in the proper
sense.
OL7TO
TOV VVV.
This formula, employed in 2 Cor. 5 16 , as also often by
Luke (Gospel, and Acts 18 6 ), is very common in the Fayyum
legal documents. We find it in the following combinations :
CLTTO TOV VVV Tfl TOV aTTdVTCt XpOVOV PEE. IV. 9. 17 (52-53 A.D.),
xi.e (108 A.D.), BU. 350 19 (reign of Trajan), 193 ii. n (136
A.D.) ; CLTTO TOV vvv 6t9 TOV del %povov 282 s (after 175 A.D.) ;
[a?r]o rov vvv eVl TOV' ael ical airavTa [ftpovov] 4569 (348 A.D.);
also standing by itself, O.TTO TOV vvv 153 n (152 A.D.) and 13 9
(289 A.D.).
A corresponding form, /^e^/o[t] r[o{)] vvv (cf. ay^i TOV vvv
Eom. 8 22 , Phil. I 5 ), is found in BU. 2569 (Fayyum, reign of
Antoninus Pius).
KO,T ovap.
The references for this phrase, as found in Matt. 1 20 ,
2 12 ' 19 - 22 , 27 19 , cannot be supplemented by Perg. 357 8 (Eoman
times) [tfjar' ovap or IMAe. 979 4 f. (Carpathus, 3rd cent.
A.D.) fcaTa ovap ; in these cases the phrase does not mean in
a dream, but in consequence of a dream, like KCLT ovetpov in Perg.
327 (late Eoman 1 ).
TrapaiTio?
In the letter of Lysias to the Jews, 2 Mace. 11 19 , it is
said Kal et? TO \onrbv 7reipdcrofj,ai, iraoaiTio^ VJJLIV dya0a)v
yeveorOat,. Similarly in Ep. Arist. p. 67 21 (Schm.) we have
&>9 av /j,<yd\6)v dyaOwv TrapaiTiot, ryeyovoTe?. The formula is
often found in the Inscriptions. In reference to Perg.
246 54 f. (decree of the city of Elaia in honour of Attains iii.,
ca. 150 B.C.) [a\el rtz^o? [a]ya[0]oi) TcapaiT\i\ov yiveadai avTov,
Frankel, p. 159, observes : " The phrase was received as a
formula into the official Greek of the Eomans : so a quaes-
tor's letter to the Letaeans, 118 B.C., in Dittenberger,
Sylloge 247, 44 f.; two letters, from Caesar and Octavian,
1 Cf. Frankel, p. 55.
254 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 81, 82
to the Mitylenians, Sitzungsber. d. Berl. Akad. 1889, pp. 960,
965. Elsewhere also, e.g. in Dittenberger, 252, 2; 280,
23". IMAe. 1032 11 (Carpathus, 2nd cent. B.C.) Trapairw
yeyovet, ra? o-cor7jp[i]a<; should also be compared.
irape^ofjiai e^avrov.
Clams 3 , p. 340, finds examples of this reflexive phrase
(Tit. 2 7 ) only in Xen. Cyr. 8, 1, 39; Thayer, p. 488, adds
Joseph, c. Ap. 2, 15, 4. It occurs also in IMAe. 1032 e (Car-
pathus, 2nd cent. B.C.) avej/ckrjTov avrbv Trapeo-^rai, and
Lebas, Asie 409 6 (Mylasa, 1st cent. B.C.), ^prja-i^ov eavrov
Trap Ldrri JJLI Ovaiav.
In reference to Kom. 12 l B. Weiss 2 rejects the sacri-
ficial meaning of to present, lay down (the sacrifice upon the
altar), for Trapia-rdvai, as the word "most probably occurs in
Greek in this sense " here follow the references " but it is
certainly not ... in any way a standing technical term in
the 0. T. " ; it is to be taken as to place at ones disposal.
The present writer has two objections to this view. For one
thing he cannot see wherein the two interpretations differ ;
even if the latter be preferred, it yet embraces, in this very
combination Trapiardvai, Ova-Lav, the meaning of the former.
And, again, he cannot understand how a form of expression
used by the Apostle Paul can be set up as something to be
contrasted with Greek.
The references given by Weiss for the usage of the word
in Greek can be supplemented by Perg. 246 17. 43 (decree of the
city of Elaia in honour of Attalus III., ca. 150 B.C.) Trapaara-
verlap, 256 14. 21 (imperial period) Trapaa-raOrjvai \6\vaiav
or [(' o\v [a]v . . Trapio-rfj rrjv dva-'i\a\v.
With Acts 17 n oiTiv^ e&egavTo rbv \6yov fiera
7rpo6vfj,ia<; cf. Perg. 13 so f. (oath of allegiance of the mercen-
1 This passage is quoted from Frankel, p. 186, who also refers to the
active iropao-x^To xp^^tjuoi/ eawrbv rf irarplSi, CIO. 2771 i. 10 (Aphrodisias), and
would restore Perg. 253 is in a similar way.
2 Meyer, iv. 8(1891), p. 512.
N. 82. 831 LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 255
aries of King Eumenes I., soon after 263 A.D.) [7ra/?]e'foyLwu Be
/cal rrjv [a]\\fjv 'XJpeiav evvoco? KCLI a7r/3o</>a[<j]t[o-]ra)9 [fJ>]ra
Trda-Tjs 7rpo0vfji[i]a<; et9 ^vva^iv elvai rrjv fj,ijv. The idiom will,
without doubt, be found elsewhere.
K (TVfJL(f)Ci}VOV.
As in 1 Cor. 7 5 , the formula occurs in the following
Fayyum documents: BU. 446 [=80] is (reign of Marcus
Aurelius) /e[a]#o>9 e/c avvcfxovov virrjyopevo-av, PER. cxci. 9 (2nd
cent. A.D.) [/e]a#a>9 egvpcfxavov ** c vTrrjyopevo-av, and cxcvii. s
(2nd cent. A.D.) Kaon? ** c e^vjj^mvov >ic TT[ ......... ] V7rr)y[6-
For extraordinary, as in 3 Mace. 3 7 , Acts 19 n , 28 2 , the
phrase occurs also in BU. 36 [cf. 436] 9 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd
cent. A.D.) vftpw ov rrjv rv)(pvorav o"vvere\e(TavTo and in an
earlier Inscription from Ptolemais in Egypt, of the time of
Euergetes, Bulletin de correspondence helldnique, xxi. (1897), p.
190.
01 6V V7TpOxfj OZ/T69.
Hitherto noted in 1 Tim. 2 2 only ; cf. 2 Mace. 3 n avSpos
ev vTrepoxfj Kei^ievov. Already in Perg. 252 20 (early Roman
period, after 133 B.C.), we find ra>v ev vTrepo^fj OVTCOV, pro-
bably used generally of persons of consequence.
(f)t,\av$pos /cat (piXoreKvos.
In regard to Tit. 2 4 ra9 vea$ <$C^dv$pov<$ elvai, <j)i,\oTetcvov<;,
v. Soden 1 observes, " both expressions here only," and also
in the last edition of Meyer (xi. 6 [1894], p. 382) they are
described as " air. Xey.," although both are already given in
the Clams as occurring elsewhere. More important than the
correction of this error, however, is the ascertained fact that
the two words must have been current in this very combina-
tion. Already in Clavis 9 we find cited for it Plut. HOT., p.
769 C. To this may be added an epitaph from Pergamus,
Perg. 604 (about the time of Hadrian), which, on account
of its simple beauty, is given here in full :
1 HC. iii. 1 (1891), p. 209.
256 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 83, 84
fcal
ITT? X'.
An Inscription of the imperial period, from Paros, GIG.
2384 *, similarly extols a wife as (f>L\avSpov teal <f>L\67raiSa.
We need no evidence to prove that precisely a combination
of this kind could readily become popular.
TO avro <f>poveiv.
This formula and others of similar formation which are
current in the writings of the Apostle Paul have been found
in Herodotus and other writers. 2 The epitaph IMAe. 149
(Ehodes, 2nd cent. B.C.), in which it is said of a married
couple, ravra \eyovres ravra fypovovvres rf^Oo^ev rav dpeTprj-
rov 6Sbv et9 'AtSav, permits of the supposition that it was
familiarly used in popular speech.
6. BARER WORDS, MEANINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS.
In reference to 1 Pet. 2 2 &>9 dpriyevvrjTa fiptyr) TO
\oyifcbv aboKov <yd\a 7rnro6r)cr(ne, E. Kiihl 3 observes that the
second attribute SoXo9 is not meant to apply to the meta-
phorical yd\a, but only to the word of God as symbolised by
it. But BU. 290 is (Fayyum, 150 A.D.) makes it probable
that this adjective could quite well be applied to milk ; the
word is there used, alongside of /eaOapos, of unadulterated
wheat. Thus the word need not have been chosen as merely
relating to the meaning of the metaphor, nor, again, as
merely referring to Trdvra $6\ov in verse 1 .
1 Citation from Frankel, p. 134.
2 Cf. A. H. Franke on Phil. 2 2 (Meyer, ix. 5 [1886], p. 84).
Meyer, xii. 6 (1897), p. 136.
N.84,85] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 257
According to Clavis 3 , p. 21, found only in Lucian, Abdic.
11 ; Thayer, p. 32, adds Philo, De Praem. et Poen. 3 (M. p.
410). In PEE. ccxvi. 5 (Fayyum, lst-2nd cent. A.D.), the
word is used, passively, of a sale (/cvpiav /cal fieftaiav KOI
For this manifestly very rare word in 2 Cor. 1 9 , Clavis 3 ,
p. 43, gives only the reference Joseph. Antt. 14, 10, 6 ;
Thayer, p. 63, supplements this by Polyb. Excpt. Vat. 12,
26 b , 1 ; in both passages an official decision is meant. The
word occurs in the same sense in the Inscription (particularly
worthy of consideration by reason of its proximity in time
to the Pauline passage) IMAe. 2 4 (Rhodes, 51 A.D.), in which
TO, evKTaiorara aTroKpifiaTa certainly relates to favourable
decisions of the Emperor Claudius.
Outside the N. T. only authenticated hitherto in Chry-
sippus (in Athen. 3, 79, p. 113 &) ; is also found in the
Fayyum Papyri B U. 531 ii. 24 (2nd cent. A.D.) and 33 5
(2nd-3rd cent. A.D.).
With the meaning pay one's respects (Acts 25 18 , Joseph.
Antt. 1, 19, 5 ; 6, 11, 1), also in the Fayyum Papyri BU. 347
i. 3, ii. 2 (171 A.D.) and 248 12 (2nd cent. A.D.).
Of the special meaning l furtim sepono in John 12 6 the
Fayyum Papyri yield a number of fresh examples : BU. 361
iii. 10 (end of 2nd cent. A.D.), 46 10 (193 A.D.), 157 s (2nd-3rd
cent. A.D.). The last two documents contain speeches of
the public prosecutor in regard to cases of theft.
1 The more general meaning also is found in BU. 388 ii. 24 (FayyAm,
2nd-3rd cent. A.D.).
17
258 BIBLE STUDIES. [N. 85,86
Without entering into the controversy over Matt. 11 u
and Luke 16 16 , the author wishes only to establish the
following facts. Cremer 8 , p. 215, thinks that it may be
considered as " demonstrable " that the word in Matthew
must be taken as a passive : " As a deponent it would give
no sense whatever, since ftid&aOcu cannot stand without an
object or a substitute therefor, like Trpoaa), el'o-co, and does not
so stand * . . . ; it represents no independent idea such as do
violence, come forward violently. At least this passage would
afford, so far as can be seen, the sole example of such a
meaning." But in opposition to this we may refer to the
epigraphic regulations of Xanthus the Lycian for the
sanctuary of Men Tyrannos founded by him, CIA. iii. 74, 2
cf. 73 (found near Sunium, not earlier than the imperial
period), where Piafyncu is without doubt reflexive and abso-
lute. After the ceremonial purifications are stated, the per-
formance of which is the condition of entrance into the
temple, it is further said that no one may sacrifice in the
temple az>e[i/| rov Ka0ei,$pvcrafj,evov 8ic TO iepbv (meaning most
likely, without permission from the founder of the temple) ; eav e
T9 Pidwrjrat,, the regulation continues, aTrpbaSeKros 8 rj dvcrLa
Trapa rov Oeov, but if any one comes forward violently, or enters
by force, his offering is not pleasing to the god. But for such
as, on the contrary, have rightly performed all that is pre-
scribed, the founder wishes, further on, /cal evei\aTo<;' 8ic4i
ryevoi[r]o 6 0eo9 rot? Oepairevovaw aTrXrj TTJ ^v^rf. This anti-
thesis is decisive for the sense of fiida-rjTcu.
Sieria.
Authenticated only in Philo ; Thayer (p. 148) adds to
this the Graecus Venetus of Gen. 41 *, 45 5 . The word (Acts
24 27 , 28 30 ) occurs also in B U. 1807 (Fayyum, 172 A.D.) and
Perg. 525 is (after 217 A.D.).
1 Italics from Cremer.
2 = Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 379. See, in reference to Ka6aplC<o, p. 216.
3 Cf. its antithesis, euTrp^o-Se/cTos, also said of a sacrifice, Kom. 15 16 and
1 Pet. 2 5 , like Qwia. Se/er^ Phil. 4 18 and LXX.
4 An additional reference for this word ; cf. p. 122.
N.86,87] LANGUAGE OF THE GEEEK BIBLE. 259
A. word belonging to the Greek Bible which the Papyri
are bringing again to life, after the exegetes had well-nigh
strangled it. With reference to the passages James 1 3 TO
Sotclfjiiov vjjiwv T?}? Trto-reo)? KaTpyd%6Tai, vTTo/jLovtfv, and 1 Pet.
1 7 f (va TO So/ci/jiiov vfi&v TT}? Trio-recD? iro\vTt,fjLOTepov j^pvcrlov
rov aTTo\\v/jLei>ou Sia Trvpb? Se SoKi/jba^o/jLevov evpeOfj et? eirawov
Kal 86!*av teal Tifjurjv ev airoicakvtyet, 'Irjcrov Xpiarov, it is COm-
monly stated that TO So/cl/mov is equal to TO SoKifjuelov, means
of testing. This hypothesis is linguistically possible ; the
author certainly knows no reason why, in such case, the
word is always accented SOKL/JLIOV and not So/d,/j,iov. But on
material grounds there are grave objections to the hypothesis.
Even the thorough-going defence of it in connection with
the Petrine passage by E. Kuhl 1 still leaves the present
writer with the feeling that, so taken, the Apostle's thought
is unnatural and indistinct, not to say unintelligible. And
this also gives us the reason why most exegetes search for
another meaning of the word, one which will in some degree
suit the context; thus, e.g., Clavis*, p. 106, decides for
exploratio in James 1 3 , and for verification in 1 Pet. 1 7 , two
meanings which the word never has anywhere else, and all
but certainly cannot have. But the whole difficulty of the
case was primarily brought about by the exegetes themselves,
nearly all of whom misunderstood the word. Only Schott
and Hofmann have fallen on the right view in their surmise
(see Kuhl, p. 88) that SOKL/JMOV is the neuter of an adjective. 2
On this Kuhl observes, with a reference to Winer 7 , p. 220,
that this interpretation is rendered void by the fact that
Bo/cifjiiov is not an adjective, but a genuine substantive, while
Winer says " there is no adjective Soicifuo? ". True, there
is no SoKifjLios that is, in the lexica ; nor would- Schott
and Hofmann be able to find it. This want, however, is
supplied by the Fayyum Papyrus documents of the Archduke
1 Meyer, xii. 6 (1897), p. 87 ff.
2 Tholuck also, in Beitrage zur SpracherkUCrung des Neuen Testaments,
Halle, 1832, p. 45, makes this conjecture, with a reference to Wahl ; but ha
has no example at his disposal.
260 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.87,88
Rainer's collection. In the pawn-ticket PEE. xii. e f. (93 A.D.)
there are mentioned gold buckles of the weight of 7J minae of
good gold (xpv<rov Soicifuov); the marriage contract xxiv. 5 (136
A.D.) enumerates ornaments in the bride's dowry to the
value of 13 quarters of good gold (xpvaov Bo/c^eiov sic ) ; a frag-
ment of the same contract, xxvi., reads in line e \xpv<r\lov
[SoK^ifjiiov, and in line 9 \xp\v [cr]ov [S]o/a[/t]etou sic ; similarly
the fragments of marriage contracts xxiii. 4 (reign of
Antoninus Pius) [%/oiWou] So/ceipeiov * ic , xxii. 5 (reign of
Antoninus Pius) [%pi;]<noi; So[/a/uoi>], and xxi. 12 (230 A.D.)
[_Xpvcrov\ BoKifjLLov. There can be no doubt about the meaning
of this Sotcijuos, and, in addition, we have the advantage of
possessing a Papyrus which gives information on the matter.
The marriage contract, PEE. xxiv., is also preserved in a
copy, and this copy, PEE. xxv., line 4, reads xpvaiov SoKipov
instead of the ^pvaov SoKijjLeiov of the original. Now this
So/cifjiov can hardly be a clerical error, but rather an easy
variant, as immaterial for the sense as ^pvaLov for xpvcrov :
SotcifjLios has the meaning of SOKI/JLOS proved, acknowledged,
which was used, precisely of metals, in the sense of valid,
standard, genuine (e.g., LXX Gen. 23 16 apyvpiov SOKL/AOV,
similarly ] Chron. 29 4 , 2 Chron. 9 17 ^pvo-ia* SOKL/JLO) ; par-
ticulars in Cremer 8 , p. 335 f.).
Hence, then, the adjective So/cifuos, proved, genuine, must
be recognised, and may be adopted without misgiving in both
the New Testament passages. 1 TO So/cifuov vp&v rr)s Trtcrreo)?
is the exceedingly common classical construction of the sub-
stantival neuter of an adjective with genitive (often of an
abstract noun) following, which we find in the New Testa-
ment, especially in Paul. 2 An almost identical example is
1 It is very highly probable that the Greek writer Oecumenius still
understood it as an adjective in these passages ; he interprets Sotcifuov rt>
KeKpipevov Ae'yei, rb SeSoKiyttcKT/teVoj/, rb KaBap6v (Tischendorf in reference to James
1 8 ). The substitution, in some minuscules, of SJ/ct/xos for 5o/cfyaos, in both the
New Testament passages (as in the Papyrus document PER. xxv. 4), likewise
supports the view that late Greek copyists understood the word. The forma-
tion of the word is plain : SOKI^IOS comes from 56Ki/j.os, as faevQepios from
, and KaOdpios from Kadap6s.
2 Cf. most recently Blass, Gramm., p. 151 f . [Eng. Trans., p. 155.]
N.88,89] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 261
2 Cor. S 8 TO r^9 vjAerepas dydirrj^ yvtfo'iov. 1 We would
render whatever is genuine in your faith in both passages.
Luther's translation of the passage in James, viz., euer G-laube,
so er rechtschaffen ist (your faith, so it be upright), must be pro-
nounced altogether correct. And thus, too, all ambiguity
disappears from the passage in Peter : so that what is genuine
in your faith may be found more precious than gold which, in spite
of its perishableness, is yet proved genuine by fire unto praise
and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We
would here avoid entering more particularly into the
exegetical controversy : the proposed explanation must be
its own justification.
But the tale of the ill-treatment of this word is not even
yet fully told. The exegetes have disowned it also in the
LXX ; it was suppressed by dint of taking two instances of
the traditional SOKI/JLIOV as identical. According to Clavis 3 ,
p. 106, SoKipiov = SoKipelov LXX Prov. 27 21 and Ps. 11
[Hebr. 12] 7 with the meaning of crucible ; according to Kiihl,
it signifies here as always means of testing. Now it is certain
that, in Prov. 27 21 SOKIJUOV dpyvpla KOI XP V(T V trvpcoo-is, we
must take SOKIJJLIOV (or SOKL/MOV ?) as a substantive ; it does
not, indeed, mean crucible, though that is the meaning of the
original just as little as Trvpwo-is means furnace, the original
notwithstanding. The fact is rather that in the translation
the sense of the original has been changed. As it stands the
sentence can only be understood thus : fire is the test for silver
and gold; only so does one catch the point of the apodosis.
The case is quite different with Ps. 11 [12] 7 ra \6yia KvpLov
\6yca dyva dpyvpiov TreTrvpcofievov SOXI/MOV rfj yfj K6/ca0api-
a-^kvov e7TTa7rXacrt&>9. The sense of the original of So/cijuov rfj
yfi is a matter of much controversy. To So/a//,toi/ corresponds
S^T$ (crucible ? tuorkshop ?) of which the etymology is ob-
scure, and rfj 777 is a rendering of Y*\$b, the grammatical
relations of which are likewise uncertain. The solution of
these difficulties is of no further consequence to our ques-
tion ; in any case the sense has been again altered by the
1 See p. 250, sub
262 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.89,90
translators, for the Greek word can mean neither crucible nor
workshop. We must therefore deal with the Greek sentence
as we best can. If, with Kuhl, we take &OKIJUOV as a sub-
stantive equivalent to means of testing (which So/a/uoi> [or
So/cifuov ?] can quite well mean), then the sentence runs :
The words of the Lord are pure words, silver purified by fire, a
seven times refined means-of-testing for the earth (or for the
land ?). Such would, indeed, be the most obvious render-
ing, 1 but what is gained thereby ? We get a tolerable
meaning only by taking &orci/j,i,ov adjectivally : the words of
the Lord are pure ivords, genuine silver, purified by fire, seven
times refined, for the land. Godly men cease, untruth and
deceit are found on every side, a generation speaking great
things has arisen : but Jahweh promises succour to the
wretched, and, amidst the prevailing unfaithfulness, His
words are the pure, tried defence of the land. Taken some-
what in this way, the sentence fits into the course of thought
in the Greek psalm.
Finally, the texts of the LXX yield still further testi-
mony to the existence of this adjective. In 1 Chron. 29 4 ,
B a b gives the reading apyvpiov SOKI/UOV instead of apyvpiov
Bo/cijAov. The same confusion of So/a//.o? and Soxl/uos, which
we have already seen in the Papyri and the New Testament
MSS., is shown in Zech. 11 13 : instead of So/cifjiov, ^ c - avia Q*
(Marchalianus, 6th cent. A.D., Egypt) have Sorcifjuov, Q"
e/creveia,
The ethical sense endurance (2 Mace. 14 38 , 3 Mace. 6 41 ,
Judith 4 9 , Cic. ad Attic. 10, 17, 1, Acts 26 7 ) is also found in
IMAe. 1032 10 (Carpathus, 2nd cent. B.C.) rav Tracrav e/creveiav
/col /ca/coTraOiav 7rape%6fjievo$. In line 2 of the same Inscrip-
tion etcrevcos is used in a corresponding sense.
1 T V y$ could also be connected with the verb as an instrumental dative :
but that would make the sentence more enigmatic than ever. We do not
understand the suggestion of Cremer 8 , p. 340, at the end of the article
N.90,91] LANGUAGE OE THE GREEK BIBLE. 263
But few references for this word are given in connection
with Acts 1 10 , Luke 24 4 A, etc. ; cf. BU. 16 K 12 (Fayyum,
159-160 A.D.) xpa)[jji]evov epeal? ecr^ereoY. 1
or /ca/coTradia.
For this word in James 5 10 , usually written
Clavis 3 , p. 222, gives only the meaning vexatio, calamitas,
aerumna, and Beyschlag 2 expressly rejects the meaning vexa-
tionum patientia. Cremer 8 , p. 749, likewise enters the
passage under affliction, pains, misfortune, but this must be
an error, as he again records it three lines below under
the other meaning, bearing of affliction. The context sup-
ports this interpretation (though we cannot think it
impossible that James might have said : Take an example
from the prophets in affliction and patience). From the re-
ferences given in Clavis we might judge that this sense of
the word could not be authenticated. But the passages
quoted by Cremer, 4 Mace. 9 8 and Plut. Num. 3, 5, may be
supplemented by references from the Inscriptions. In IMAe.
1032 10 (Carpathus, 2nd cent. B.C.) rav Trao-av e/creveiav KOA,
Ka/co7radiav Trape^o/jievo^, this meaning may be inferred from
the co-ordination of the word with e/creveia ; similarly Perg.
252 16 f. (early Roman period, therefore after 133 B.C.) T&V re
KKOfjii,[Sa)v] eVtyteXeta KOI KaKOTraBiq Sti\_7TODV ra Beovra
7ra](rav eTruTTpo^v eTror](rar[o] **. Frankel, indeed (p. 184),
translates the word here by pains, but the context permits
us to infer that not pains, in the passive sense of suffering, is
intended here, but the active taking pains. In support of
this "weakening of the concept," Frankel further quotes
the Inscription in honour of the gymnasiarch Menas of
Sestos (Dittenberger, Sylloge 247), lines 4 and 23. W. Jerusa-
lem 3 observes, in connection with this passage from the
1 Corrected reading in the Supplement, p. 395.
2 Meyer, xv. 5 (1888), p. 222.
3 Wiener Studien, i. (1879), p. 47. Cf. also A. Wilhelm, GGA., 1898, p. 227:
" The Ka.KOTra.6ia, with which the travelling of embassies, particularly over sea,
is usually associated, is prominently mentioned in numberless psephismata ".
264 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.9i,92
Inscription of Sestos (ca. 120 B.C.), that "of course" the
word at first meant suffering of misfortune, but that, in the
Inscription, it has the more general meaning of exertion,
endurance, which meaning, he says, is also met with in con-
temporary Inscriptions, and is much more frequent in
Polybius than the common one.
The objection may be made that these are in reality
two different words with different meanings. But even
granting that /ca/coTraOia is of different formation from
Ka/coTrdOeia, 1 there still remains the question whether the
traditional /ca/coTraOeia? may not be an itacistic variation of
KaKOTraOLas. The present writer would, with Westcott and
Hort, decide for this alternative, and read icaicoiraOlas (so
B* and P).
Kara/c p i fia.
This rare word is authenticated (apart from Rom. 5 16< 18 ,
8 1 ) only in Dion. Hal. 6, 61. All the less should the follow-
ing passages be disregarded. In the deed of sale, PEE. i.
(Fayyum, 83-84 A.D.), line 15 f., it is said of a piece of land
that it is transferred to the purchaser tcadapa airo iravros
0(f)l,\1JUaTOS OL7TO JJL6V SrjfJLOCTiCOV T\6CT(jLdT<t)V (id) TTCIVTCOV KOi
[erepwv el]o*cov /cal dpra/Sicov 2 KOI vavftiwv /cal dpiO/jLrjTi/ctov KOI
7ri/3o\r)s Kcourjs /cal /cara/cpiaaTcov Trdvrcov KOI TTCLVTOS et'Soi;?,
similarly line 31 f. /caOapa a[?ro] Srj/jioa-icov reXeo-adrcDv /cal
7ri,[fyp]a<j)(t)v TTCKTWV KOI apTa/3ia)v /cal vavftlwv /cal api0/jirjTiKoy
(32) [/cal eVt/3] 0X779 /c[cbfjbr)$ /cal /caraKpifjudr^cov TTOVTWV /cal
Tra^ro? ei'Sovs. Corresponding to this we have, in the deed of
sale PEE. clxxxviii. Hf. (Fayyum, 105-106 A.D.), KaOapa OLTTO
fjuev SrjfjLoo-icov reXeo-fjudruJV iravrwv /cal eiriypa^&v Trao-wv (15)
eTTt^oX?}? Ka>[fji]r/<; /cal \_/caTa]/c[pt]iJLdTO)v Trdvrcov /cal
7r[avr]6<s eibovs. It is obvious that in these passages /cara/cpi-
fLara is used technically : some kind of burdens upon a piece
of land must be meant. Wessely translates the first passage
thus : free of all debts, free of all arrears of public assessments of
all kinds, of ar tab ae- taxes, naubia-taxes, and taxes for the taking
1 Further particulars in Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 13 c (p. 44 f.).
2 Also in BU. 233 n to be thus read, not aprafrur [. . .].
N.92,93] LANGUAGE OF THE GREEK BIBLE. 265
of evidence (? Evidenzhaltungssteuern), of the additional pay-
ments of the village-communities in short, of all payments of
every kind ; in line 32 of the same Papyrus he again renders
[/caratc pt, fidr^v by taxes. We doubt the accuracy of these
renderings, though ourselves unable to interpret the word
with certainty. We, nevertheless, conjecture that it
signifies a burden ensuing from a judicial pronouncement
a servitude. One may perhaps render legal burden. We
are of opinion that the meaning poena condemnationem
sequens, which was accepted by earlier lexicographers, but
which is now no longer taken into consideration by Clavis s
and Cremer 8 a meaning in accordance with the above-
mentioned usage is particularly suitable in Rom. 8 1 ; cf.
Hesychius : Karatcp^d* Kardfcpio-^,
/jLapTVpOVfJLCU.
This word, especially the participle, is common in the
Acts of the Apostles and other early Christian writings, as a
designation of honour, viz., to be well reported of; similarly in
IMAe. 832 15 (Khodes, pre-Christian ?) papTvpr/Oevra KOI cne-
(fravwOevra, said of a priest of Athena ; 2 u (Rhodes, 51 A.D.)
KOI fiapTvprjOevrcov r&v dvbpwv, without doubt in the same
sense. We find this attribute of honour also in Palmyra : in
Waddington, 2606 a (second half of 3rd cent. A.D.), it is said
of a caravan-conductor fiaprvprjOevra VTTO r&v dp^e^Tropcov. 1
Here we have the construction with VTTO as in Acts 10 22 ,
16 2 , 22 12 . So in an Inscription from Naples, IGrSL 758
10 f. (second half of 1st cent. A.D.), ^e/napTvpr/^evov v<f>
Sid T6 Trjv TWV rpoTrwv
/caL
With the late pleonastic /cat after fierd in Phil 4 3 2
Blass 3 rightly compares avv icai in Clem. 1 Cor. 65 1 . In
the Papyri we have found pera /cai only in BU. 41 2 er. (4th
1 Quotation from Mommsen, Romische Geschichte, v. 4 , Berlin, 1894,
p. 429.
2 See 4 p. 64, note 2.
8 Or. des Neutest. Griechisch, p. 257. [Eng. Trans., p. 263.]
266 BIBLE STUDIES. [N.93,94
cent. A.D.); vvv /cai is more frequent, e.g., in the Fayyum
Papyri BU. 179 19 (reign of Antoninus Pius), 1 515 17 (193
A.D.), 362 vi.io (215 A.D.).
Neither Clavis 3 nor Thayer gives any authority earlier
than Polybius (t 122 B.C.) for the meaning pay ; it is only
when, guided by their reference, we consult Sturz, De Dial.
Mac., p. 187, that we find that, according to Phrynichus,
the comedian Menander (t 290 B.C.) had already used the
word in this sense. Soon afterwards, in the agreement (pre-
served in an Inscription) of King Eumenes I. with his
mercenaries, we find it used several times, Perg. 13 7. 13. u
(soon after 263 B.C.) always in the singular. Note in line 7
the combination o^awov \a^dveiv as in 2 Cor. 11 8 . The
singular is used in the Papyri for army pay, BU. 69 s
(Fayyum, 120 A.D.) ; for wages of the vSpofyvKcuces in 621 12
(Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.) ; for wages of the watchmen of the
vineyards in 14 v. 20 (Fayyum, 255 A.D.) ; the plural of the
wages of another workman 14 v. 7 ; the word is similarly
used in the passage iii. 27, but it is abbreviated, so that one
does not know whether it is singular or plural.
Cremer 8 , p. 467, in reference to the meaning remission
(important in respect of Rom. 3 25 ), observes that the word is
so used only in Dion. Hal., Antt. Eom. 7, 37, where it means
remission of punishment. It probably occurs in BU. 624 21
(Fayyum, reign of Diocletian) in the sense of remission of a
debt (cf. line 19 iepas prj d/xe'Xet ocf)i,\r)[s] * ic ) ; but it can only be
a temporary remission that is here spoken of. The diction
being concise and full of technical terms, the meaning is not
quite clear to us.
The few hitherto-known authorities for the word (in
1 Pet. I 18 ) are to be expanded by Perg. 248 49 (135-134 B.C.):
1 Improved reading in Supplement, p. 357. 2 Above, p. 148.
N.94,95] LANGUAGE OF THE GBEEK BIBLE. 267
Attalus writes in a letter to the council and people of Per-
gamus that his mother Stratonike has brought TOV Ala TOV
Sa/3d&ov TraTpoTrapdSoTov 1 to Pergamus.
Apart from Kev. 4 3 , Clams 3 gives no references at all.
Thayer adds Lucian. In PEE. xxvii. s (Fayyum, 190 A.D.)
the word is used to describe a woman's garment : emerald-green.
As in Acts 4 3 , 5 18 , imprisonment,* ward, also in BU. 388
iii. 7 (Fayyum, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.) e/ceXev&ev S/jidpayoov /cal
Evtccupov et9 Trjv Tqp7)(7iv 7rapao*o0r)vai.
T07T09.
With Acts 1 25 \aj3elv rbv TOTTOV rr)<; biaicovias ravTrjs /cal
a7roo-To\?}9 "Wendt 2 compares Sirach 12 12 . In the latter
passage it is one's place in life, generally, that is spoken of.
A more significant example referring as it does to a place
within a definitely closed circle is the technical use of the
word in a dedication of the Pergamenian association, con-
sisting of thirty-five or thirty-three members, of the vfivwSol
Oeov ZefiacrTov teal Oeas 'Poi/^ : Perg. 374 B 21 ff. (reign of
Hadrian) rot? Se dv[a]7ravofj,evoi,<; efc \if$avov Trpoxprfo-ei 6
(Syvdpia) ie ', a aTroX^-^rera^ irapa TOV efc TOV TOTTOV
etVtoi>T09. 3 Frankel, p. 266, translates : " The officer
(the Eukosmos) shall advance, for incense for those deceased,
15 denarii, which he shall withhold from the one who enters
the association in place of the departed ".
With T07T09 as sitting-place Luke 14 10 , cf. Perg. 618
(date*?), where TOTTOS probably means seat in a theatre;
Frankel, p. 383, names the following as indubitable instances
of this usage : GIG. 2421 = Lebas, ii. 2154 (Naxos) ; Lebas,
1724 e (Myrina), with a reference to Bohn-Schuchhardt,
Altertilmer von Aegae, p. 54, No. 7.
1 Stratonike came originally from Cappadocia.
2 Meyer, iii. e/7 (1888), p. 52.
3 Frankel, p. 267, remarks on this that ciVteVat ets rbv r6irov is used like
etVteVat efc apxV (e.g. Speech against Neaira, 72, Plutarch's Praec. Ger. Eeip.
813 D). 'Apx^J is similarly used in Jude 6 ; cf. LXX Gen. 40 21 .
IV.
AN EPIGEAPHIC MEMOEIAL OF THE
SEPTUAGINT.
airrbv K<H
AN EPIGEAPHIC MEMOEIAL OF THE SEPTUAGINT.
The Alexandrian translation of the Old Testament passed
from the sphere of Jewish learning after Hellenistic Judaism
had ceased to exist. Later on, the very existence of a Greek
translation was completely forgotten. 1 It is therefore all
the more interesting to follow the traces which reveal any
direct or indirect effects which the Septuagint had upon the
common people their thoughts and their illusions.
The materials for a knowledge of the popular religious
and ethical ideas of the Jews and Christians in the imperial
period are more? meagre than those which yield us the
thoughts of the cultured and learned. But those materials,
scanty though they be, have not as yet been fully worked.
Scholars are usually more interested in the theologians of
Tiberias, Alexandria, Antioch and Eome, than in such
people as found their edification in the "Apocryphal"
Legends, Gospels and Acts. But surely it is erroneous to
suppose that we have a satisfactory knowledge of the history
of religion when we have gained but a notion of the origin
and development of dogma. The history of religion is
the history of the religious feeling (Eeligiositat) not that of
theology, and as truly as religion is older than theology,
as truly as religion has existed in every age outside of
theology and in opposition to dogma, so imperious must
grow the demand that we shall assign a place in the gallery
of history to the monuments of popular piety. These are
1 Cf. L. Dukes, Literaturhistorische Mittheilungen tiber die &Uesten
hebraischen Exegeten, Grammatiker u. Lexikographen (Ewald & Dukes,
Beitrtige, ii.), Stuttgart, 1844, p. 53 ; Schiirer, ii., p. 700 fi. [Eng. Trans., ii.,
iii., p. 168 f.] ; J. Hamburger, Eeal-Encyclopadie fUr Bibel und Talmud, ii.,
Leipzig, 1883, p. 1234.
272 BIBLE STUDIES. [24
necessarily few. For while theology, and the religion of
theologians, have always been capable of asserting them-
selves, the religion of the people at large has not been
concerned to raise memorials of itself. Thus it is not to be
wondered at that the copious literature of theology should,
so far as appearance goes, stifle the insignificant remains of
the people's spontaneous expression of their religion, 1 not
to speak of the fact that much that was of value in the latter
was intentionally destroyed. That which was extra-theo-
logical and extra-ecclesiastical was looked upon by the official
theology as a priori questionable. Why, even at the present
day, most of those productions of ancient popular religion
come to us bearing the same stigma : we are accustomed
to think of them as Apocryphal, Heretical, Gnostic, and as
such to ignore them.
But those ideas, further, which we commonly designate
as Superstition 2 seem to the author to deserve a place in the
history of popular religion. The ordinary members of the
community, townsman and peasant, soldier and slave, went
on living a religious life of their own, 3 unaffected by the
theological tendencies around them. We may very well
doubt, indeed, whether that which moved their hearts was
religion in the same sense as Prophecy or the Gospel, but
their faith had received from the illustrious past the religious
temper, at least, of ingenuous and unquestioning childhood.
Their faith was not the faith of Isaiah or of the Son of Man-;
still, their " superstition " was not wholly forsaken of God.
A devout soul will not be provoked by their follies, for
throughout all their " heathenish " myth-forming and the
natural hedonism of their religion there throbbed a yearning
anticipation of the Divine.
The superstitions of the imperial period do not permit
1 A similar relation subsists in kind between the materials of literary
speech and of popular speech.
2 J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, ii. 3 , Gottingen, 1854, p. 1060, says
" Superstition formed in some ways a religion for the homes of the lower
classes throughout ".
8 Cf. P. Piper, Mythologie der christlichen Kunst, Erste Abth., Weimar,
1847, p. ix. f.
25] A SEPTUAG1NT MEMORIAL. 273
of being divided into the three classes : Heathen, Jewish,
Christian. There is frequently no such clear distinction
between the faith of the Heathen and the Jew and that of
the Christian. Superstition is syncretic in character : this
fact has been anew confirmed by the extensive recently-
discovered remains of the Literature of Magic. And yet it
is possible, with more or less precision, to assign certain
fragments of these to one of the three departments named.
The literary memorial which is to be discussed below
has been influenced in the most marked degree by the ideas
of Greek Judaism, or, what is practically the same, of the
Alexandrian Old Testament. After a few remarks about
the circumstances of its discovery, 1 the text itself is given.
The tablet of lead upon which the Inscription is scratched
comes from the large Necropolis of ancient Adrumetum, the
capital of the region of Byzacium in the Roman province
of Africa. The town lies on the coast to the south-east of
Carthage. In connection with the French excavations which
have been successfully carried on there for some time, the
rolled-up tablet was incidentally found by a workman in the
1 The author here follows the information which G. Maspero, the first
editor of the Inscription, gave in the Collections du Musie Alaoui, premiere
strie, 8 e livraison, Paris, 1890, p. 100 ff. A phototypic fac-simile of the tablet
forms the frontispiece of BIBELSTUDIEN. Only after the original issue of the
present work did the author learn of the sketch by Josef Zingerle in Philologus,
liii. (1894), p. 344, which reproduces the text from Revue archtologique, Hi t. xxi.
(1893), p. 397 ff. (Reprint from Collections du Musee Alaoui, i., p. 100 ff.) The
text has been discussed also by A. Hilgenfeld, Berl. Philol. Wochenschrift, xvi.
(1896), p. 647 ff.; R. Wiinsch, CIA. Appendix (1897), xvii. f. ; and L. Blau, Das
altjiidische Zauberwesen (1898), p. 96 ff. The tablet has been noticed (with obser-
vations by A. Dieterich) by F. Hiller von Gaertringen in the Sitzungsberichte
der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1898, p. 586. Cf. also Schiirer, 3 iii.,
p. 298 f. Individual textual conjectures and exegetic proposals are found in
the various critiques of the BIBELSTUDIEN. The author hopes subsequently
to take special advantage of the new exegetic material afforded by Hilgenfeld
and Blau in particular. In the following he has corrected his former reading
AofiiTiavav (line 6 ) to Aoftinav^v, an d (line ]5 ) 'Iva avr^v to 'Lv avrfyv. Hilgen-
feld's assertion (p. 648) that Ao^maj/V should be read throughout is erroneous.
18
274 BIBLE STUDIES. [26, 28
June of 1890 ; 1 he noticed it only when a prong of his mattock
had pierced the roll. This damaged the tablet in three places. 2
There were also other three holes in the lead probably
caused by a nail with which the roll had been perforated.
The tablet is thus damaged in six places, but the few letters
which are in each case destroyed permit, with one exception,
of being easily supplied.
We read the text thus 8 :
(re, SCM/JLOVIOV TTvevfJia rb evOdbe Kelpevov, TO> ovo-
TW ajia) AcoO
(a>\0 TOV Oebv TOV A/3paav Kal TOV laco TOV TOV
latcov,
Line 2, IOKOU : M. corr. 3 l((r)dKov.
1 In 1889 a tabula devotionis had been discovered in the Necropolis of
Adrumetum, and it was discussed by M. Breal and G. Maspero in the fifth
instalment of the Collections (1890) just cited; it, too, contains a love-spell,
but is, apart from a few Divine names, free from biblical ideas and phrases.
A third tablet of Adrumetum, the publication of which was prospectively
announced on the cover of the eighth instalment, has not yet been issued.
Professor Maspero of Paris, Member of the Institute of France, had the great
kindness to inform the author (16th April, 1894) that the contents of this
tablet and similar unpublished pieces were likewise non-Jewish. In GIL.
viii., Suppl. i. (1891), sub Nos. 12504-12511, there have recently been brought
together some tabula execrationum discovered in Carthage, of which the
last affords some parallels to our tablet : see below. Cf. now the copious
material collected by E. Wiinsch in the CIA. Appendix continens de-
fixionum tabellas in Attica regione repertas, Berlin, 1897 ; also M. Siebourg,
Ein gnostisches Goldamulet aus Gellep, in Banner Jdhrbttcher, Heft 103 (1898),
p. 123 ff.
2 We imagine that these are the three holes upon the right margin
of the tablet.
3 We have indicated the divergent readings of Maspero by M. The
numerous errors in accentuation which his text contains are not noted here.
Eestorations are bracketed [], additions (). We have left unaccented the
Divine names and the other transcriptions, not knowing how these were
accented by the writer of the tablet and the author of his original text. To
furnish them with the " traditional " accents given in the editions of the
Greek Bible, so far as the names in question occur there, serves no purpose,
to say nothing of the fact that these " traditional " accents themselves cannot
be scientifically authenticated. Cf. Winer-Schmiedel, 6, 8 6 (p. 75 f.). [Eng.
Trans., p. 59.]
28, 29] A SEPTtTAGINT MEMOEIAL. 275
Au>\6 Aft]aa)d Oebv TOV lo-papa* dicovo~ov TOV
4 & 5 /cal [<t>o(3]epov teal /jueydKov KOI airekOe irpbs TOV O(v)p-
ftavbv, ov T/c(e)v OvpjSavd, /cal a%ov avTov Trpbs rrjv
6 dofUTiavrfV, fjv ereicev K[av]Bi8a, ep&vra paivopevov
ra 7Ti rfj <$>i\lq avrfjs /cal liriOv^ia KOI Seopevov avrfjs
eiravekdelv
t? Trjv QiKiav avrov cvfjiftioly] ryeveo-Ocu. 'Op/ci^co ere TOV
debv
eTraitoVlov teal iravroKparopa rbv VTrep-
rwv
10 VTrepdvo) dewv. 'OpicL^to [<re] rbv Kriaavra TOV ovpavbv
/cal Trjv 6d-
\aa-o-av. 'Op/ci^o* <re TOV Sia^a^pia-avTa TOU? eu<76y8e?9.
'Op/cl^co <re
TOV Biaa-TtjaavTa Trjv pd/SBov ev TTJ 6a\do-(rr], aya/yelv /cal
^evj-ai
\rb\v Ovpffavbv, ov T/cev Ovpftava, 7r/>o? TTJV AofiiTiavav,
rjv T6/cev
, epwvTa ftaa-avL^o/jLevov dypujrvovvTa eVt Trj
av-
15 Trj<; /cat ep&Ti, Iva avTrjv a-v/j,/3iov andyy et9 TTJV oltciav
e r /- /
eavTov. Up/ci-
fco ere TOV Troiija-avTa TTJV rj^Lovov fir) Tetceiv. r Op/c%co <re
TOV Siopiffav-
Ta TO [0o>9J dirb TOV GKOTOVS. ^p/ci^co <re TOV a-wTplftovTa
ra? 7T6T/3a9.
'Op/ciQa) cr]e TOV a7ro(p)p^avTa TO, 0/077. 'Op/ci^ca ae TOV
<rvv<TTpe<f)ovTa TT)V
yrjv e[irl T]WV 6e^e\La)v avTr)<i. 'O/o/a'a> ere TO ayiov ovofia
o ov \eyeTai, ev
20 TO> [. . .]w \oi\vo^da-w avTo /cal ol Salfjuoves etfeyepO&a-iv
/cal irepL-
i, dyayeiv /cal %evi;ai vvpftiov TOV Ovp~
QV, OV TKV
Line 3 and line 39, I<rpa/ta : M. corr. 'l
Line 4, line 5 had to be commenced after fityaXov.
Line 20, T$[. . .]y : M ?$ (aSurJy.
276 BIBLE STUDIES. [29,30
Ovp/Bava, 717309 rr/v Aofjuriavav, fjv ereKev KavBiSa, tpwvra
Kal Beofie-
vov avrrfs, 77877 ra%v. 'OpKi^w <T6 rbv (frwcTTfjpa KOI acrrpa
ev ovpavo) iroiv]-
(ravra &ia (0)^779 7rpocrrd<y[fji]aTo<; wcrre <baiveiv rcaviv
25 e Opfcia) ere rbv (rvv(relGav\T]a Traaav rrjv oiKOVfjLevrjv KCLI
ra oprj
eKTpa^rfXi^ovTa Kal tc(3pd[]ovTa rbv Troiovvra KTpofj,ov
rrjv [y]rj-
v a7raa(av Kal) Kaivi^ovra Trdvras rou9 KaroiKovvras. c Op-
KL^W ere rbv ITOIJ]-
a-avra o-yfjuela ev ovpavw K[CU\ eirl 77)9 Kal 0a\do-crr)$,
dryajelv Kal %ev%ai
Gviiftiov rov Ovpfiavbv, ov e\r\eKev Ovp/3avd, Trpbs rrjv
AoiLinavaV) rjv
30 ereKev KavSiSa, epwvra avrfjs Kal dypVTrvovvra 7rl ry
eTTiOvfjiLa av-
r^9 Se6fj,evov avrrjs Kal epwrwvra avrrjv, Iva eiravekOrj
t9 rrjv olKiav
[a]vrov <rvfjL/3io$ <yvo/j,ewr). 'OpKi^co are rbv Qebv rbv fjieyav
rbv al(o-
[vi]ov Kal TravroKpdropa, ov $>o(Belrai opij Kal vaTrat KaO'
oXrjv [r~\r)V ol-
Ko[v]/Jie[v]r)v, Si ov b Xe&v a^urja-iv rb apTray/JLa Kal ra
opt] rpefiet
35 Ka[l r] 777] Kal fj OaKatraa, e-aerro9 lod\\erai ov
^0^09 rov Kvpiov
a\lwviov} ddavdrov iravre^birrov jjLio-OTrovrjpov e
fievov ra
[<yevb[JLGV\a dyaOa Kal KaKa Kal Kara QaKacracuv Kal TTO-
ra/jLOV? Kal ra oprj
Ka[l rr)v 7]^, A&6 Aftacod rbv 6ebv rov Aftpaav Kal
rbv [I]a&) TO^ rov laKov,
Ia[ft>] Aa>0 AffacoO Oebv rov lapafia a^ov %evf;ov rbv
Ovp/Bavbv, ov
Line 27, /cat before Kaivl^ovra had fallen out by hemigraphy.
Line 33, to: M. o5.
Line 35, e/cotrros (in place of the sKturrov of the original) ISaAAero. : M.
bv Ka.<rros fl
30, 31] A SEPTUAGINT MEMORIAL. 277
40 6T6K6V Ovp(3a(va), 7T/309 TT)V AofllTLavaV, fy 6T6K6V KaV-
$i$a, epwvra
/jLai[i>]6[jL6vov ftacravifyiJbevov eirl Ty fytXiq /cat epcort ical
eTTiO villa
v 6T6Kv avia, %v%ov avrovs
teal
TO)
<TQV av-
TOV 6t>
45 yvvalfca firjre TrapOevov eTriOvfJLOvvra, JJLOVTJV e rr)v Ao-
T/cev
avrcov
Sr) Ta%v
Line 44, #AA7j[V] : M. ^re.
Keeping up the formal peculiarities of the text, we may,
perhaps, translate it as follows :
" I adjure thee, demonic spirit, who dost rest here,
with the sacred names Aoth Abaoth, by the God of
Abraan and the Jao of Jaku, the Jao Aoth Abaoth,
the God of Israma : hearken to the glorious and fearful
4 & 5 and great name, and hasten to Urbanus, whom Urbana
bore, and bring him to Domitiana, whom Candida bore,
so that he, loving, frantic, sleepless with love of her
and desire, may beg her to return to his house and
become his wife. I adjure thee by the great God, the
10 eternal and more than eternal and almighty, who is
exalted above the exalted Gods. I adjure thee by Him
who created the heaven and the sea. I adjure thee by
him who separates the devout ones. I adjure thee by
him who divided his staff in the sea sic , that thou bring
Urbanus, whom Urbana bore, and unite him with Domit-
iana, whom Candida bore, so that he, loving, tormented,
sleepless with desire of her and with love, may take her
15 home to his house as his wife. I adjure thee by him
who caused the mule not to bear. I adjure thee by
him who divided the light from the darkness. I adjure
278 BIBLE STUDIES. [32
thee by him who crusheth the rocks. I adjure thee by
him who parted the mountains. I adjure thee by him
who holdeth the earth upon her foundations. I adjure
20 thee by the sacred Name which is not uttered ; in the
[ ] I will mention it and the demons will be startled,
terrified and full of horror, that thou bring Urbanus,
whom Urbana bore, and unite him as husband with
Domitiana, whom Candida bore, and that he loving
may beseech her ; at once ! quick ! I adjure thee by
him who set a lamp and stars in the heavens by the
command of his voice so that they might lighten all
25 men. I adjure thee by him who shook the whole world,
and causeth the mountains to fall and rise, who causeth
the whole earth to quake, and all her inhabitants to
return. I adjure thee by him who made signs in the
heaven and upon the earth and upon the sea, that thou
bring Urbanus, whom Urbana bore, and unite him as
30 husband with Domitiana, whom Candida bore, so
that he, loving her, and sleepless with desire of her,
beg her and beseech her to return to his house as his
wife. I adjure thee by the great God, the eternal and
almighty, whom the mountains fear and the valleys in
35 all the world, through whom the lion parts with the
spoil, and the mountains tremble and the earth and the
sea, (through whom) every one becomes wise who is
possessed with the fear of the Lord, the eternal, the
immortal, the all-seeing, who hateth evil, who knoweth
what good and what evil happeneth in the sea and the
rivers and the mountains and the earth, Aoth Abaoth ;
by the God of Abraan and the Jao of Jaku, the
Jao Aoth Abaoth, the God of Israma, bring and unite
40 Urbanus, whom Urbana bore, with Domitiana, whom
Candida bore, loving, frantic, tormented with love and
affection and desire for Domitiana, whom Candida bore;
unite them in marriage and as spouses in love for the
whole time of their life. So make it that he, loving,
45 shall obey her like a slave, and desire no other wife or
maiden, but have Domitiana alone, whom Candida
33] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOEIAL. 279
bore, as his spouse for the whole time of their life,
at once, at once ! quick, quick ! "
EXPLANATION.
The tablet, as is shown not only by its place of origin
(the Necropolis of Adrumetum belongs to the second and
third centuries, A.D. ; the part in which the tablet was
found is fixed in the third), but also by the character of the
lettering, is to be assigned to the third century, 1 that is
to determine it by a date in the history of the Greek Bible
about the time of Origen.
Maspero includes it among the Imprecation-tablets
(Devotions- oder Defixionstafeln) not infrequently found in
ancient tombs. 2 A leaden tablet, rolled up like a letter,
was placed in the tomb with the dead, in order, as it were,
to let it reach the residence of the deities of the underworld ;
to their vengeance was delivered the enemy whose destruction
was desired. 3 This tablet, however, contains no execrations
against an enemy, but is a love-spell 4 dressed in the form of
an energetic adjuration of a demon, by means of which a
certain Domitiana desires to make sure' of the possession of
her Urbanus. The technical details of the spell have no
direct significance for our subject ; we are interested only in
the formulae by which the demon is adjured. It is upon
these, therefore, that the greatest stress will be laid in the
following detailed explanation.
We may at once take for granted that these formulas
were not composed by Domitiana herself. She copied them,
or had them copied, from one of the many current books of
Magic, and in doing so had her own name and that of the
1 Maspero, p. 101.
2 Cf. upon these A. Dieterich most recently, Fleckeisen's Jahrbb. Suppl.
xvi., p. 788 E. ; as regards the literature cf. also GIL. viii., Suppl. i., p. 1288,
and specially Wunsch, CIA. Appendix (1897).
3 Cf. M. Breal, in the fifth instalment of the already-cited Collections
(1890), p. 58.
4 On this species of Magic cf. the instructive citations of E. Kuhnert,
Feuerzauber, Rhein. Museum fur Philologie, N. F. t vol. xlix. (1894), p. 37 ff.
280 BIBLE STUDIES. [34
person loved inserted at the respective places. To conclude
from the biblical nature of the formulae she used, that she
must have been a Jewess, or even a Christian, 1 would be a
precarious inference it seems to the author more probable that
she and Urbanus, to judge from their names perhaps slaves or
emancipated 2 persons, were " heathens ". 3 Quite ingenuously
the love-sick girl applied the spell, which her adviser asserted
to be of use in love-troubles just because it so stood, black on
white, in the " Books ". On this assumption the historical
value of the formulae is increased, for the formulae thus em-
ployed in the third century must have been extracted by the
writer of the book in question at a certainly much earlier
date 4 from the Alexandrian Old Testament. In the Magic
books now in Paris, Leiden and London, which were in the
main composed before the third century, we find quite a
multitude of similar adjurations compiled from biblical
materials, and the task of subjecting these to a critical sur-
vey is well worth while. 5 It would thus, for the reasons
indicated, be a mistake, as the author thinks, to add this
tablet to the proofs of the presence of Jews westwards of
1 Maspero, p. 107 f. 2 Ibid., p. 107.
3 This is directly supported by the fact that several of the best-known
Bible names in the tablet are corrupt ; they have been incorrectly copied.
Cf. the Explanation.
4 Cf. p. 323.
5 C. Wessely, On the spread of Jewish-Christian religious ideas among
the Egyptians, in The Expositor, third series, vol. iv. (London, 1886), No.
xxi. (incorrectly xiii. on the part), pp. 194-204. Further in A. Dieterich,
Abraxas, p. 136 ff. ; Blau, p. 112 ff. ; Schiirer, 3 iii., p. 298 ff. A small col-
lection of Hellenistic-Jewish invocations of God, which might be made
on the basis of the Magic Papyri and Inscriptions, would be, in consideration
of the relatively early period of their composition, certainly not without
interest as regards the LXX-Text. Reference may also be made here to
the biblical passages found in the Inscriptions. The author is unaware
whether these have been treated of collectively from the standpoint of textual
criticism. They are also instructive for the history of the way in which the
Bible has been used. In very few cases will they be found to have been
derived from direct biblical readings. Beginnings of the task here indicated
have been made by E. Bohl, Theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 1881, p. 692 ff., and
E. Nestle, ibid., 1883, p. 153 f. Materials from the Inscriptions have recently
been largely added to.
35, 36] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOEIAL. 281
Cyrenaica, a collection of which has been made by Schiirer ]
so far as regards the imperial period.
In detail, the following observations must be made :
Line 1 f. It is the ^ai^oviov irvevfia of the tomb in
which or upon which the spell was laid that is addressed.
That the ^aipovia stay beside the grave is an idea of post-
biblical Judaism : these demons of the tomb help men in the
practice of Magic. 2 It is in the Papyri a frequently given
direction, to make sure of the assistance of a spirit who resides
in the grave of a murdered person or of one who has in any
other way perished unfortunately. 3 op/ci^co rw ovofjuari TCO
dyio) : cf. 1 (3) Esd. I 48 , opKio-Bels TW ovo^ari /cvpiov; for TO
ovo^a TO ayiov, exceedingly frequent in "biblical" Greek,
specially in Lev., Pss. and Ezek., particular references are
unnecessary. A o> : a Divine name in Magic, not infrequent
in the Papyri; in the Clavis Melitonis 4 it is "explained"
as gloriosus. As in Pap. Lond. xlvi. i34, 5 so also here it stands
in connection with AjSacaO, likewise a Magical Divine name.
rbv 6eov rov Aftpaav: opxl^eiv nvd = to adjure by any
one, as in Mark 5 7 , Acts 19 13 . The God of Abraham, etc., is
the solemn biblical designation of God. We thought it
well to leave the form AfBpaav in the text, as it is sig-
nificant for the nationality of the writer of the tablet : a Jew
would hardly have written it so. Domitiana or the obliging
magician did not know the word. The writer of Pap. Lugd.
1 ii., p. 504 ( = 3 iii., p. 26). [Eng. Trans., ii., ii., p. 231, note 48.]
2 Hamburger, ii., p. 283. We may compare trie idea of the Gospels,
that demons reside in lonely and desert regions (Matt. 12 43 ) ; the faQpuiros tv
Tn/eu/tcm aKaQdprtf had his dwelling among the tombs (Mark 5 3 ). In
Baruch 4 35 , devastated cities are already recognised as dwelling-places of
demons.
3 Maspero, p. 105. It was believed that the soul of such a person had
to hover about the grave so long as he should have lived had not his life come
to an untimely end (Maspero, ibid.}. With reference to the notion as a whole
cf. E. Rohde, Psyche, Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen,
Freiburg in Baden and Leipzig, 1894, p. 373 f. ( = 2 ii., p. 410 f.) ; also
Kuhnert, p. 49.
4 In J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmcnse, iii., Paris, 1855, p. 305,
5 Kenyon, p. 69.
282 BIBLE STUDIES. [36, 37
J 384, ix. 7 1 has made a similar corruption where he, in the
midst of a long series of Magical Divine names, writes
A/Bpaav, TOV Io-a/c, TOV latcfcwfii; so also Codex B (Birch)
has Aftpaav in Luke 3 34 . The interchanging of //, and v at
the end of Semitic words is to be frequently seen elsewhere ;
see below, p. 310 f. TOV lam TOV TOV laicov: on law see
below, p. 324 ; observe the article here. la/cov was likewise
left as it was ; probably it is a corruption of laaicov ; 2 even
Josephus Graecises the simple transcription, as with most
proper names; laa/c or la-aa/c he gives as
Line 3f. TOV I a papa-, clearly a corruption of
arising from a copyist's error; the A might easily become
A. The use of the solemn designation the God of Abraham,
of Isaac and of Jacob is exceedingly Common in the Magical
formulae. 3 These names, according to Origen, had to be left
untranslated in the adjurations if the power of the incantation
was not to be lost. 4 arcovo-ov TOV ov6/j,aTo<$ evTijiov
KOI (froftepov teal fj,eyd\ov: LXX Deut. 28 58 , fyoftela-Oai
TO ovopa TO evTifjuov TO OavjjLaaTov TOVTO (cf. also Ps. 71 [72] w ,
ovopa evTtfjLov said of a human name) ; Ps. 110 [111] 9 ,
1 A. Dietericli, Fleckeisen's Jahrbb. Suppl. xvi., p. 810; Leemans, ii.,
p. 31.
2 The form might also be a corruption of Io/covj8, Pap. Lond. cxxi. 049
(see below, p. 324), and Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 2224 (Wessely, i., p. 100) ; similarly
in a leaden tablet from Carthage published by A. L. Delattre, Bulletin de
correspondance helUnique, xii. (1888), p. 300 = GIL. viii., Suppl. i., No. 12511.
But the other assumption is supported by the following I<rpo/ta ( = lffpat]\
= Io/cw/8).
3 C/., for instance, the Gem found in ancient Cyrenaica Baudissin,
Studien, i., p. 193. Further particulars, especially also patristic authorities,
in B. Heim, Incantamentamagica Oraeca Latina ; Fleckeisen's Jahrbb. Suppl.
xix. (1893), p. 522 ff.
4 Contra Celsum, v. 45 (Lomm., xix., p. 250 f.) : ical &t> i^v 6 KaX&v % 6
dpKuv ovofjid^r) Oebv 'Afipab./* /col Oebv 'Icroa/c /col Oebv'IaK&fi rdSe rivet iroffj<rai av tfrot
Sick rfyv rovruv <pv<riv ^ /col Svva/jiiv avrwv /col Hai/jidiscw viKca^vtov /col i>TroraTTO/j.V(i>v
rip \eyovri TOVTO. 'Eoi' Se Ae-y?; 6 Qebs irarpbs e/cA6KTou rrjs r^oDs /col 6 0ebs TOV
yf\d)TOS /cal 6 Of'bs TOV TTTepviffrov ovrias ovSev irote? Tb 6vo/j.a^6/j.vov, &s ouS' &\\o
ri rS>v /jL-nSf/uiiav Svvafjiiv IXOVTUV. Cf. ibid., i. 22, and iv. 33, and also G,
Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss auf das Christentum.
GSttingen, 1894, p. 96.
37, 38] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOEIAL. 283
TO ovofjia avrov, similarly Ps. 98 [99] 3 ; TO ovopa TO peya of
the name of God, Ps. 98 [99] 3 , Ezek. 36 23 , cf. Ps. 75 [76] 2
and Is. 33 21 ; the combination peyas KOI <f>ofSepo$ is very
frequently applied to God in the LXX : Deut. 10 17 ,
1 Chron. 16 25 , Neh. I 5 , 4 14 , Ps. 46 [47] 3 , 88 [89] 8 , 95
[96] 4 , Sirach 43 29 .
Lines 4-8. The persons named, as has been said, were
probably slaves or had been emancipated. An Ovpftavos is
found also in Eom. 16 9 ; he was a Christian of Ephesus, 1
and is distinguished by Paul with the title of honour
crvvepyos. The consistent annexation of the name of the
person's mother is stereotyped in the Magic formulae, and
manifests itself up to a late period. 2 The directions found
in the Magic Papyri exhibit this pattern in innumerable ex-
amples ; the construction is such that the particular person's
name requires only to be inserted instead of the provisional o
Belva, ov Tfcev 77 Seiva. aypwirvew eirl'. cf. LXX Prov. 8 34 ,
Job 21 32 . <rt//z/3to9: as to the usage of this word, especi-
ally in Egyptian Greek, attention should be paid to the col-
lection of W. Brunet de Presle, 3 which may be extended by
many passages in the Berlin Papyrus documents now in
course of publication. The word is common among the
Christians later on.
Line 8 i. TOV fieyav 6eov TOV alcoviov: LXX Is.
26 4 , o $60? o /ieya? o alwvtos ; cf. Is. 40 28 , Sus. 42 . eTraicoviov :
LXX Exod. 15 18 , Kvpio? /3ao-i\vo)v TOV alwva KOI eV al&va
teal Ti. TravTo/cpaTopa, very frequent in LXX. TOV
v7Tpdv(o TCOV v7Tpdvco dewv. cf. LXX Ezek. 10 19 , Kal
Oeov y I<Tparjj\ f)v eV CLVT&V (the cherubim) vTrepdvw,
1 If Eom. 16 is [or belongs to] a letter to Ephesus.
2 Particulars in Kuhnert, p. 41, note 7. With regard to the later
Jewish usage, cf. Schwab, Coupes d inscriptions magiques in the Proceedings
of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, xiii. (1890-91), p. 585 f., and J. Wohlstein,
Uber einige aramdische Inschriften auf Thongefcissen des kgl. Museums zu
Berlin, in the Zeitschrift filr Assyriologie, viii. (1893), p. 331, and ix. (1894)
p. 19 f.
3 Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la biblioth&que imp&riale, vol. xviii.
pt. 2, Paris, 1865, p. 425.
284 BIBLE STUDIES. [38, 39
similarly 11 22 ; and with the idea, fofiepos eanv tVt iravias
TOL/? 0eou9, Ps. 95 [96] 4 . 1
Line 10 f. TOV KTIGCLVTO, TOV ovpavov /cal Tr/v
Od\ao-crav; an echo of Gen. I 1 , not in expression, 2 but in
sense, like LXX Gen. 14 19 - 22 , 1 [3] Esd. 6 13 , Bel 5 , cf. Kev.
10 6 , and with this LXX Ps. 145 [146] 6 . The collocation
Heaven and sea instead of Heaven and earth is surprising in
this connection, but it is not foreign to the O.T. An exhaus-
tive collection of the many variants echoes of Gen. I 1
for Creator of the heavens and the earth in Judseo-Hellenistic
and early Christian literature which have become formulaic,
would be an important contribution to the history of the text
of the " Apostolic " Symbol.
Line 11. TOV Siaxwpia-avra rou? eucre^et? can
only mean, he who separates the devout ones, i.e., from the
godless ; Sia^wpi^co = to separate from is common in the
LXX. The passage is an allusion to Sir. 36 [33] llff - eV
7r\rjdei, e7rio-Trj/jt,rj<; icvpios St,e%a)pio-ev avTovs (men) : so we have
the contrast anrkvcuvri eva-eftovs a/naprcoXd? (in ver. 14 ).
Line 12. TOV SiaaTrjo-avTa TTJV pd/SSov ev Ty da-
Xdcro-y, literally, he who divides his staff in the sea. This is,
of course, meaningless ; the first writer of the incantation,
without doubt, wrote inversely : TOV iao-Tr]cravTa TTJV Od\acr-
crav ev Ty pd/Sby or Tfj pdpq>, who divided the sea with his staff,
an allusion in sense to LXX Exod. 14 15 f - : eZ?re Be tcvpios 777)05
Ma)i)(rr}v' . . . Kal av eirapov TTJ pd/BSw crov /cal e/CTeivov TTJV ^etpd
aov eTrl TTJV 6d\ao-orav /cal prj^ov avTr]v, with the difference
that in the Bible it is Moses who lifts the staff though of
course at God's command. In regard to form its similarity
with Theodotion Ps. 73 [74] 13 : 3 av (God) Sie'emjo-a? ev T$
1 With regard to the whole expression, cf. the passage of the afore-
mentioned leaden tablet from Carthage in Bull, de corr. hell., xii., 302 = GIL.
viii., Suppl. i., No. 12511 : e|op/ci^co vjj.as Kara TOV tira.vu> TOV ovpavov 6eov TOV
KaOiJuevov eirl T&V x*povfii, 6 Sioptffas rV yyv Ka\ xoplvas fty OdAaffffav, law KT\.
The nominatives are illustrative of the formal rigidity of these expressions.
2 Aquila alone has e/crto-ej/ (P. Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt
2.tom%, Oxonii, 1875, i., p. 7).
15 Field, ii., p. 217.
89,40] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOKIAL. 285
&wd/j,i o-ov T7]v Od\ao-crav, with which should be compared
LXX Exod. 15 8 : Kal ICL Trvev^aro^ TOV OV/JLOV o~ov BiecrTTj TO
vBwp . . . eTrdyrj TO, Kv^ara TT)<; daXacro-rjs. The miracle at
the Ked Sea, so frequently celebrated in the Psalms and
elsewhere, is also alluded to in other Magical formulae. 1 See
under eV, above, Art. ii., upon the possible ev rfj pdfi&w.
Line 16. TOV iroirjcravra TTJV TJ/JLIOVOV fjurj Te/ceiv,
a most peculiar designation of God. It does not occur, as
such, in the Old Testament, but the underlying idea of God's
providentia specialissima for the animals is very similarly ex-
pressed in the sublime address of Jahweh to the doubting
Job (Job 38 ff.) ; c/., in particular, 39 *" 3 : Knowest thou the time
when the wild goats of the rock bring forth ? Or canst thou mark
when the hinds do calve ? Canst thou number the months that they
fulfil, or knowest thou the time when they bring forth ? They
bow themselves, they bring forth their young, they cast out their
sorrows. It is God who directs all this. Just as He gives
young to the wild goats and the hinds, so, the present passage
would say, He has made the mule to be barren. The barren-
ness of the mule is often mentioned in the Mishna ; 2 it was
manifestly a fact of great interest in the Jewish Philosophy
of Nature, as also in Greek and Latin authors : 3 Plin. Nat.
Hist. viii. 173 : observatum ex duobus diver sis generibus nata tertii
generis fieri et neutri parentium esse similia, eaque ipsa quae sunt
ita nata non gignere in omni animalium genere, idcirco mulas non
par ere. When Zopyrus was besieging Babylon he received,
according to Herod, iii. 153, the oracle eTredvrrep rjplovoi, re/cw-
crw, Tore TO ret%05 aktocrecrQai. The partus of a mule was
reckoned a prodigium : Cic. de Div. ii. 2249, 28 ei, Liv. xxxvii.
3s, Juv. xiii. 64, Sueton. Galba, 4, and this explains the
Eoman proverb cum mula peperit, i.e., never. Then the fact
played a great part in incantations. Gargilius Martialis
1 Cf. A. Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 139 f.
2 Hamburger, i. 3 (1892), p. 735.
3 Heim, 493 f. The passages which follow, to which the author's
notice was directed by A. Dieterich, are taken from Heim. Cf. also Centuria
illustrium quaestionum . . . a Joh. Jac. Hermaivno, Herbornensi, Herbornae
Nassoviorum, 1615, decas septima, quaestio quinta.
286 BIBLE STUDIES. [40, 4i
(third cent. A.D.) in de cum bourn 19 (ed. Schuch) l hands
down the following healing charm : nee lapis lanam fert, nee
lumbricus oculos habet, nee mula parit utriculum ; similarly
Marcellus (fifth cent. A.D.), De Medicam. viii. 191 (ed. Helm-
reich) : 2 nee mula parit nee lapis lanam fert nee huic morbo
caput crescat aut si creverit tabeseat, and a Codex Vossianus ed.
Piechotta Anecd. lat. clxx. : 8 " quod mula non parit " et exspues,
" nee cantharus aquam bibit " et exspues, " nee palumba denies
habet " et exspues, " sic mihi denies non doleant " et expues.
Finally, reference must be made to a passage in the Leiden
copy of the Codex Corbeiensis of Vegetius, 4 which gives the
formula : focus alget, aqua sitit, cibaria esurit, mula parit, tasca
masca venas omnes. But what comes nearest to our passage
is a sentence preserved in a poem of the Codex Vindobonensis,
93 : 5 herbula Proserpinacia, Horci regis filia, quomodo clausisti
mula partum, sic claudas et undam sanguinis huius, and in a
still more instructive form in the Codex Bonnensis, 218 (66 a) : 6
herbula Proserpinatia, Horci regis filia, adiuro te per tuas virtutes,
ut quomodo clausisti partum mulae, claudas undas sanguinis huius.
Strange as at first sight the affirmation thus made of God
may appear in connection with the others, we now see that
in an incantation it is least of all strange. The Jewish com-
piler of our text borrowed it from pagan sources, probably
unconsciously but perhaps intentionally using a biblical
phrase and, indeed, the intention did not directly oppose
the biblical range of thought.
Line 16 f. rbv SiopicravTa TO <>><? CLTTO rov
cf. LXX Gen. 1 4 , real Ste^oopta-ev 6 #eo? ava pkaov rov
KOI ava /j,e<rov TOV GTKOTOVS similarly Gen. 1 18 . The compiler
quotes freely : $t,opi%eiv, frequent elsewhere in the LXX, also
with OLTTO, does not stand in any of the Greek translations of
this passage. It is significant that he has avoided the repeated
" between," a Hebraism taken over by the LXX.
1 Ehim, 493 f . 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
4 In M. Ihm, Incantamenta magica, Eh. Mus. f. Phil., N. F., xlviii,
(1893), p. 635.
5 Heim, pp. 488, 547. Ibid., p. 554.
41, 42] A SEPTUAGINT MEMORIAL. 287
Line 17. rbv o-vvrpifiovTa ra? ireTpas : an echo
in form of LXX 1 Kings 19 n , irvevpa fjue'ya . . a-vvrplftov
Trerpas evtoinov Kvpiov : cf. IjXX Nah. 1 6 , KOI at irerpat, &e-
0pv/3r)<rav air avrov.
Line 18. rbv aTroppijgavra rd oprj: cf. LXX Ps.
77 [78] 15 Btepp^e irerpav ev e>^>, similarly Ps. 104 [105] 41 ;
parallels to the thought are easily found.
Line 18 f. rbv a-vvarpe^ovra rrjv yfjv CTTL rwv
6efj,e\ia)v avTTJs: o-va-rpe^o), current in the LXX, though
not in this connection ; ra Oe^ekia r?}? 7779 is likewise
frequent. With regard to the sense, cf. LXX Prov. 8 29
la"Xypd 67TOL6L rd 6epe\ia rrjs 7779, and the common phrase
e^e/zeXt&xre rrjv yfjv.
Line 19 ff. opxi^co a-e TO ayiov ovopa o ov
\eyerai>': It is possible to doubt this punctuation. Mas-
pero writes o ov \eyercu ev -r<$ d&i>Tq>, but if the reading a8vr<p
is correct, then, with his punctuation, the thought would be
in direct opposition to the Jewish view, for the Temple was just
the one place in which the name of God could be pronounced ;
Philo, De Vit. Mos. iii. 11 (M., p. 152), says . . ovofiaros o
/jLovois Tot9 wra Kal ^\(arrav (rofylq Keica6apfj,evoi,<$ Oe^is aicoveiv
Kal \eyeiv ev ayiois, aXXw Be ovSevl TO Trapdirav ovBa/Aov. The
Mischna, Tamid, vii. 2, 1 has "In the Temple the name of
God is pronounced as it is written ; in the land [elsewhere]
another title is substituted ". We consider it absolutely
impossible that any one having any kind of sympathy with
Judaism whatever could assert that the holy name was
not pronounced in the Temple. If the word read by Maspero
as dSvrq) can be made out at all which to us, judging
at least from the fac-simile, appears impossible then, if it
is to be read after o ov \eyerat,, it must be a general term of
place such as /coa^a) or Xaw ; if, again, it is to be connected
with the following ovo/judo-a) avro, then ev ro> dBvro) were
meaningless, or at least very singular. Of which Temple
could the Jewish compiler be thinking? Can it be that he
1 Hamburger, i. 3 , p. 53; Schtirer, ii., p. 381 ( = 3 ii., p. 458). [Eng.
Trans., ii., ii., p. 82 ; note 143.]
288 fclBLE STUDIES. [42, 43
wrote before the destruction of the Temple'? 1 We would
therefore propose to consider o ov \6yerai as a clause by
itself: it expresses the well-known Jewish idea that the
name of God is an ovopa apprjrov, see LXX Lev. 24 16
oi>o//,ao)i> Se TO ovofia /cvpiov 6avdr<p Bavarovadw ; Josephus,
Antt. ii. 12 4 : KOI o 6eo<$ avrco o-rjfjbaivei rrjv eavrov Trpoo-rjyopiav
ov TTporepov et? dv0pct)7rovs 7rape\0ovo-av, irepl 979 ov pot
ev TW [. . .] ovofjLcio-a) avro /cal ol
0afjL/3oi, /cal
How the lacuna after ev rw is to be filled up the present
writer does not know, and he will make no conjectures ; thus
much only is probable, viz., that what stood there was a
designation of place or time. The magician utters the
severest possible threat against the demon ; he will, in order
to win him over, pronounce the unutterable Name of God,
the very sound of which fills the demons with shudder-
ing and dread. That demons and spirits are controlled by
the mention of sacred names has remained to the present
day one of the most important ideas in magic. 3 We have
no direct example of this in the LXX, but we can point to
James 2 19 as being valid for biblical times, /cal TO, SaLpovia
TricrTevovo'iv /cal (frpicrcrovo'iv, which presupposes the same
fearful impression upon the demons of the thought of God.
With this is to be compared Pap. Lond. xlvi. sof. 4 (fourth cent.
A.D.), where the Demon is adjured Kara rwv $PIKT&V o
TCOV, just as Josephus, Bell. Jiid. v. 10 3, speaks of the
ovopa rov Beov. The overwhelming effect of the Divine name
upon the Demons was a very familiar idea in post-biblical
Judaism. 5
1 Moreover, &SVTOV is very infrequent in " biblical " literature ; it is found
only in LXX 2 Ohron. 33 14 , Cod. A.
2 Cf, Hamburger, i. 8 , p. 52 ff., with reference to the point as viewed by
post-biblical Judaism.
3 And not in magic only !
4 Kenyon, p. 68 ; Wessely, i., p. 129. More definitely still in Pap.
Lugd. J 384, iv. iif. (Fleck. Jbb. Suppl. xvi., p. 800; Leemans, ii., p. 17):
4yeiv A.oo6 or
6 Cf., e.g., Hamburger, ii., pp. 283 and 75 ; also J. A. Eisenmenger,
Entdecktes Judenthum, 1700, i., p. 165 ; the present author cites this work
43, 44] A SEPTUAGINT MEMORIAL. 289
Line 23. 77877 T%U, cf. line 47, 77877 77877 ra%v
a very frequent concluding formula in the incantations, 1 which
is still seen, e.g., on Coptic amulets of the 5th-6th and
llth centuries ; 2 it is also to be restored, of course, at the
end of the previously-cited Inscription from Carthage. 3
for ra^e&)9 is very common in the LXX.
Line 23 f. TOV ^wa-rrjpa KOI darpa ev ovpavq*
: LXX Gen. I 16f> , KOI eiroLrja-ev 6 0eo9i Toi9 8uo
<f)(t)(rr'fjpas Tot>9 fieyd\ov<; . . . KOI TOU9 acrrepas. The single
4>a)(7TJjp mentioned in the Tablet, since it is associated with
the stars, is probably the moon ; the moon is also named
</>o>o-T77/o by Aquila and Symmachus, Ps. 73 [74] 16 . 4 Si a
<t>c0vf]<; Trpoa-Tary paras avrov: the acts of creation take
place at the command of God LXX Ps. 32 [33] 9 , on
auT09 eZ-Tre /cal eyevrjOycrav, avros evereikaro KCLL e/cria-Orjo-av ;
in respect of form should be compared the not infrequent
phrases of the LXX, 8ta (jxuvfjs /cvpiov and Sid Trpoo-rdy/jLaros
/cvpiov. Observe the so-called " Hebraising " periphrasis 5 of
the preposition Sid by Sia (fxovfjs, which a Greek might feel
to be a pleonasm, but which is not altogether un-Greek.
wcrre fyaiveiv iraa-tv dvOptoTrot,?: LXX Gen. I 17 icai
according to the copy in his possession, which was ostensibly printed in
the year after the birth of Christ 1700, but aa it announces itself as Des sic
bey 40. Jahr von der Judenschafft mit Arrest bestrickt gewesene, nun-
mehro aber Durch Autoritat eines Hohen Eeichs-Vicariats relaxirte Johann
Andrea Eisenmengers . . . Entdecktes Judenthum, it could manifestly have
been printed at the earliest in 1740. The explanation probably is that, in
the copies of the edition of 1700 (cf. C. Siegfried in the Allg. deutschen Bio-
graphic, v. [1877], p. 772 ff .), the interdict on which was cancelled about 1740,
the original title-page was supplanted by the present misleading one.
1 Cf. Wessely's Index sub ^TJ.
2 J. Krall, Koptische Amulete, in Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der
Papyrus Erzherzog Bainer V. Vienna, 1892, pp. 118, 121.
3 Delattre, in Bulletin de correspondance helttnique, xii. (1888), p. 302,
takes from the unmistakeable HAHHAHTAXTTA the extraordinary reading
" ^5?7, ^STJ, TO.VTO. (?) ".
4 Field, ii., p. 218.
B Cf. A. Buttmann, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachgebrauchs,
Berlin, 1859, pp. 78, 158, 162, 273 f. As to the questionableness of commonly
asserting such periphrases to be "Hebraising," see above II.,
19
290 BIBLE STUDIES [44, 45
eOeTo avrovs 6 Oebs ev TW crrepeco/jiaTi TOV ovpavov ware <j>aiveiv
eVt T?}9 7*79.
Line 25 f. TOV avva-eLa-avra iraa-av rrjv ol/cov-
fjLevrjv : LXX Ps. 59 [60] 4 , avvea-eicras rrjv yfjv. For iracrav
TTJV oiKovuevrjv, cf. LXX Is. 13 5 . Kal ra opfj etcrpa^^i-
ZOVTO, Kal efcftpdgovTa: 1 a repetition of the thought in
line 18, but verbally independent.
Line 26 f. TOV TTOIOVVTO, e/crpo/juov Trjv yfjv aTrao-(av):
cf. LXX Ps. 103 [104] 32 6 eViXeVaw M rrjv yrjv Kal TTOMV
avrrjv rpefjueiv ; e/crpo/u-o? does not seem to have been retained
anywhere else, the LXX using eW/jo/^o? in the same sense,
Ps. 17 [18] 8 and 76 [77] 19 .
Line 27. (Kal) KaivL^ovTa irdvra^ rov? Karot,-
Kovvras: the author follows Maspero in adding the KaL
We may reject the idea that Kaivl&vra has an ethical refer-
ence in the sense of the irvev^a Kaivov of Ezek. 11 19 , cf. Ps.
50 [51] 12 , or of the KapBia icawrf of Ezek. 36 26 ; we must
rather take it as expressing the idea of the preservation of
the race by the ceaseless upspringing of new generations.
The compiler may have had a confused recollection of
phrases like eTre/SXe^e^ eVl TTCUVTCLS rou? Kcuroitcovvras TTJV
<yriv, LXX Ps. 32 [33] 14 , and /cupto? o Oeos . . . Kaiviel a~e ev
rfj dyainjaet, avrov, Zeph. 3 17 ; cf. Ps. 102 [103] 5 , avaKaivi-
co? derov rj veorrjs crov. In Wisdom 7 27 , TO, Trdvra
is predicated of the divine aofyla.
Line 27 f. TOV Troitfa'avTa arj/juela ev ovpavti Kal
eirl 7^9 Kal OaXao-aijs: see Dan. 6 27 Kal TTOC el arnieia Kal
TepaTa ev TU> ovpavm Kal errl TT}? 7^9, cf. LXX Joel 2 30 .
Line 31. epa>TwvTa: here, as often in Paul, Synopt.,
Acts, John, in the sense of beg, beseech ; not " an application
of the word which was manifestly first made through the
influence of the Hebrew ^Nltf" 2 (which in that case must
1 &#>#, LXX Neh. 13 2 Mace. I 12 , 5 8 (Cod. A).
2 H. Cremer, Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch der Neutestamentlichen
Gracitat? Gotha, 1893, p. 393 (= 8 [1895], p. 415).
45,46] A SEPTUAGINT MEMORIAL. 291
surely have appeared first of all in the LXX), but popular
Greek. 1
Line 33. bv fyoftelrai, oprj /cal vdirai'. instead of
the unmistakable ov Maspero writes ov. A specialising of
the idea that the earth also has a " fear of God " : cf. LXX
Ps. 32 [33] 8 , <j>o/3r)0iJTa) TOV /cvpiov 7rd<ra rj 777, and Ps. 66 [67] 8 ,
(f)of3r)0r)TCi3crav avTov iravra ra Trepara rfjs 7779. For the com-
bination of oprj and vairai cf. LXX Is. 40 12 , Ezek. 6 s , 36 6 .
Line 34. Si,' bv 6 \ecov a$if)<Tiv TO apTray/jLa: the
fact stated in this connection vividly recalls TOV Troirja-avra
TTJV yuiovov fjirj T6/ceiv in line 16. It is surprising that it
should be said that God causes the lion to abandon his
prey, 2 whereas the biblical idea is just that God supplies
the lion's food, Job 38 39 . One might suppose an allusion to
Dan. 6 27 , oarns efetXaro TOV AavirfX, e/c %eipb<; TWV \eovTGov,
and similar passages, the more so as a little before, in line 27 f.,
there was a strong resemblance to the first half of the same
verse ; but this may be considered as negatived by dpTrajaa.
We shall not err in considering the statement to be an ex-
pression of God's omnipotence, of His complete dominion
over nature : God is even able to make possible that which
is against nature, viz., that the lion shall relinquish his prey.
We may be reminded by this of the prophetic pictures of the
Messianic future in Is. 11 6 , KOI jjbocr^apiov teal ravpos fcal \ecov
afjLa j3o(r/c'r)0tf(7ovTai, /cal TraiSiov fitKpov a^eu CIVTOVS, and Is. 65 25
= II 7 , /cal \ecov o>9 /Sou? fyayeTai a-%vpa, in which it is like-
wise affirmed that the lion may change his nature, if God so
wills it. The clause has been freely compiled from biblical
materials. ical ra oprj rpepei: LXX Jer. 4 24 dbov ra
oprj /cal TIV rpe/jbovra.
Line 35. e/cao-ros ISdXXerai bv e^et (pojSos TOV
Kvpiov: perhaps this is the most difficult passage in the
Inscription. ISaXkofjiat, (etSaXXo^at) or lv$d\Xo/j,ai means to
seem, appear, become visible, show oneself, also to resemble. The
1 U. von Wilamowitz-MoellendorfE in Guil. Schmidt's De Flavii losephi
elocutione observationes criticae, Fleck. Jbb. Suppl. xx. (1894), p. 516.
2 Sipirayna is used for the lion's prey in LXX Ezek. 22 ; cf. 19 3 - 6 .
292 BIBLE STUDIES. [46, 47
word does not occur in the LXX, but tVSaXyua, the noun, is
found in Jer. 27 [50] 39 , probably in the sense of ghost, in
Wisd. 17 3 for image, which meanings are easily obtained
from the verb. The first appearance of the verb in biblico-
ecclesiastical literature, so far as the author knows, is in
Clement of Eome, 1 Cor. 23 2 , Sib w Srfvx&pev prfit lvSa\-
XeV#o> r) ^v^r) r^fjiwv eVl rat? i 7re/o/3aXXovo-a9 real eVSo^ot?
Scopeals avrov (God), where either it has the meaning to
seem, imagine oneself, somewhat like fyvanova-Oai, or it is, as
Bryennios, following others, has recently again proposed, a
synonym of the verbs i\iyyiav, to be confused, and eVSofcafew,
to waver. 1 Now e/cacrrov iSd\\erai,, as the passage runs in the
original, does not give sense : Maspero conjectures bv etca-
crro? etSaXXerat and translates & qui chacun devient sembl-
able, which appears to us to be grammatically impossible.
In regard to the reading which we propose, which may re-
commend itself by the insignificance of the textual change,
we would refer to the explanation of the verb which
is given by Hesychius : lvM\\erai o^oiovrai, fyalverai,
So/eel, (TTO%d%Tai,, laovTai, cro(f)i^6rai, 2 with which is to be
compared the note of Suidas : et&aXt^a?- ewer as. Taking
then l&d\\eTat, = o-o^tferat, 3 we get the familiar biblical
thought that the Fear of God gives men Wisdom, as in
LXX Ps. 110 [lll] 10 = Prov. I 7 , 9 10 aptf o-o^w <6/3o?
Kvpiov, Prov. 22 4 yevea o-otyias <>6/8o? tcvpiov ; cf. Ps. 18
[19] 8- 10 r) fjiaprvpia /cvpiov Tna-rrj a-o^L^ovaa vrjina . . . . o <o/So<?
Kvpiov ayvbs Sia/jbevcov els al&va altovos. The only possible
objection to this explanation is that the clause has no con-
nection with the previous one; and certainly a KOI or the
repetition of the Si bv were desirable only it would be
equally required with any other reading. The writer of
the tablet seems not to have understood the statement.
1 Further particulars in Patrum ApostoUcorum opera recc. 0. de Geb-
hardt, A. Harnaok, Th. Zahn, fasc. i., part, i. 2 , Leipzig, 1876, p. 42.
2 ffoQiCofiai sapiens fio, sapio, often in LXX, e.g. , 1 Kings 4 OT t 31 ] ; specially
frequent in Sir.
3 The vox media ti/SaAAo/iot would then stand here sensu bono, as in
Clem. Rom. 1 Cor. 23 2 sensu malo.
47,48] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOEIAL. 293
With regard to ov e%et <o/3o9 TOV /cvpiov (cf. LXX Job
31 23 <oo9 jap Kvplov a-weo-ye //,e), reference should be made
to the equivalent (in profane Greek likewise common) use
of exeiv, LXX Job 21 6 , Is. 13 8 , Mark 16 8 . Examples of
</>o/3o9 rov KvpLov would be superfluous.
Line 36. aOavdrov. Sir. 51 9[13] Cod. A has KOI drro
dOavaTov pvcrews eSerjQrjv, which probably means and to the
Immortal One did I pray for deliverance; cf. 1 Tim. 6 16 , o pbvos
eX^v dOavao-Lav. The thought is a Greek one ; this attribute
of God, in the present connection (cf. line 35), recalls the sub-
lime Hellenistic-Jewish thought that the knowledge of God,
the possession of the divine cro<f>ta and Sucaioo-vvr), impart
immortality : Wisd. 15 3 eiSevai <rov TO Kpdros pi^a dOavaaias,
8 17 e<TTiv d6avao-la ev crvyyeveiq o-o<f)ia$, cf. ver. 13 , efco &i
avrr/v dOavaaLav, 1 15 St/caioavvrj yap dOavacria ea-Tiv. 1 Travre-
<t>6 i 7TTOv: 2 Add. Esth. 5 1 TOV Trdvrcov eTTOTrrr/v 6eov\ 3 Mace.
2 21 o TrdvT(Dv eVo-TTTT;? ^609 ; 2 Mace. 7 35 (cf. 3 39 ) TOV
fcpdropo? eVoTTTou deov ; cf. LXX Job 34 24 o ydp
TrdvTas (Cod. A, rd irdv-ra) tyopa, similarly 2 Mace. 12 22 and
15 2 . fj,icro7rovripov: the idea is common in the O.T. ; 3 in
regard to the word cf. fjuo-oTrovrjpeo), 2 Mace. 4 49 and 8 4 ;
IMa-oTTOvrjpia, 2 Mace. 3 1 .
Line 36 ff. eTrco-ra/juevov /CT\. : a well-known biblical
idea, here developed independently with the assistance of
biblical expressions.
Line 43. avpiBiovvras : Sir. 13 5 has the word.
Line 45. eTnOvfjuovvra with the Accusative as not
infrequently in LXX; cf., e.g., Exod. 20 1T , OVK e
Tr\v yvvalica TOV TcK^aiov aov.
Looking again at the Inscription, we find, in the first
place, confirmation of the supposition that the writer of the
1 Cf. also Aquila Ps. 47 [48] 15 and the observations of Field, ii., p. 169,
thereon.
2 Be the vulgar <j> cf. Winer- Schmiedel, 5, 270 (p. 59 E.) : e
also found in Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 1353 (Wessely, i., p. 78).
3 Cf. also LXX Ps. 96 [97] 10 ol ayairwvres rbv itfyiov niaeire irovi]p6v.
294 BIBLE STUDIES. [48,49
tablet, whether male or female, and the original author of
the text cannot have been the same individual. No one
apparently so familiar with even the deeper thoughts of the
Greek Bible could fall into such childish errors in the most
everyday matters, such as the names of the patriarchs and
other things. It is in all probability most correct to suppose
that the tablet (with the exception of such parts as referred
to the particular case) was copied from a book of Magic, and
that even there the original text was already corrupt. If
the tablet was itself written in the third century, and if
between it and the compiler of the original text there was
already a considerable period, in which corrupt copies were
produced and circulated, then the second century A.D. will
probably form a terminus ad quern for the date of its composi-
tion ; nevertheless there is nothing to prevent our assigning
to the original text a still earlier date.
As the locality of the original composition we may
assume Egypt, perhaps Alexandria, not only from the general
character of the text, but also by reason of the Egyptian
origin of texts which are cognate with it.
The author was a Greek Jew : 1 this follows incontro-
vertibly, as it seems to us, from the formal character of
the text. If we had in the incantation a succession of verbal
citations from the Septuagint, the hypothesis of a Jewish
author were certainly the most natural, but we should then
have to reckon also with the presumption that some
"heathen," convinced of the magic power of the alien God,
may have taken the sayings from the mysterious pages of
the holy and not always intelligible Book of this same God,
very much in the same way as passages at large from
Homer 2 were written down for magical purposes, and as
to this day amulets are made from biblical sayings. 3 Eeally
1 A. Hilgenfeld in BerL Philol. Wochenschrift xvi. (1896), p. 647 ff.,
considers that the author was a follower of the Samaritan Simon Magus.
2 Cf. with reference to " Homeromancy," especially Pap. Lond. cxxi.
(third century A.D.), and the remarks upon this of Kenyon, p. 83 f.
3 A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 2nd edition,
thoroughly revised, Berlin, 1869, p. 321 f.
49, 50] A SEPTUAGINT MEMOEIAL. 295
verbal quotations, however, such as could be copied mechani-
cally, are almost entirely absent from our text, in spite of
its extreme dependence in substance and form upon the
Greek Old Testament. We have here an instructive ex-
ample of the reproduction of biblical passages from memory
which played such a great part in quotations and allusions
in the early Christian writings. The compiler of our text
certainly did not consult his Greek Bible as he set down one
biblical attribute of God after another ; the words flowed
from his pen without any consideration on his part of what
might be their particular origin, or any thought of checking
the letters in a scrupulous bibliolatry. Only a man who
lived and moved in the Bible, and, indeed, in the Greek
Bible, could write as he wrote. And if here and there some-
thing got mixed with his writing which has no authority in
the Septuagint, then even that speaks not against, but in
favour of, our view. For the theological conception of the
Canon has never been a favourite with popular religion, we
might almost say, indeed, with religion in general. In every
age the religious instinct has shown an indifference in re-
spect to the Canon, unconscious, unexpressed, but none the
less effective which has violated it both by narrowing it and
extending it. How many words of the canonical Bible have
never yet been able to effect what Holy Scripture should !
How much that is extra-canonical has filled whole genera-
tions with solace and gladness and religious enthusiasm !
Just as the Christians of New Testament times not infre-
quently quoted as scripture words for which one should have
vainly sought in the Canon (assuming that even then an
exact demarcation had been made, or was known), so also
does this text from Adrumetum, with all its obligations to
the Bible, manifest an ingenuous independence with regard
to the Canon.
In respect of form, the following facts also merit atten-
tion. The text is almost wholly free from those grammatical
peculiarities of the Septuagint which are usually spoken
of as Hebraisms a term easily misunderstood. This is a
proof of the fact, for which there is other evidence as
296 BIBLE STUDIES. [50, 51
well, 1 that the syntactic "influence " of the Alexandrian trans-
lation was less powerful by far than the lexical. The spirit
of the Greek language was, in the imperial period, sufficiently
accommodating where the enlarging of its stock of terms
was concerned; the good old words were becoming worn
out, and gropings were being made towards new ones and
towards the stores of the popular language as if internal
deterioration could be again made good by means of external
enlargement. But notwithstanding all this it had a sense of
reserve quite sufficient to ward off the claims of a logic which
was repugnant to its nature. The alleged "Jewish-Greek,"
of which the Alexandrian translation of the Old Testament is
supposed to be the most prominent memorial, never existed
as a living dialect at all. Surely no one would seriously affirm
that the clumsy barbarisms of the Aramaean who tried to make
himself understood in the Greek tongue were prescribed by
the rules of a " Jewish-Greek " grammar. It may be, indeed,
that certain peculiarities, particularly with regard to the
order of words, are frequently repeated, but one has no right
to search after the rules of syntax of a " Semitic Greek " on
the basis of these peculiarities, any more than one should
have in trying to put together a syntax of " English High-
German " from the similar idioms of a German-speaking
Englishman. We need not be led astray by the observed
fact that Greek translations of Semitic originals manifest a
more or less definite persistence of Semitisms ; for this per-
sistence is not the product of a dialect which arose and
developed in the Ghettos of Alexandria and Rome, but the
disguised conformity to rale of the Semitic original, which
was often plastered over rather than translated. How comes
it that the syntax of the Jew Philo and the Benjamite Paul
stands so distinctly apart from that of such Greek transla-
tions ? Just because, though they had grown up in the
Law, and meditated upon it day and night, they were yet
Alexandrian and Tarsian respectively, and as such fitted
their words naturally together, just as people spoke in Egypt
1 Cf. the author's sketch entitled Die neutestamentliche Formel " in
Christo Jesu" untersucht, Marburg, 1892, p. 66 f.
51,52] A SEPTUAGINT MEMORIAL. 297
and Asia Minor, and not in the manner of the clumsy pedan-
try l of the study, submitting line after line to the power of
an alien spirit. The translators of the Old Testament were
Hellenists as well as were Philo and Paul, but they clothed
themselves in a strait- jacket in the idea perhaps that such
holy labour demanded the putting on of a priestly garment.
Their work gained a success such as has fallen to the lot of
but few books : it became one of the " great powers" of history.
But although Greek Judaism and Christianity entered into,
and lived in, the sphere of its ideas, yet their faith and their
language remained so uninjured that no one thought of the
disguised Hebrew as being sacred, least of all as worthy of
imitation, 2 though, of course, there was but little reflection
on the matter.
Then the Tablet from Adrumetum manifests a pecu-
liarity, well known in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism,
which, we think, ought also to be considered as one of
form. This is the heaping up of attributes of God, which
appears to have been a favourite custom, especially in
prayers. 3 It is a characteristic of certain heathen prayers ;
it was believed that the gods were honoured, and that the
bestowal of their favours was influenced, 4 by the enumera-
1 We would point out that this judgment upon the LXX refers only
to its syntax. But even in this respect the investigation of Egyptian
and vernacular Greek will, as it advances, reveal that many things that
have hitherto been considered as Semitisms are in reality Alexandrianisms
or popular idioms. With regard to the vocabulary the translators have
achieved fair results, and have not seldom treated their original with
absolute freedom. This matter has been more thoroughly treated in Articles
II. and III. of the present work.
2 The Synoptic Gospels, for instance, naturally occupy a special
position, in so far as their constituent parts go back in some way to
Aramaic sources. But the syntactic parallels to the LXX which they show
are not so much an " after-effect " of that book as a consequence of the
similarity of their respective originals.
3 Grimm, HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 45.
4 Grimm, ibid. The vfivySia itpvirr-fi of Hermes Trismegistos (given by
A. Dieterich in Abraxas, p. 67), for example, affords information on this point,
though, of course, it is very markedly pervaded by biblical elements.
298 BIBLE STUDIES. [52, 53
tion of their attributes. We think it probable that this
notion also influenced the form of Judseo- Greek prayers. 1
At all events we hear in them the expression of the same
na'ive tendency which Grimm unjustifiably reproaches as " a
misunderstanding of and lack of the true spirit of prayer".
Good words were given to God something must be given :
His divine self-importance, as it were, was appealed to. It
is children that flatter thus. With regard to this char-
acteristic in prayer, unmistakably present also in our text,
compare the prayer of the Three Men, then 3 Mace. 2 2ff *
and 6 2 ff> , but specially the following passages :
2 Mace. 1 24 f - : /cvpte /cvpie 6 $eo? o TTCLVTCOV KTio-Tr)? 6
<o/3e/)09 KOL Ivxypos /cal Si/caios /cal eKerj^wv, o JMOVO^ @aai,\evs
/cal xprjaTos o fjiovos %o/o^70? o yLtoVo? BIKCLLOS /cal TravTOfcpdrayp
/cal al&vios, o Sia&tofav TOV ^Tcrpar}\ IK iravTos KOLKOV, o 7roiijo~as
rot"? Trarepa? e/c\e/CTOvs KCU a<yidcras avTov?.
Prayer of Manasses (in 0. F. Fritzsche, Libri apocr. V.
T. graece, p. 92) - 1 " 4 : icvpue Travro/cpdrcop 6 6ebs rwv Trarepaiv
rjjjL&v rov *A{3paa/j, KCLI 'lo-aa/c /cal *Ia/ca)fi /cal TOV
avT&v TOV Bi/cauov, 6 7roiij(7a<; TOV ovpavov /cal Trjv yfjv GVV
To5 Koo-fjitt) avT&v, 6 TreSrjaas TJJV 6akaoro~av TO> \oya> TOV Trpoa-
TayfjiaTos crov, 6 fcXeicras Trjv aftvo-crov /cal o-(f)pa<yi,(rdfj[,evo<; avTrjv
ro5 <j>o/3epa) teal eVSo^w ovo/AaTi o~ov, ov TrdvTa <f)pio-o~ei, KOI Tpe/juei
diro TTpoo-coTTOv vvdfie(ii)<; <rov.
The agreement, especially of the latter passage, with the
tablet of Adrumetum is so striking that we should have
to suppose that our compiler used the Prayer of Manasses,
unless the case was that both were working with the same
materials in the same framework of a customary form. That
this form came in course of time to be of great influence
liturgically, and that it can still be perceived in the monotony
of many a service-book prayer, can only be indicated here.
It is doubtless a partial cause of the fact that the word
Litanei, in our customary speech, has gained an unpleasant
secondary signification. [Litanei = litany + jeremiad.]
The peculiarity just treated of was described as a formal
one. For even if its origin points, psychologically, to a
1 Observe, however, the form seen already in certain Psalms.
53, 54] A SEPTtJAGINT MEMORIAL. 299
temper of mind not entirely alien to religion, yet the employ-
ment of it, where the religious motive has given place to the
liturgical, the unconstrained feeling of the true worshipper
to the literary interest of the prayer-book writer, is in general
purely ritualistic, that is, formal. But the attributes of God
which are found in the text from Adrumetum are of deep
interest even in substance, when considered in reference to
the choice which the compiler has made. It is true that
they are here used as the vehicle of an incantation, but
how different is their simplicity and intelligibility from the
meaningless chaos of most other incantamenta ! The context
in which they stand must not cause us to ignore their re-
ligious value. If we put aside the adjuration of the demon
for the trivial ends of a sickly affection, we are enabled to
gain a notion of how the unknown author thought about
God. The suspicion that he was an impostor and that he
intentionally employed the biblical expressions as hocus-
pocus is perhaps not to be flatly denied ; but there is nothing
to justify it, and to assert, without further consideration, that
the literary representatives of magic were swindlers, would
be to misapprehend the tremendous force with which the
popular mind in all ages has been ruled by the " super-
stitious " notion that the possession of supernatural powers
may be secured through religion. Our compiler, just because
of the relative simplicity of his formulae, has the right to be
taken in earnest. What strikes us most of all in these are
the thoughts which establish the omnipotence of God. The
God, through Whom he adjures the demon, is for him the
creator, the preserver and the governor of nature in its
widest sense : He has, of course, the power to crush the
miserable spirit of the tomb. But besides this conception
of God, which impresses the senses more strongly than
the conscience, and upon which the poetry of biblical and
post-biblical Judaism long continued to nourish itself, 1 this
unknown man has also extracted the best of what was
1 For a somewhat more remote application of this thought cf. J.
Bernays, Die JieraJclitisclien Briefe, Berlin, 1869, p. 29. The magic Papyri
yield a multitude of examples of the idea.
300 BIBLE STUDIES. [54
best in the Jewish faith, viz., the ethical idea of the God of
prophecy, Who separates the pious from the transgressors
because He hates evil, and the "fear" of Whom is the
beginning of wisdom.
Thus the tablet of Adrumetum is a memorial of the
Alexandrian Old Testament. Not only does it reveal what
a potent formal influence the Greek Bible, and especially
the praise-book thereof, exercised upon the classes who
lived outside of the official protection of the Synagogue and
the Church, and who thus elude the gaze of history, but it
lets us also surmise that the eternal thoughts of the Old
Testament had not wholly lost their germinative power
even where, long after and in an obscure place, they had
seemingly fallen among thorns.
V.
NOTES ON SOME BIBLICAL PEESONS
AND NAMES.
TOV TI\LOV OVTOV dvareXXei CTTI Trovrjpovs KOL aya^ovs /cat y8p}(t ITTL
al dSi'/covs.
NOTES ON SOME BIBLICAL PERSONS AND NAMES.
1. HELIODOEUS.
The Second Book of Maccabees has a wonderful story
to tell of how King Seleucus IV. Philopator made an un-
successful attempt to plunder the temple-treasury in Jeru-
salem. A certain Simon, who had occasion to revenge himself
upon Onias the high-priest, had gone hurriedly to Apollonius,
the Syrian governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, and had
contrived to impress him with the most marvellous ideas
of the temple property in -Jerusalem. The king, having
been informed of the sacred store, thought it well to send
his minister Heliodorus to Jerusalem, with orders to bring
back the gold with him. Heliodorus was the very man for
such a mission. Having reached Jerusalem, neither the
expostulations of the high priest nor the lamentations of
the people were able to dissuade him. In the extremity of
their distress recourse was had to prayer. And just as the
heartless official and his minions were actually preparing
to pillage the treasury, " there appeared unto them a horse
with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very
fair covering, and he ran fiercely, and smote at Heliodorus
with his fore-feet ; and it seemed that he that sat upon the
horse had complete harness of gold. Moreover, two other
young men appeared before him, notable in strength, ex-
cellent in beauty, and comely in apparel ; who stood by him
on either side, and scourged him continually, and gave him
many sore stripes. And Heliodorus fell suddenly to the
ground and was compassed with great darkness; but they
that were with him took him up, and put him into a litter
and carried him forth." A sacrifice offered by the high-
304 BIBLE STUDIES. [172
priest saved the half-dead man, and then the two young
men, apparelled as before, appeared to him again, and told
him that he owed his life to Onias. Then Heliodorus, being
asked by the king after his return, who might be the proper
person to send on the same errand to Jerusalem, replied :
" If thou hast any enemy or adversary to thy government,
send him thither, and thou shalt receive him well scourged,
if he escape with his life : for in that place without doubt
there is an especial power of God ".
The historical foundations of this tale in 2 Mace. 3,
which is certainly better known to-day through Raphael's
picture than through its original narrator, are not so obvious
as its pious aim. Grimm l is inclined to allow it a kernel of
history ; up to verse 23 the story does not contain a single
feature which might not have been literally true. Owing
to the financial difficulties occasioned by the conclusion of
peace with Rome, temple-robbings seem to have become,
to some extent, the order of the day with the Seleucidae.
Grimm therefore accepts the historicity of the attempt to
plunder the temple, but leaves undecided the actual nature
of the event, thus ornamented by tradition, by which the
project of Heliodorus was baffled. The author is not in a
position to decide this question, though, indeed, the answer
given by Grimm seems to him to be in the main correct. 2
But in any case the observation of Schiirer, 3 viz., that the
book as a whole (or its source, Jason of Gyrene) is not seldom
very well-informed in the matter of details, is confirmed in
the present passage.
The book undoubtedly says what is correct of the hero
of the story, Heliodorus, 4 in describing him as first minister
*HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 77.
2 The author, however, finds, even previous to verse 23, features which
are to be explained by the " edifying tendency " of the book.
3 Schurer, ii., p. 740 (= 3 iii., p. 360). [Eng. Trans., ii., ii., p. 211 f.]
4 According to the "fourth" Book of Maccabees, which uses this narra-
tive for purposes of edification, it was not Heliodorus, but Apollonius, who
tried to plunder the Temple. J. Freudenthal, in Die Flav. Joseph, beigeUgte
Schrift Ueber die Herrsch. der Vernunft, p. 85 f., is inclined to reject both
reports as suspicious, but to consider that of i Mace, to be the better of thq
173] HELIODOEUS. 305
of the Syrian king. It is indeed true that this assertion is
not vouched for in ancient literature ; for Appian, Syr., p.
45 (Mendelssohn, i., p. 416) makes mention of only one
Heliodorus as TWOS TWV irepl TTJV av\j]v of Seleucus. But
even if this note makes it more than "probable" 1 that it
refers to the same man as is alluded to in the Second Book
of Maccabees, yet, if there were no further proof of the
identity, it would be necessary to reckon seriously with the
possibility that the author of that book, in accordance with
his general purpose, transformed some mere court-official
into the first minister of the king of Syria, in order to make
still more impressive the miracle of his punishment and his
repentance. But this very detail, suspicious in itself, can be
corroborated by two Inscriptions from Delos, made known by
Th. Homolle, which may be given here :
I. 2 '
TOV (TVVTpo<)ov TOV
<tXo7raTopo9 /cal
TGray/jLevov ol ev
rfj ev $oivi/crj eySo^el^ /cal va[v/c\r)poi ?]
s 6V6K6V teal (f)i\o(TTo[pyias]
t9 TOV (Bao-iKia /cal evep<y\eo~la<i\
The Inscription stands upon the base of a statue no
longer extant: its purport is that some Phoenician ship-
masters dedicated the statue of Heliodorus, out of gratitude
two: it "reports simply and without ornament that which is told in 2 Mace.
with distorted exaggeration ". The present writer cannot agree with this
opinion ; what Freudenthal calls in the one case " simple and without
ornament" and in the other "distorted exaggeration," should only, in view
of the wholly distinct purposes of the two books, be characterised by the
formal antitheses concise and detailed respectively. The hybrid form, Apollo-
doros, of which L. Flathe speaks in his Geschichte Macedonians, ii., Leipzig,
1834, p. 601, was in all probability formed from the Apollonius of 4 and
the Heliodorus of 2 Mace. (Freudenthal, p. 84).
J Grimm, p. 69.
* Bulletin de correspondance heltenique, i. (1877), p. 285.
1 On this, see p. 310 f. below.
20
306 BIBLE STUDIES. [174
for his kindness, and on account of his being well-affected
towards the king, to the Delian Apollo.
II. 1 *H\i6$(tipov Ala")(y\ov TOV
%e\evKov TTa<yfj,vov Se /c[al eVl r&v
Kal Trfv crwyyeveiav avro[v]
aperr)? eve/cev Kal BiKafyoo-vvr)? ...... 779
$t,aT6\i et? re rbv Pacri\ea K[CU] ......
e /cal evee<ria<s r? eZ? eavrov a
This Inscription also is found on the hase of a statue;
its contents quite resemble those of No. 1 ; in line 3 a-wyye-
veiav, with some supplementary participle, will signify the
same title which is already known to us as o-vyyevrfs*
Homolle's conjecture that this Heliodorus is identical
with the one mentioned in 2 Maccabees, and by Appian,
seems to us to be fully established; 3 note how accu-
rately 2 Mace. 3 7 also introduces him as 'HXio&copov
rbv eVt TWV Trpay/jidTwv. This title, which is current
elsewhere in the Books of Maccabees (1 Mace. 3 32 , 2 Mace.
10 n , 13 2 - 23 , 3 Mace. 7 1 ) is proved by other writings to
have belonged to Syria, 4 as also to Pergamus. 6 In Poly-
bius and Josephus it is applied to the viceroy, the representa-
tive of the absent king, similarly in 1 Mace. 3 32 , 2 Mace. 13 ffl ;
in 2 Mace. 3 7 it has the further meaning of chancellor of the
kingdom, first minister, 6 similarly 10 n , 13 2 , 3 Mace. 7 1 .
The first Inscription, moreover, confirms the reading
which is given by most MSS. in 2 Mace. 3 7 .
1 Bull, de corr. hell, iii. (1879), p. 364. 2 See p. 159 above.
3 In that case the Inscriptions must certainly have been written before
175 B.C. ; for in that year Heliodorus carried out his <f>i\offropyia fis rbv
jSoo-iXe'o, which is here extolled, in a strange way, viz., by murdering the king.
4 Frankel, Altertilmer von Pergamon, viii. 1, p. 110, cites Polyb. v. 41
and Joseph. Antt. xii. 7 2.
6 Inscriptions Nos. 172-176 (first half of 2nd cent. B.C.) in Frankel, p.
108 f.
6 This interpretation, proposed by Grimm, p. 69, is maintained also by
Frankel, p. 110,
175] HELIODOEUS. 307
Codices 19, 44, 71, etc., which substitute ^^CLT^V for
TTpaj/jLarcov in this passage, 1 have obviously been so influenced
by the contents of the narrative as to turn the chancellor into
a chancellor of the exchequer; for such must have been the
sense of the title given by them, viz., rov eVl rwv ^p^arcoz/.
As for Syncellus (8th cent. A.D.), Chronogr., p. 529 7 (Bonn
edition), who likewise describes Heliodorus as o eVl r&v
Xpr}/j,dTO)v, he is probably dependent on these codices. 2
Evidence from the Inscriptions has extended our know-
ledge thus far : Heliodorus came originally from Antioch, 3
and was the son of a certain Aischylos. In the lofty
position of first minister of King Seleucus IV. Philopator,
to whose familiar circle (a-vvrpofoi) he had certainly belonged
previously, he earned good repute in connection with the
shipping trade, and was in consequence the recipient of
frequent honours.
The marble statue of Heliodorus was prepared for
Phoenician merchants by the ancient sculptors, and the
pious gift was dedicated to the Delian Apollo ; some narrator
of late pre-Christian times, full of faith in the written word,
made him the central figure of a richly- coloured picture, and
the fate of the temple-robber became a theme for edification,
not unmixed with pious horror ; fifteen hundred years after-
wards Raphael's Stanza d'Eliodoro transformed this naive
exultation in the penalty paid by the godless man into the
lofty though unhistorical idea that the Church of the Vatican
is ever triumphant.
2. BAKNABAS. 4
The writer of the Acts of the Apostles reports, 4 86 , that
there was given to the Cyprian 'Iwo-^ the surname Bapvafias
CLTTO T&V aTTOGToXwv, o l(7TLv /Ae6pfjUijvv6fj,vov vio? irapa-
1 This variation is found here only,
2 Against Freudenthal, p. 86, who attributes the alteration to Syncellus.
3 I.e., if the restoration in No. I. be correct, as the author holds to be
very probable.
4 See p. 187 f. above.
308 BIBLE STUDIES. [176
Now even if it be true that " the Apostles " so
named him, yet it is improbable that they were the first to
coin the name, which rather appears to be an ancient one.
The derivation given by the writer of the early history of
Christianity is clear only as regards its first part : /3ap is of
course the Aramaic "to, son, so frequently found in Semitic
names. In regard to vaftas, however, the second element in
the name, it is not evident which Semitic word has been
translated irapaKk^a-^ in the Apostolic text. The usual
conjecture is nfcjFQ?. But this signifies a prophecy, and is
accordingly rendered quite accurately in LXX 2 Es. [Ezra]
6 14 , Neh. 6 12 , 2 Chron. 15 8 by Trpofareia, and in 2
Chron. 9 29 by \6yoi. A. Klostermann * therefore proposes
the Aramaic NtT}?, pacification, consolation ; but we doubt
whether this will explain the transcription vaftas. It
would seem better, even were the etymology given in Acts
more intelligible than it is, to leave it out of account as a
basis of explanation, 2 since we are at once assailed by the
suspicion that we have here, as in many other passages, a
folk-etymology ex post facto. We must rather try to under-
stand the name from itself ; and, as we believe, two possible
explanations of the -vapas, which is alone in question, lie
open to us.
In the Greek Bible, Nun, the father of Joshua, is called
Navrj. Whatever be the explanation of this form, whether
or not it is actually to be understood, as has been supposed,
as a corruption 3 of NATN into NATH, does not signify.
The only important matter is that, for Navy, there also
occur the variants Naftrj or NajSi. Whether this Navrj
1 Probkme im Aposteltexte neu erortert, Gotha, 1883, p. 8 ff.
2 Even Jerome, Liber mterpretationis Hebraicorum nominum, 67 as f.
(Onomastica sacra Pauli de Lagarde studio et sumptibus alterum edita, Gottin-
gen, 1887, p. 100), has not straightway adopted the etymology given in Acts ;
he gives three interpretations : Barnabas filius prophetae uel filius uenientis
aut (ut plerique putant) filius consolationis.
\The author fails to understand how Nun should have originally been
transcribed Naw. It seems to him more probable that the LXX read !Tp,
or that Naur? (or Na/3?;) or Nai was in actual use as a personal name, and thai
they substituted it for Nun.
177] BABNABAS. 809
) Nafii was already in use as a personal name
( = prophet) in the time of the LXX cannot be ascertained ;
certainly, however, it had later on become known as such to
the Jews through the Greek Bible. We might, then, possibly
find this name in the -vafias : Bapvaftas would be a Bapvafirj
or Bapvafii, with a Greek termination son of a prophet.
But the author thinks it a more promising theory to
connect Bapvafias with the recently-discovered Semitic name
Bapvefiovs. An Inscription 1 found in Islahie, the ancient
Nicopolis, in Northern Syria, which is assigned, probably on
account of the written character, to the 3rd or 4th century
A.D., runs as follows :
Bapveftovv rov /ecu 2 'ATroXXivdpiov ^a/jifjuavd avdaiperov
Srj/jLiovpybv KOI yv/jLvaaLap^ov <$)l\\oi\.
The editors explain the name quite correctly as son of
Nebo* Their conjecture can be further confirmed, par-
ticularly by Symmachus, who in Is. 46 * renders ilj, Nebo,
by Nefiovs, while the LXX, Aquila and Theodotion tran-
scribe it by Na/3&>. 4 Bapvepovs is one of the many personal
names which have Nebo as a constituent part, and, as a
theophoric name, will be relatively old. The hypothesis of
the affinity, or of the original identity, of Bapvaftas and
Bapvefiovs is further borne out by the well-known fact that
in the transcription of other names compounded with Nebo
the .EJ-sound of the word is sometimes replaced by a, 5 e.g.,
Nebuchadnezzar = (LXX) Nafiovxo&ovo<rop = (Berosus and
Josephus) Na/3ovxo$ov6a-opo$ = (Strabo) Nafto/coSpocropos;
1 K. Humann and 0. Puchstein, Beisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien,
Textband, Berlin, 1890, p. 398. A much older Inscription has already been
cited, p. 188 above,
2 For this rbv /cot see below, p. 313 f.
3 'Airo\\ivdpios is (cf. 'ATroAAc^j/ios 'Iwvddas, p. 149 ante, sub Trapeiridrj/jios)
an imitation of the theophoric Bapvefiovs ; but one need not on that account
have recourse to any such religious-historical equation as Nebo = Apollo, as
the editors suggest.
4 Field, ii., p. 522.
5 The -4-sound is also found in the Babylonian and Assyrian primary
forms, It is not impossible that the name NajSy/, discussed above, if not
coined by the LXX, may be connected in origin with Nebo,
310 BIBLE STUDIES. [178
and Nebuzaradan 2 Kings 25 8 = (LXX) Naftov&pSav. It
is therefore highly probable that the form BapvafBovs might
occur instead of Bapveffovs. The former appears to us
to be the original form of the name Bapvafia?. 1 The
termination -oO? must, in that case, have developed into -a?,
but this is no extraordinary phenomenon in view of the
arbitrariness with which Semitic names were Graecised ; per-
haps the Jews intentionally substituted the very common
Greek name-ending -a? for -ov? in order to remove from the
name its suspiciously pagan appearance : the mutilation of
Gentile theophoric names was looked upon by the Jews as
an actual religious duty, 2 on the authority of Deut. 7 26 and
12 3 . We indeed see this duty discharged in another personal
name formed with Nebo : the name Abed Nego 3 in the Book
of Daniel is most probably an intentional defacement of Abed
Nebo, servant of Nebo. Thus did the later Graeco-Jewish
Bapvaftas arise from the ancient Semitic Bapveffovs or
Bapvaj3ov<;. It then became the part of popular etymology
to give a religious interpretation to the name thus defaced
from motives of piety. The very difficulty of establishing
which Semitic word was believed to correspond to -vapas
bears out the hypothesis enunciated above.
3. MANAEN.
In 1 Mace. I 6 , according to the common reading,
mention is made of Trat&e? arvvrpo(f>ot CLTTO veoTrjros of Alex-
ander the Great, and, in 2 Mace. 9 29 , of a certain Philippos
as crvvrpocfros of King Antiochus IV. Epiphanes; similarly,
in Acts 13 1 , the esteemed Antiochian Christian Manaen 4
1 In that case this accentuation would commend itself as preferable to
the " traditional " Bapvdfias. Blass, Qramm. des neutest. Gricchisch, p. 123,
also writes Bapvafias; on p. 31, Eapvdfias. [Eng. Trans., pp. 125 and 31.]
2 Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 27 a, note 56 (p. 58). Many similar cases are
given there.
3 LXX, 'A-fftevayd. Note the rendering of the J-sound by a here also.
4 His name is MavaV; that is, of course, DH^p. The Alexandrinus
likewise transcribes M e nachem in LXX 2 Kings 15 1G ff - 'by Maj>aV, while the
other Codices have Maz/afyi- The termination -T\V gave the foreign name a
179] MANAEN. 311
is distinguished by the attribute 'Hputbov rov rerpadp^ov
In the first passage, however, we have good authority
(Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, etc.) for a-vvetcrpo^oi, a word not
found elsewhere, " but which, precisely on that account,
may have been displaced by crvvrp." ; l the addition of CLTTO
veoTijTos seems to us to give additional support to the
assumption that o-vve/crpofoi, was the original form. 2 Ac-
cordingly 0. F. Fritzsche, in his edition, has also decided
for o-weicTpotyoi,. The meaning of the word is unquestionably
one reared along with another in the proper sense. 3
The case is different with the criWpo</>o9 of the other
two passages. The commentaries give, in connection with
Acts 13 x , the alternative meanings foster-brother and com-
panion in education ; 4 but the former explanation is forthwith
rendered void by the frequent occurrence (to be established
presently) of the expression in connection with a king's
name, if we but think what strange inferences would
follow from it ! We should have to assume, for instance,
that in the most diverse localities, and at times most widely
apart, the newly-born crown-princes had very frequently
to be entrusted to the care of healthy citizens, and, further,
that the son of the plebeian nurse was still alive when
kind of Greek look: pet names in -rjv are occasionally used by the Greeks
(A. Fick, Die Griechischen Personennamen nach ihrer Bildung erklart, 2nd
ed. by F. Bechtel and A. Fick, Gottingen, 1894, p. 28). It will hardly be
necessary in this case to assume the arbitrary interchange of p. and v which
occurs not infrequently in the transcription of Semitic proper names (cf. on
this point, Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 27 g, and note 63 [p. 61]).
1 Grimm, HApAT. iii. (1853), p. 6.
2 The word appears to be confirmed also by the Syriac versions,
Grimm, ibid., p. 7.
3 It cannot be urged against this that the view thus obtained does not
correspond with the historical circumstances (i.e. the muSes among whom
Alexander divided his empire could hardly be all his o-uj/e/crpo^oi in the proper
sense) ; but the writer of Mace, certainly held this opinion. The variant
ffvvrpofyoi may perhaps be explained by the attempt of some thoughtful
copyist to get rid of the historical discrepancy ; (r&yrpo^oi in the technical
sense presently to be determined was more accurate : the thoughtless thinker
of course allowed the ctorb J/C^TTJTOS to stand.
4 H. Holtzmann, H.C. i. 2 (1892), p. 371.
312 BIBLE STUDIES. [180, 181
his conlactaneus ascended the throne of his father. The
interpretation companion in education is better : one might in
this connection compare the play-mates of the Dauphin, who
were, as a matter of course, taken from the best families,
and of whom, later on, one or another continued, so far as
consistent with the reverence that "doth hedge a king," to
be the intimate friend of the prince, now come to man's
estate. But this hypothesis is likewise too special ; crvvrpofyos
rov /3acrtXea)9 is a court title, which is of course to be ex-
plained by the fundamental meaning of the word, but in the
usage of which this fundamental meaning had disappeared,
having given place to the general meaning of intimate friend.
The case is on all fours with that of the title of king's
relative. 1 crvvrpofyos rov /3ao-tXeo>9 is established as regards
Pergamus by Polybius, xxxii. 25 10 ; further by the Perga-
menian Inscriptions, Nos. 179s, 2242, 248 6 and 28, 2 all of
pre-Eoman times (before 133 B.C.). " It appears to have
been in general use throughout the Hellenistic kingdoms." 3
In regard to Macedonia, Frankel cites Polyb. v. 94; for
Pontus, he refers to the Inscription, Bulletin de correspondance
helUnique, vii. (1883), p. 355 ; for Egypt, to the observations
of Lumbroso. 4 But the Inscription of Delos (first half of
2nd cent. B.C.) given above, 5 in which the title is established
for Syria also, is the most instructive of all in connection
with the passage in Acts; Heliodorus, probably an Antiochian
likewise, is there invested with the honorary title crvvrpofyo?
rov /5ac7iXeo)9 2e\ev/cov $i,\o7rdropos. And in the same way
it was allowable to speak of Manaen as the intimate friend of
Herod Antipas ; nothing further is implied by the technical
term, and any inference drawn from it regarding the ante-
cedents of the man, or regarding any tender relationship
between his mother and the infant Herod, would be very
precarious. In the context of the narrative the attribute,
when understood in this sense, is of course still more
honourable for Manaen and the church at Antioch than
would be the case according to the traditional interpretation.
1 Cf. p. 159 above, sub <rvyycvfo- 2 Frankel, pp. Ill, 129, 364 ff.
3 Frankel, p. Ill f. 4 Becherclies, p. 207 ff . 5 P. 305.
181, 182] SAULUS PAULUS. 313
4. SAULUS PAULUS.
In Acts 13 9 the words 2av\o<$ 6 KOI JTaOXo? are quite
abruptly introduced to designate the Apostle who has always
hitherto been spoken of as 2av\os, and from this place
onwards in the book the name ITaOXo? is always used. The
passage has given rise to the most extraordinary conjectures ;
it has even been asserted that the narrator meant the o /cal
.ZTaOXo? to indicate that the change of name had some sort
of connection with the conversion of the Proconsul Sergius
Paulus described immediately before. It must not be for-
gotten, in investigating the point, that it is not said that
the Apostle made the change ; it is the narrator who does
so : by means of the o /cai he makes the transition from
the previously -used SavXo? to the UauXo? to which he hence-
forth keeps.
We have never yet seen the fact recorded in con-
nection with this passage 1 that the elliptically-used /cai
with double names is an exceedingly common usage in N. T.
times. W. Schmid, 2 in his studies on Atticism (of great
importance for the history of the language of the Greek
Bible), has recently shown from the Papyri and Inscriptions
how widespread this usage was in all quarters ; he names
an Inscription of Antiochus Epiphanes as his first authority.
" As qui et is similarly used in Latin in the case of familiar
designations . . . , we might suspect a Latinism, had the
1 Winer-Lunemann, 18, 1 (p. 102), refers only to quite late writings.
On the other hand, the painstaking Wetstein had already in 1752 annotated
the passage " Inscriptiones " 1 That means more for his time than dozens
of other "observations" by the industrious and open-eyed exegetes of last
(18th) century.
z Der Atticismus, iii. (1893), p. 338. His authorities are to be supple-
mented by the Inscription of Mylasa in Caria, Waddmgton, iii. 2, No. 361
(imperial period), by a multitude of examples from Lycian Inscriptions, see
the lists of the Gerontes of Sidyma in 0. Benndorf and G. Niemann, Beisen
in Lykien und Karien, Vienna, 1884, p. 73 ff. (time of Commodus) likewise
by many passages from the Egyptian documents in the Royal Museum at
Berlin, e.g., Nos. 39; 141 2 ; 200; 277 2 ; 281. In the Pap. Berol. 6815 (BU.
ii., p. 43, No. 30) we even find Mdpicov 'Avruviov Aioffit6pov 6 nal UroXfp.a.iov, an
evidence of the fixedness and formulaic currency of this 6 /ecu.
314 BIBLE STUDIES. [182, 183
Antiochus Inscription not made it more likely that the Latin
usage is really a Graecism." *
W. Schmid seems to think that certain passages from
j?Elianus and Achilles Tatius are the earliest instances of this
construction in the literature. But even in the literature
the usage, most likely derived from the popular speech, can
be shown to go much farther back. We find the reading
M7u:t/i09 o /cal 'Idxifjuxi in 1 Mace. 7 **, 9 54ff -, 2 Mace.
14 3 , at least in Codd. 64, 93, 19 (also 62 in the last passage).
But even should this reading not be the original, yet we
need not be at a loss for literary authorities ; a relatively
large number are supplied by Josephus. 2 The Jewish his-
torian, in giving double names, employs not only the fuller
forms of expression, such as ^ificov 6 /cat Si/caws eV^/eX^ct?
(Antt. xii. 24), MX/a/io? 6 /cal ^Id/a/juo^ /c\r)Qei$ (Antt. xii. 9 7),
'Iwdvvqv rov /cal FaSSlv \6y6fj,6vov (Antt. xiii. 1 2), AIOOTO<$ 6
/cal Tpixfrcov e r mic\'r]deL<s (Antt. xiii. 5i), 2e\tfvij fj /cal K\eo->
Trdrpa /ca\ov/j,6vr) (Antt. xiii. 164), 'Ai>Tio%os 6 /cal Aiovvaos
7ri/c\r)06is (Bell. Jud. i. 4 7), but he often simply connects the
two names by o teal : 'lavvalov TOV /cal 'A\e%avSpov (Antt. xiii.
12 1), 3 'I&><7?77ro9 o /cal Kaidtyas (Antt. xviii. 22), 3 KXeoS^/io? o
(Antt. i. 15), "Ap/cij rj /cal 'E/c$ei7rov$ (Antt. v. 122),
o /cal Ma/c/ca/3alo$ (Antt. xii. 6 4), Tla/copy ra> /cal irpe-
o-/3vT6p(p (Antt. xx. 3 3).
When Acts 13 9 is placed in this philological context, we
see that it cannot mean " Saul who was henceforth also called
Paul " ; an ancient reader could only have taken it to mean
" Saul who was also called Paul ". 4 Had the writer of Acts
intended to say that Paul had adopted the Graecised Koman
name in honour of the Proconsul, or even that he now
adopted it for the first time, he would have selected a
different expression. The o /cai admits of no other supposi-
tion than that he was called Saulos Paulos before he came to
1 W. Schmid, Der Atticismus, iii. (1893), p. 838.
2 Guil. Schmidt, De Flav. los. Elocuti<me, Fleck. Jahrbb. Suppl. xx.
(1894), p. 355 f.
3 For the text see Guil. Schmidt, p. 355.
4 Cf. H. H. Wendt, Meyer, iii. 6/7 (1888), p. 284.
183, 184] SAULUS PAULUS. 315
Cyprus ; he had, like many natives of Asia Minor, many
Jews and Egyptians of his age, a double name. We know
not when he received the non-Semitic name in addition to
the Semitic one. It will hardly be demanded that we should
specify the particular circumstance which formed the occa-
sion of his receiving the surname Paulos. The regulations
of Roman Law about the bearing of names cannot in this
question be taken into consideration. If in Asia Minor or on
the Nile any obscure individual felt that, in adopting a non-
barbaric surname, he was simply adapting himself to the
times, it is unlikely that the authorities would trouble them-
selves about the matter. The choice of such Graeco-Roman
second names was usually determined by the innocent free-
dom of popular taste. But we can sometimes see that such
names as were more or less similar in sound to the native
name must have been specially preferred. 1 In regard to
Jewish names this is the case with, e.g., 'Id/up *A\/ufju)s
(Joseph. Antt. xii. 9 7), 'Irja-ovs 6 Xeyopevo? 'loOo-ro? (Col. 4 n ),
'Icocrr)(f> ... 05 &jreK\ij0i) 'loOo-To? (Acts 1 23 ) ; 2 of Egyptian
names, we have noticed 2aTa/3ov$ 6 KOI Zdrvpos (Pap.
Berol. 7080, Col. 2, Fayyum, 2nd cent. A.D.). 3 Thus, too, in
1 Winer-Schmiedel, 16, 9 (p. 143).
2 We must not confuse these cases, in which non-Jewish names of
similar sound were attached to the Jewish, with those in which non-Jewish
names of similar sound were substituted for the Jewish ; those who had
adopted new names bore these alone in their intercourse with strangers.
Thus the name 'lao-wi/, common among Jews, is a substitute for 'Irjcrovs ; the
Apostle Symeon (Peter) is usually called ^i/j-cav, not because (as Clavis 3 , p.
400, still maintains) this word is a transcription of Vi^}tljj but because it
resembles Su/xecoy, the actual transcription of the Hebrew name (so, of Peter,
Acts 15 14 , 2 Pet. I l ). Zlpuv is a good Greek name (Fick-Bechtel, p. 251) ;
thus, too, the Vulgate substitutes Ckophas (= KAeo^Ss, Fick-Bechtel, p. 20
and foot of p. 164 ; not to be confounded with K\eoiras in Luke 24 18 , Fick-
Bechtel, middle of p. 164) for the (probably) Semitic name K\(aira(s ? Accent ?
[John 19 *] ; the author does not know what authority Clavis 3 , p. 244, has
for saying that the Semitic form of KAco7ro(s?) is ND^T!, still less how P.
Feine, Der Jakobusbrief, Eisenach, 1893, p. 16, can maintain that it is "else-
where recognised " that KA.o>7ras is Greek, and = KAeoTrSs) ; similarly 2i\ovav6s
seems to be a substitute for the Semitic
3 BU. ix., p. 274, No. 277 2 .
316 BIBLE STUDIES. [184, 185
the case of the Tarsian 2aov\, 1 when he received a non-
Semitic second name (we do not know the exact time, but
it must have been before Acts 13 9 ) the choice of ITaOXo? may
have been determined by nothing more than the fact that
17a{)Xo9 had a sound somewhat similar to the name made
venerable by association with his fellow-tribesman of old. 2
So far as we know, there has hitherto been no
evidence to show that the name ITaOXo? was adopted by any
other Jew ; it is therefore of interest that the recently-
published Papyrus fragments relating to the Jewish war
of Trajan 3 several times mention an Alexandrian Jew called
UaOAo?, 4 who seems to have been the leader of a deputation
which negotiated with the emperor. The question why the
narrator calls the Apostle JjaOAo? previous to Acts 13 9 ,
and JTaOXo? afterwards, has nothing to do with the science
of names, or with the history of Paul; it is altogether a
question of literary history. The most satisfactory solution
1 The frequently-noted circumstance that in the accounts of Paul's
conversion, Acts 9 4e 17 , 22 7 - 13 , 26 14 , he is addressed by Jesus and Ananias as
SaouA. may be explained by the historian's sense of liturgical rhythm ; com-
pare the way in which he puts the name Su^ec^ (for Peter, whom he else-
where calls 2i'/i ft " / an d ITeVpos) in the mouth of James in a solemn speech,
15 14 . Similarly, the early Christians did not Graecise, e.g., the venerable
name of the patriarch Jacob: 'laKcafi had a "biblical," 'IdKcafios a modern,
sound. In the same way Paul appears to have made a distinction between
the ancient theocratic form 'Iepou<raA.^/i and the modern political name 'lepo-
ff6\vfjLa : when he uses the former, there is ever a solemn emphasis upon the
word, especially noticeable in Gal. 4 26 - 25 (cf. Hebr. 12 Rev. 3 12 , 21 2 - 10 );
but also as the dwelling-place of the saints, Jerusalem is more to him than
a mere geographical term : hence in 1 Cor. 16 3 , Bom. 15 25 ff -, he lovingly and
reverently marks a distinction by writing 'lepoixraA-^u, ; lastly, in Bom. 15 19
this form again best suits the subject, viz., an enthusiastic retrospect of the
diffusion of the gospel. We must also bear in mind that the Gospels preserve
many of our Lord's sayings in Aramaic ; see p. 76 above. The assertion of A.
Buttmann, Gramm. des neutest. Sprachgebr., p. 6, that, when Paul is
addressed, the "popular" (?? for the readers of the Greek Book of Acts?)
form SaotfA is regularly employed, is contradicted by Acts 26 24 , 27 **.
2 Cf. Acts 13 21 , and also Bom. 11 l and Phil. 3 5 .
3 See p. 68 above.
4 The name, indeed, is mutilated in almost all the passages, so that
the restoration SouAos would also be possible, but in Col. vii. of the edition
of Wilcken, Hermes, xxvii. (1892), p. 470, IlauAos can be distinctly made out.
185, 186] SATJLUS PAULTTS. 317
so far (unless we are willing to go back to a difference in
the sources) is the supposition l that the historian uses the
one or the other name according to the field of his hero's
labours; from chap. 13 1 the Jewish disciple ^auXo? is an
apostle to the whole world : it is high time, then, that he
should be presented to the Greeks under a name about
which there was nothing barbaric, and which, even before
this, was really his own.
aOAo9 o Kal TIav\o^ : only as such perhaps did many
of his brethren of the same race understand him ; from his
own confessions we know that he was rather a ITaOAo? o
/col J?a?)Ao9 a man who laboured for the future and for
humanity, though as a son of Benjamin and a contemporary
of the Caesars. Christians in later times would often have
fain called him Saul only ; but on this account it is the
name Paul alone which in history is graven above the
narrow gate at which Augustine and Luther entered in. 2
1 The following phenomenon is perhaps instructive on this point. In
several passages of Acts mention is made of a 'iwawris 6 iriKa\ov/j.evos Mop/cos,
either by this double name or by his Jewish name 'Iwdvvrjs ; in 13 13 it is
particularly evident that 'Icodwris has been used purposely: the man had
forsaken the Apostle Paul and had returned to Jerusalem. Quite differently
in 15 39 ; he now goes with Barnabas to Cyprus, and this is the only passage
in Acts where the Greek name MdpKos, standing alone, is applied to him.
This may, of course, be purely accidental.
2 With this should be compared Professor W. M. Eamsay's brilliant
section on the same subject, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen 2 ,
London, 1896, pp. 81-88. Tr.
VI.
GEEEK TEANSCEIPTIONS OF THE
TETEAGEAMMATON.
l <f>oj3r)Oiqa-ovTcu TO. Wvrj TO ovofid trov Kv
GBEEK TBANSCEIPTIONS OF THE TETEA-
GEAMMATON.
IN a notice of Professor W. Dindorf s edition of Clement,
Professor P. de Lagarde 1 reproaches the editor, in reference
to the passage Strom, v. 634 (Dindorf, iii. p. 2725), with
having " no idea whatever of the deep significance of his
author's words, or of the great attention which he must pay
to them in this very passage ". Dindorf reads there the form
'laou as TO rerpdypa/jifiov OVO/JLO, TO /JLVO-TLKOV. But in various
manuscripts and in the Turin Catena to the Pentateuch 2 we
find the variants 'la oval or 'la ove. s Lagarde holds that the
latter reading " might have been unhesitatingly set in the
text ; in theological books nowadays nothing is a matter
of course ". The reading 'laoue certainly appears to be the
original ; the e was subsequently left out because, naturally
enough, the name designated as the Tetragrammaton must
have no more than four letters. 4
The form 'laove is one of the most important Greek
transcriptions of the Tetragrammaton usually referred to in
seeking to ascertain the original pronunciation. F. Dietrich
in a letter of February, 1866, 5 to Franz Delitzsch, makes
the following collection of these transcriptions :
1 GGA. 1870, part 21, p. 801 ff. Cf. Symmikta, i., Gottingen, 1877, p. 14 f.
2 Cf. upon this E. W. Hengstenberg, Die Authentic des Pentateuchs, i.,
Berlin, 1836, p. 226 f.
3 With reference to the itacistic variation of the termination, cf. the
quite similar variants of the termination of the transcription Ei/iaA/couof
1 Mace. II 39 . > l/j.a\Kove, ^,ivp.a\icovi\, etc., and on these C. L. W. Grimm,
HApAT. iii., Leipzig, 1853, p. 177.
4 Hengstenberg, p. 227.
5 ZAW.iii. (1883), p. 298.
21
322
BIBLE STUDIES.
[4,5
mm
*m
PP
v :
T
T
Cent. 2. Irenaeus
_
laoflf?) 1
2-3. Clement
(laowe) 2
laoi/
3. Origen
law (law la)
la IAH
4. Jerome
'
Jaho
Epiphanius
Iae
la
5. Theodoret
Iaj8e
law
Aia (cod. Aug.
(Sam.)
la)
,, 7. Isidore
Ja. Ja.
It is an important fact that nearly all the transcriptions
which have thus come down from the Christian Fathers
are likewise substantiated by " heathen " sources. In the
recently-discovered Egyptian Magic Papyri there is a whole
series of passages which even if in part they are not to be
conceived of as transcriptions of the Tetragrammaton merit
our attention in this connection. As early as 1876 W. W.
Graf Baudissin, 3 in his investigation of the form 'Ida, had
referred to passages relating to it in the Magic Papyri in
Leiden 4 and Berlin. 5 Since that time the edition of the
Leiden Papyri by C. Leemans, 6 and that of the Paris and
London Papyri by C. Wessely, 7 the new edition of the Leiden
Papyri by A. Dieterich, 8 the latest publications of the British
1 Wrongly questioned by F. Dietrich ; cf. p. 327 below.
2 F. Dietrich reads loou.
3 Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, Heft i., Leipzig, 1876,
p. 197 ff.
4 At that time there were only the preliminary notes of C. J. C. Reuvens :
Lettres a M. Letronne sur les papyrus bilingues et grecs . . . du musee d'an-
tigidUs de Vunwersite de Leide, Leiden, 1830.
6 Edited by G. Parthey, AAB., 1865, philol. und histar. Abhh., 109 ff.
6 In his publication, Papyri Qraeci musei antiguarii publici Lugduni-
Batavi, vol. ii., Leiden, 1885.
7 DAW. philos.-histor. Classe, xxxvi. (1888), 2 Abt. p. 27 ff. and xlii.
(1893), 2 Abt. p. 1 ff.
8 Papyrus magica musei Lugdunensis Batavi, Fleckeisen's JTahrbb-
Suppl. xvi. (1888), p. 749 ff. (= the edition of Papyrus J 384 of Leiden).
Dieterich, Abraxas, Studien zur Religions-Geschichte des spateren Altertums,
Leipzig, 1891, p. 167 ff. ( = edition of Papyrus J 395 of Leiden). The author
has to thank his colleague and friend the editor (now in Giessen) for divers
information and stimulating opposition.
5,6] THE TETBAGRAMMATON. 323
Museum, 1 and other works, have rendered still more possible
the knowledge of this strange literature, and an investiga-
tion of these would be worth the trouble, both for the
historian of Christianity 2 and for the Semitic philologist. 3
The Papyri in their extant form were written about the
end of the third and beginning of the fourth century A.D. ;
their composition may be dated some hundred years before
in the time of Tertullian. 4 But there would be no risk of
error in supposing that many elements in this literature be-
long to a still earlier period. It is even probable, in view of
the obstinate persistence of the forms of popular belief and
superstition, that, e.g., the books of the Jewish exorcists at
Ephesus, which, according to Acts 19 19 , were committed to
the flames in consequence of the appearance of the Apostle
Paul, had essentially the same contents as the Magic Papyri
from Egypt which we now possess. 5
In the formulae of incantation and adjuration found in
this literature an important part is played by the Divine
names. Every possible and impossible designation of deities,
1 F. G. Kenyon, Greek Papyri in the British Museum, London, 1893,
p. 62 ff.
2 Cf. A. Jiilicher, ZKG. xiv. (1893), p. 149.
3 Cf. E. Schiirer, Geschichte des jUdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu
Christi, 3 3 , Leipzig (1898), p. 294 ff., and especially L. Blau, Das altjildische
Zauberwesen (Jahresbericht der Landes-Rabbinerschule in Budapest, 1897-98),
Budapest, 1898.
4 Wessely, i., p. 36 ff. Though A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchrist-
lichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, i., Leipzig, 1893, p. ix., maintains that the age
of the Magic Literature is as yet quite undetermined, this must so far be
limited as that at least a terminus ad quern can be established on palseo-
graphical and internal grounds for a not inconsiderable part of this literature.
5 The Book of Acts if we may insert this observation here manifests
in this passage an acquaintance with the terminology of magic. Thus the
expression ra irepiepya, used in 19 19 , is a terminus technicus for magic ; cf., in
addition to the examples given by Wetstein, ad loc., Pap. Lugd., J 384, xii. 19
and 21, irepiepyia and Trepiep-ydCo/Jiat. (Fleck. Jahrbb. Suppl. xvi., p. 816 : cf.
Leemans, ii., p. 73). So also irpais, 19 18 , a terminus technicus for a particular
spell, of which the indexes of Parthey, Wessely and Kenyon afford numerous
examples. The ordinary translation artifice (Ranke) obliterates the peculiar
meaning of the word in this connection. [English A.V. and R.V. deeds even
more completely].
324 BIBLE STUDIES. [6,7
Greek, Egyptian and Semitic, is found in profuse variety,
just as, in general, this whole class of literature is character-
ised by a peculiar syncretism of Greek, Egyptian and Semitic
ideas.
But what interests us at present are the forms which
can in any way be considered to be transcriptions of the
Tetragrammaton. For the forms which are handed down
by the Fathers, in part still questioned, are all verified by the
Papyri, with the sole possible exception of Clement's laove.
law.
To the examples given by Baudissin there is to be added
such a large number from the Papyri since deciphered, that a
detailed enumeration is unnecessary. 1 The palindromic form
tacoai, 2 is also frequently found, and, still more frequently,
forms that seem to the author to be combinations of it, such
as apftaOiao). 1 The divine name law became so familiar that
it even underwent declension : el pi #609 6e&v aTravrtav tacov
<ra/3aco0 a$a>vcu a[/3pat;]a<; (Pap. Lugd. J 384, iii. i). 3
la.
Likewise not infrequent. Without claiming exhaustive-
ness we cite the following :
o eVt T}9 avdy/crj? Teray/Jbevos uucovfi ia t,ao> aafiawd
abtovai [a]{3pao-aj; (Pap. Lond. cxxi. ws, 6*9),* with which com-
pare the gem-inscription ta la MHO aScovai o-aj3ao>0, 5 the
combinations larfK (Pap. Lond. xlvi. 56, 6 Pap. Paris. Bibl. nat.
1 Cf. the indexes of Leemans, Wessely and Kenyon.
2 In the form 10001 in Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 996 (Wessely, i., p. 69). It is to
be regretted that the editor does not give the library number of this Papyrus.
3 Fleck. Jahrbb. Suppl. xvi., p. 798 ; Leemans, ii., p. 15. K. Buresch,
AnOAAHN KAAPIO2, Untersuchungen zum Orakelwesen des spateren Altertums,
Leipzig, 1889, p. 52, unnecessarily brackets the v of taw.
4 Kenyon, p. 105 ; Wessely, ii., p. 44. We do not give Wessely's number-
ing of the lines, which is different from Kenyon's. In line 327 of the same
Papyrus we are not quite certain whether to is meant for a Divine name or
not.
5 U. F. Kopp, Palaeographia critica, iv., Mannheim, 1829, p. 226.
6 Kenyon, p. 67 ; Wessely, i., p. 128,
7, 8] THE TETRAGRAMMATON. 325
96i and 3033 l ), and ma>\ (Pap. Paris. Louvre 2391 m), 2 as also
a whole mass of other combinations.
lacoia : 3
(read) eVl TOV fiercoirov iawia (Pap. Paris. Bibl. nat. 3257). 4
larj
occurs more frequently; in particular, in the significant
passage :
<r Kara TOV 0eov rwv 'Effpalwv 'Irja-ov' ia/3a'
' ala' 0(o6' eAe' e\co' ar)W eoV m/3ae%* af3apnas'
lafBa paov' a/3e\(3e\' \a)va' a/Spa' fiapoia* /Spa/cicov (Pap. Paris.
Bibl. nat. 3019 ff. ; 5 again, in the same Papyrus, 1222 s. 6 /cvpie
t,aa> air) ICOTJ a)t,r) OH?? ir) aiwai aiovw aijco rjai tew TJVCO arji aco acoa
0,67)1 vo) aev tarj ei'. One might surmise that the form ia,rj
in the latter passage should be assigned to the other mean-
ingless permutations of the vowels. 7 But against this is to
be set the fact that the form is authenticated as a Divine
name by Origen, that in this passage it stands at the end of
the series (the et of the Papyrus should likely be accented el),
and thus seems to correspond to the well-known form taco at
the beginning. Nevertheless, too great stress should not be
laid upon the occurrence, in similar vowel-series, of purely
vocalic transcriptions of the Tetragrammaton.
Further, in the same Papyrus, 1554 8 and igse 9 ; also in
Pap. Lond. xlvi. 23. 10
1 Wessely, i., pp. 68 and 121. 2 Ibid., p. 144.
3 Combined from law and la (cf. Baudissin, p. 183 f., and F. Dietrich,
p. 294).
4 Wessely, i., 126.
5 Ibid., p. 120. This passage, so far as regards the history of religion,
is one of the most interesting : Jesus is named as the God of the Hebrews ;
observe the Divine names combined with a0 (in reference to ape\&e\, cf.
Baudissin, p. 25, the name of the King of Berytus 'A^eA/SaAos) ; on aia and
iojSa see below, pp. 326 and 333 f. ; with reference to 00 (Egyptian deity) in
the Papyri, cf. A. Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 70.
6 Ibid., p. 75. ' 7 Cf. upon these, p. 329 below.
s Wessely, i., p. 84. 9 Ibid., p. 94.
10 Kenyon, p. 66 ; Wessely, i., p. 127.
326 BIBLE STUDIES. [8, 9
This form is also found in W. Frohner's l issue of the
bronze tablet in the Museum at Avignon : the last two lines
should not be read KOL <rv o-vvepyei, 'Afipao-dt; L\TJ 'law, as
Frohner reads them, but /cal crij avvepyet, a/3paaaj; tar) 2 iao).
The reverse combination iaco tar) is found in a leaden tablet
from Carthage, GIL. viii. Suppl. i., No. 12509.
We may, finally, at least refer to the passage on SicrvX-
Xa/3o9 el arj (Pap. Paris. Bibl. nat. 944). 3 According to A.
Dieterich, 4 a?; is " simply a mystical Divine name," and " it
is possible that it should be read aw ". We consider
this alteration quite unnecessary. Either arj is an indistinct
reminiscence of our larj, or else we must definitely conclude
that the L of lay coming after ei has fallen out by hemi-
graphy. 5
Ala.
Theodoret's form Ala, for which the Augsburg Codex
and the ed. princ. of Picus read la, 6 is found not only in the
above-cited passage, Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 3019 a, but also in
Pap. Lugd. J 395, xvii. si, 7 as a fact of special interest
the correction of the aipa which originally stood in the MS.
Jaoth.
The Latin codices of Irenseus yield the form Jaoth. 8
Irenseus distinguishes one pronunciation with a long, and
another with a short, o (ii. 35 3, Massuet : Jacoth, extensa
cum aspiratione novissima sylldba, mensuram praefinitam mani-
festat ; cum autem per o graecam corripitur ut puta Jaoth, eum
qui dat fugam malorum significat).
1 Philologus, Suppl. v. (1889), p. 44 f.
2 That is, A instead of A ; tacitly corrected by Wessely, Wiener Studien,
viii. (1886), p. 182.
3 Wessely, i., p. 68. 4 Abraxas, p. 97.
5 The i of lay must, in that case, on account of the metre and the
SicrvAAajSos, be pronounced as a consonant (cf. on this point, Kiihner-Blass,
Ausftihrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, i 3 . 1, Hanover, 1890, p. 50).
Hengstenberg, p. 227 ; F. Dietrich, p. 287.
7 A. Dieterich, Abr., p. 196 ; Leemans, ii., p. 141.
8 C/., in particular, Baudissin, p. 194 f.
9, 10] Tfi TETfcAGBAMMATON. 327
F. Dietrich has erroneously questioned this form. 1 The
following should be added to the citations given by Bau-
dissin :
Pap. Land. xlvi. 142 (tawr), 2
,, xlvi. 479 (<,a(o@), 3
Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 3263 (ta&>$), 4
Pap. Lugd. J 395, xxi. u (a/BpanacoQ), 5
Pap. Loud. xlvi. 56 (ap/3a0iaa)6), 6
Pap. Berol. 2 125 (afjL/3pi OiacoO). 7
With reference to the agglutination of a T-sound to
taw, cf. the literature cited by Baudissin. 8 The Papyri yield
a large number of examples of similar forms in -a>6. Similar
forms with Greek terminations (e.g., $apa(i>6r]s), in Josephus
and others. 9
laove.
Eegarding Clement's form laove, the author calls atten-
tion to the following passages :
#609 Qewv, 6 /cvpio$ TO>V TTvev/jLarcov 10 6 a7r\dvr)TOS altov
lawovrji, etad/cova-ov fiov rfjs c^o^r}? e7riKa\ovfj,ai ere TOV
Svvd(7Tr]v T&V Oecov, v^rL^pejjLeTa Zev, Zev -rvpavve, aSawai, ***
Kvpie lacoovrje' eyco el/jn 6 eiriKaXov^evo^ <re o-vpio-ri Oeov
^aa\a7jpL<j)(j)Ov KOI av fj,r) TrapaKovarjs
aftpa<ri\wa eycb yap eliit,
iaco teco veftovB (ra{3t,o6ap/3(t)0 ap/3a6iaa)
j3aa)0 Trarovprj ^ayovprj /3apov% aScovai e\coai, lajSpaap fiap-
ftapavco vav(TL(f) vty7]\6(f)pove . . . (Pap. Lond. xlvi. 466-432). n
1 P. 294. 2 Kenyon, p. 69 ; Wessely, i., p. 130.
8 Kenyon, p. 80 ; Wessely, i., p. 139. 4 Wessely, i., p. 126.
5 A. Dieterich, Abr., p. 201. 6 Kenyon, p. 67 ; Wessely, i., p. 128.
7 Parthey, p. 154. We begin the word with o, and affix the 6 to the
previous word ; cf. Kenyon, p. Ill, line 84a, a^piQ^pa.
8 P. 195.
9 C/., for example, the *ape0&507js of Artapanus (Eusebius, Praep. ev.
ix. 18), and, upon this, J. Freudenthal, Hellenistische Studien, Heft 1 and 2,
Breslau, 1875, p. 169.
10 With this expression, also common in the Book of Enoch, compare
LXX Num. 16 M , 27 16 .
11 Zenyon, p. 80 ; Wessely, i., 139. We have g'-ven the passage in
extenso because it is particularly instructive in respect to the Syncretism
of this literature.
328 BIBLE STUDIES. [10, 11
d/covcrdrco /j>ot SIC iraua yhcocrcra Kctl iracra (frcovi], OTI
Trepraco [w% %#%] A^X craK/jurjcf) i aw over) 0)770) 0)770)
[corrupt] Lrjwvoet 1 . . . (Pap. Lugd. J 384, vi. 12-14). 2
ai) el 6 a<yaQo$aifJ,ci)v o <yevvwv ayaOa KOLI rpocfrcov TTJV
olfcov/JLevrjv, crov Be TO aevvaov KOfiao-rrfpiov, ev co KaOiSpurai
TO eTTTaypd/jLfJLarov ovo(j,a TT/JO? rrjv apfjuoviav rcov " <j)06<y-
e^ovTwv (jxovas TT/^O? ra KTJ' (frtora T^? 0-6X77^779, crapa^apa
apacj) aia {3paapfj,apa<j)a a/3paa% TrepracofjbTj')^ CLKW% tacooverj
lawove eiov arjco CTJOV iaco . . . (Pap. Lugd. J 395, xvii. 25-32). 3
cm 7r/5oo-etX77yLtyLtat rrjv ^vva/JLiv rov ' 'Aftpaa/j, 'IcraK /col rov
'Ia/ca)/3 Kal rov fj,eyd\ov 6eov Saifjbovos laco a[S\
o-ia/3pa&i,\aa) \afjL^lrTfjp irji coco, dee, TTOITJCTOV, /cvpie,
X a X P^X i a <& o v rj e lacoovrje teovarjco erjoviaco (Pap. Lugd., J
395, xviii., 21-26).*
It might appear at first sight very natural to assume that
these forms are related to Clement's laove. In considera-
tion of the great freedom with which the Hebrew vowels
were transcribed in Greek, it need not seem strange that
the .EJ-sound at the end of words is rendered by 77^, 776 and 77
in the Papyri ; in point of fact the strengthening or length-
ening of the e by the addition of 77 would give a more distinct
rendering of the Jl- than the bare e of Clement. The coming
of co before ov is the only strange feature. Still, even this
peculiarity might be explained by the preference for laco, the
most popular transcription, which it was desired should have
a place also here.
For these reasons Kenyon maintains that the form
lacoovrje is actually the Divine name, and, indeed, that it is
an expansion of the form laco. 5
Notwithstanding, we must not trust entirely to plausi-
1 Considered by A. Dieterich to be a palindrome of the icovwijt.
2 A. Dieterich, Meek. Jahrbb. Suppl. xvi., p. 804; Leemans, ii., p. 23.
3 A. Dieterich, Abr., p. 195 f. ; Leemans, ii., p. 141 f.
4 A. Dieterich, Abr., p. 197 ; Leemans, ii., p. 145.
5 P. 63 : " The exact pronunciation of that name . . was preserved a
profound secret, but several approximations were made to it ; among which
the commonest is the word law . ., which was sometimes expanded, so as
to employ all the vowels, into lowovrje ".
ii, 12] THE TETRAGRAMMATON. 329
bility. We must first of all investigate whether the said
forms do not belong to the manifold permutations of the
seven vowels, 1 which are all but universally considered to be
capricious and meaningless, mocking every possible attempt
at explanation, and which can therefore, now less than ever,
yield a basis for etymological conjectures.
An instructive collection of these permutations and com-
binations of the seven vowels for magical purposes is found
in Wessely's treatise, Ephesia G-rammata. 2 That writer else-
where 3 passes judgment upon them as follows: "other
[names] again appear to have no special meaning, for, just
as magical formulae are formed from the seven vowels aerjiovw
and their permutations and combinations . . ., so in all
probability there were magic formulas formed from the
consonants also, now Hebraising, now Egyptianising, now
Graecising, and without any definite meaning ". We are
unable to decide whether this assertion concerning the
consonantal formulae is correct. But certainly when the
chaos of the vocalic formations is surveyed, the possibility
of accounting for the great majority of the cases may be
doubted. 4 If, then, it were established that the forms cited
above should also be assigned to this class, they could, of
course, no longer be mentioned in the present discussion.
We should otherwise repeat the mistake of old J. M. Gesner, 5
who believed that he had discovered the Divine name
Jehovah in the vowel series IEH&OTA.
But in the present instance the matter is somewhat
different, and the conjecture of Kenyon cannot be sum-
marily rejected. To begin with, the form taaovrje or
1 Cf. on this point Baudissin, p. 245 ff. ; Parthey, p. 116 f. ; A. Dieterich,
Abr., p. 22 f.
2 The 12th Jahresb. iiber das K. K. Franz-Josephs-Gymn. in Wien, 1886.
3 Wiener Studien, viii. (1886), p. 183.
4 Let one example suffice: Pap. Lugd. J 395, xx. iff. (A. Dieterich,
Abr., p. 200; Leemans, L, p. 149 f.): firiKa\ov/j.al ere ivcvo waeTjiaw ae^aterjaTj
louweurj leovaTjwrji wrjuarj twowrjavr) vrja icotucu i(aai cor] ee ou it aa> rb fieya ovofia.
5 De laude deiper septem vacates in the Commentationes Soc. Reg. Sclent.
Getting., i. (1751), p. 245 ff.
330 BIBLE STUDIES. t 12 > is
in the first passage quoted, does not stand among other
vowel-series ; on the contrary, it is enclosed on both sides by
a number of indubitable Divine names. Further, the same
form with insignificant modifications is found in various
passages of various Papyri ; from this we may conclude
that it is at least no merely hap-hazard, accidental form.
Finally, its similarity with Clement's laove is to be noted.
At the same time, wider conclusions should not be drawn
from these forms none, in particular, as to the true pro-
nunciation of the Tetragrammaton : for the fact that in
three of the quoted passages the form in question is followed
by vocalic combinations in part meaningless, constitutes an
objection that is at all events possible.
The value of the vocalic transcriptions of the Tetragrammaton
for the determination of its true pronunciation appears to us,
by reason of the diffuse and capricious usage of the vowels which
we find throughout the Magic Literature, to be at most very small.
The very great uncertainty of the traditional texts must also be
urged as an objection to its being so employed. Nowhere
could copyists' errors 1 be more easily made, nowhere are
errors in reading by editors more possible, than in these
texts. Let any one but attempt to copy half a page of such
magic formulae for himself : the eye will be continually losing
its way because there is no fixed point amidst the confusion
of meaningless vowels by which it can right itself.
la&e.
It is thus all the more valuable a fact that the important
consonantal transcription of the Tetragram, lafie, given by
Epiphanius and Theodoret, is attested likewise by the Magic
Literature, both directly and indirectly. The author has
found it four times in the collocation Lafte e/3vO :
TO ayiov ovofju[a
1 Cf. Wessely, ii., p. 42, on the "frivolity" (Leichtfertigkeit) with which
the copyists treated the magic formulae. The state of the text generally with
regard to Semitic names in Greek manuscripts, biblical and extra-biblical, ia
instructive.
13, 14] THE TETRAGRAMMATOtf. 331
taco
(leaden tablet of cent. 2 or 3 from a Cumaean tomb, GIG.
iii., No. 5858 b). J. Franz l has correctly explained this
form : habes in ea formula IAfl Judaicum satis notum illud ex
monumentis Abraxeis, deinde I ABE, quo nomine Samaritanos
summum numen invocasse refert Theodoretus Quaest. in Exod. xv.
On %epvO see below. Wessely 2 conjectures that law
2ABAco@ appears in the third line. But %e[SvO is vouched
for by the two following passages which give the same magic
precept as a precept, which is actually put in practice in the
Cumsean tablet :
On a tablet of tin shall be written before sunrise among
other words the Xo709 et . . . o-rfOr)' lafie e/3i>0 (Pap. Lond.
CXX1.419), 8
On a chalice one shall write besides other words eprj-
tcicndfyr) \6yov ia/Be e(3v6 (Pap. Par. Bill. nat. 2000),*
Similarly eTriKaXovpal crov . . rc3 fieydXa crov
r . . . eprj/cicrid^rj apapa%ap apa rj^OicriKripe id/Be
(Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 1734 ff .). 5
How are we to explain the form feySw^ 6 which thus
occurs four times in union with ta/3e ? R Lenormant 7 main-
tains that it is the names Beelzebuth and Jao which are found
on the tablet. He reads lao> la /3efe/3i/# 6\avafti (ra^Xav. . . . 8
Leaving aside the fact that the form Beelzebuth can be no-
1 GIG. iii., p. 757. 2 Wiener Studien, viii. (1886), p. 182.
3 Kenyon, p. 98 ; Wessely, ii., p. 34. 4 Wessely, i., p. 95.
5 Ibid., p. 89. This passage renders it possible to restore the text of
the Inscription CIO. iii., No. 5858 b, and of the quotation from Pap. Lond.
cxxi. 419, with certainty ; observe the palindrome eprjKuri9<f>r) apapax, etc.
6 Cf. also Kvpie apxavSapa (fxarafa wpKpcara a0v6 . . . (Pap. Par. Bibl.
nat. 631-632; Wessely, i., p. 60).
7 De tabulis devotionis plumbeis Alexandrinis, Rhein. Mus. fiir Philo*
logic, N. P., ix. (1854), p. 375.
332 BIBLE STUDIES. [14, 15
where authenticated, 1 it is very precarious to see it in the
fte^epvO of the Inscription. The mere absence of the X,
indeed, would not be decisive 2 against Lenormant's idea, but
certainly the v, which cannot be read as u* is decisive, and
above all the great improbability of the assumption that the
names of God and the Devil stand thus closely together.
We consider it to be much less objectionable to explain 4
&ftv0 as a corruption of fVlNl^, and to see in ta/3e e/3v0
the familiar
With reference to this identification, the author's col-
league, Herr P. Behnke, Pastor and Repetent at Marburg, has
kindly given him the following additional information : 5
" v = Heb. o is frequently found. The examples, how-
ever, in which this vowel-correspondence appears before p
should not be taken into account Ob = pvppa, *& = Tupo?,
""H^il = 'Irafivpiov, 'ArajBvpiov, ttWS = Kvpos, Ti23 = /cwvpa.
In ^D, *fc, Unto, "Ytofi [?] the o is a lengthened it, and the
ordinary transcription of Sem. ft is v. But a difference
1 The French scholar's assertion is only to be explained by the fact
that the form of Satan's name is, in French, Belztbuth or Beis6buth. We
have not been able to ascertain when this form can be first vouched for,
or how it is to be explained. Should we find in the variant belzebud of
(Vulgate) Codex mm, Matt. 10 25 (Tischendorf), authority for saying that the
T-sound has supplanted the original ending 6 or I in later Latin, and so in
French also ? What form is found in the " Eomance " Bibles ?
2 Cod. B., occasionally also fc$, of the N. T. yield the form eee)8ov\;
cf. on this Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 31 (p. 65).
3 Viva-voce information by W. Schulze. Cf. Winer-Schmiedel, 5, 21 6
(p. 51), on Ko\\ovpiov.
4 Cf. Franz, p. 757. Franz, in his explanation of the syllable /3u0,
recalls the 0v06s of the Valentinians. It is more correct to point to the
frequently occurring (Egyptian ?) termination in -vO the )8 is got from
Cej8a0. Cf. the name of deities and months 0<wu0, the formations tej/u0
(Kopp, iv., p. 158), pevvvOvf) tow (Pap. Lond. cxxi. 820 ; Kenyon, p. 110 ;
Wessely, ii., p. 49), fopvOif (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 1799; Wessely, i., p. 89).
Cf. on Egyptian female names in -vO, A. Boeckh, AAB., hist.-phil. Klasse,
1820-1821, p. 19.
5 Cf. also H. Lewy, Die semitischen Fremdworter im Qriechischen,
Berlin, 1895, pp. 38, 42 f., 225.
15, 16] THE TETKAGRAMMATON. 333
appears in T)23, which goes back to an original Jcanndr; here
therefore the v corresponds to an o which has been derived
from a, as would be the case with -vd = nV). But it seems
to me to be of greater consequence that the Phoenician pro-
nunciation of Heb. o (and 6) is y. Thus we have in the
Poenulus of Plautus (ed. Eitschl) [chyl = ^ = kull], *>N^in
(= mausai) given as mysehi; JTlN (sign, original form dth) as
yth, rifc^t as syth. Moreover, Movers (Phoniz., ii., 1, p. 110)
has identified Berytos with rfn^5L, an ^ Lagarde (Mitteil., i.,
p. 226) has acknowledged the identification. It is thus quite
possible that fYlNl^ could have become e/3i>0 in the mouth
of a Phoenician juggler. Still, the omission of the a before
dth in the pronunciation remains a difficulty."
Perhaps la fie is also contained in the word o-epiafie-
fiwQ (Pap. Lond. xlvi. s) 1 ; but the text is uncertain and
the composition of the word doubtful.
[Reference must finally be made to a number of forms,
in respect of which the author is again unable to allow him-
self a certain conclusion, but which appear to him to be
corruptions of the form tafie, and therefore in any case to
merit our attention :
tafioe, Pap. Lond. xlvi. es ; 2
tafia* is frequently found : 6ptcia> <re Kara TOV Oeov T&V
'Efipaicov 'Irjo-ov* tafia' tarj' ........ afiap/j,a<; f la ft a paov.
afie\fie\ . . . (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 3019 ff.), 4 eVt/caXoO/^at <re TOV
fjueyav ev ovpavaj ........ J3a6a/3a6i' tarfjicov' a\ei' tafia
Oaj3aa)6 5 craftawd' aSavat, o 6eb<t 6 yLte^a? opcrevotyprj (Pap. Par.
1 Kenyan, p. 65 ; Wessely, i., p. 127.
2 Kenyan, p. 67 ; Wessely, p. 128.
3 F. Dietrich, p. 282 : " The principal thing is, however, that the pro-
nunciation Jahavd has no historic authority whatever. If Theodoret had
intended to signify that, while HIPP was pronounced 'Io)8e by the Samari-
tans, the Jews pronounced this full form of the name with a at the end,
then he would have written 'lovSaioi 5e 'lafid, which is warranted by none of
the variants." But "historic authority" for this form has now been
shown as above.
* Wessely, i., p. 120.
5 With the form 0o|8aa>0 cf. rafiauO, Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. wis (Wessely,
334 BIBLE STUDIES. [17
Bibl. nat. 1621 ff.), 1 u/xa? e^opKifa Kara TOV law /cal TOV
KOI a&wvai ...... fBaXtafta (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. H84ff.), 2
iaj3a eSS Law (a gem-inscription) 3 ;
i a ft a a)0*: tacoO tafiawO (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 3203), 5 Sta
TO fjueya evSo^ov ovofia a(3paau epeivaaeovpawO /SaiOcoft ecria
i a ft a cod (Pap. Lond. cxxi. 314 f.) 6 ;
ta/3a?: <rv el tafias av el iairws (Pap. Lond. xlvi.io*). 7
A. Dieterich 8 thinks it superfluous "to seek a 'Idfir)<? or
similar name " in this ; it is but " mystical play- work set
down at random ". But the supposition that tafias and
taTTcos are not mere capricious forms, but rather corrupt
G-raecisings of lafie, is supported by the context of the whole
passage, which belongs to those that are most strongly
permeated by Jewish conceptions.
There may also be mentioned another series of forms,
chiefly verbal combinations, in which this transcription
appears, in part at least, to be contained. We mention only
the examples: tafico (Geoponica, ed. Niclas, ii., 42s); 9
tafiovvr/ (Pap. Lond. xlvi. 340) ; 10 the names of angels
8aOiafir)\ and afipaOiafipi, (Pap. Lond. cxxi. 906f.) j 11 further,
tafiov% and tafiwx (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 2204). 12
Even putting aside the last-quoted series of forms,
we consider it to have nevertheless been made plain that
Ia(3e must have enjoyed an extraordinary popularity in the
Magic Literature. Now this may appear strange if we re-
member the observation given by the Fathers that it was the
Samaritan pronunciation of the Tetragram : how did it get
to Egypt and the land of the Cumsean Sybil ? The question,
i., p. 80), Pap. Lond. xlvi. 62, 63, in which the form tafioe follows (Kenyon,
p. 67; Wessely, i., p. 128), Pap. Lugd. J 384, iii. 7 (Fleck. Jahrbb. Suppl,
xvi., p. 798 ; Leemans, ii., p. 15).
I Wessely, i., p. 85. 2 Ibid., p. 82.
3 Kopp, iv., p. 159 f. 4 Cf. above on iawd.
5 Wessely, i., p. 126. 6 Kenyon, p. 94 ; Wessely, ii., p. 31.
7 Kenyon, p. 68 ; Wessely, i., p. 129. 8 Abr., p. 68.
9 In E. Heim's Incantamenta magica Graeca Latina; Fleck., Jahrbb'
Suppl. xix. (1893), 523.
10 Kenyon, p. 76, cf. the note to line 357; Wessely, i., pp. 135, 136.
II Kenyon, p. 113 ; Wessely, ii., p. 52. 12 Wessely, i., p. 100.
18] THE, TETRAGRAMMATON. 335
however, does not appear to the writer to be unanswerable.
We must not of course so conceive of the dissemination of the
form as if it had been consciously employed, in such various
localities, as the true name of the Mighty God of the Jews ;
the writer of the Cumaean tablet simply copied it along with
other enigmatic and, of course, unintelligible magic formulae
from one of the numerous books of Magic, all of which, very
probably to judge from those still extant point to Egypt
as their native region. But Egypt was just the country which,
because of the ethnological conditions, was most ready to trans-
fer Jewish conceptions into its Magic. One may therefore not
unjustifiably suppose that here especially the Tetragramma-
ton was used by the magicians as a particularly efficacious
Name in its correct pronunciation, which was, of' course,
still known to the Jews, though they shrank from using it,
up to and into the Christian era. Thus we have been using
the Ia/3e not necessarily for the purpose of indicating the
specifically Samaritan pronunciation as such, but rather as
an evidence for the correct pronunciation. But we con-
sider it quite possible to account for the occurrence of Ia(Se
in Egyptian Papyri by " Samaritan " influence. Besides
the Jews proper 1 there were also Samaritans in Egypt.
"Ptolemy I. Lagi in his conquest of Palestine had taken
with him many prisoners-of-war not only from Judaea and
Jerusalem but also 'from Samaria and those who dwelt in
Mount Gerizim,' and settled them in Egypt [Joseph. Antt.
xii. 1]. In the time of Ptolemy VI. Philometor, the Jews
and Samaritans are reported to have taken their dispute con-
cerning the true centre of worship (Jerusalem or Gerizim)
to the judgment-seat of the king [Joseph. Antt. xiii. 3*]." 2
Some Papyri of the Ptolemaic period confirm the relatively
early residence of Samaritans in Egypt. As early as the
time of the second Ptolemy we find (Pap. Flind Petr. ii. iv.
1 Cf. on the Jewish, diaspora in Egypt, Hugo Willrich, Juden und
Oriechen vor der makkabaischen Erhebung, Gottingen, 1895, p. 126 f. ; and,
against WiUrich, Schurer, ThLZ. xxi. (1896), p. 35. Cf. also Wilcken, Berl.
PUlol. Wochenschrift, xvi. (1896), p. 1492 iL
2 E. Schurer, Geschichte des jUdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi^
ii., Leipzig, 1886, p. 502 (= 3 iii., p. 24). [Eng. Trans., ii., ii., p. 230.]
336 BIBLE STUDIES. [19, 20
II) 1 mention of a place Samaria in the Fayyum, and two
inhabitants of this Samaria, eo^tXo? and Ilvppias? are
named in Pap. Flind. Petr. ii. xxviii. 8 Even more im-
portant, in this connection, than such general information,
is a passage in the supposed letter of Hadrian to Servianus,
in which it is said that the Samaritans in Egypt, together
with the Jews and Christians dwelling in that country,
are all Astrologers, Aruspices and Quacksalvers* This is
of course an exaggeration ; but still the remark, even if the
letter is spurious, is direct evidence of the fact that magic and
its allied arts were common among the Egyptian Samaritans.
We may also refer here to Acts viii. : Simon the magian was
altogether successful among the Samaritans : "to him they all
gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that
power of God which is called Great ". 5 As the Divine name
played a great part in the adjurations, we may conclude that
the Samaritan magicians used it too naturally in the form
familiar to them. From them it was transferred, along with
other Palestinian matter, to the Magic Literature, and thus
it is explained why we should find it in a remote region,
scratched by some one unknown, full of superstitious dread,
upon the lead of the minatory, magical tablet.
1 In J. P. Mahaffy, The Flinders Petrie Papyri, ii., Dublin, 1893 [14].
The paging of the text is always given in brackets [ ] in Mahaffy. Vol. i.
was published in Dublin, 1891.
2 MahafEy, ii. [97], conjectures that these are translations of Eldad and
Esau. With this he makes the further conjecture that the name e6$i\os,
common in the imperial period, occurs here for the first time. But the name
is found earlier, and Mahaffy's question whether it is perhaps a "Jewish in-
vention " must be answered in the negative. The author has made further
observations on Samaria in the Fayyum in ThLZ. xxi. (1896), p. 611.
s Mahaffy, ii. [87] ff.
4 Vopisc., vita Saturnini, c.Bi (Scriptores historiae Augustae, ed. Peter,
vol. ii., p. 225) : nemo illic archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo
Christianorum presbyter non mathematicus, non haruspex, non aliptes. Schiirer
refers to this passage, ii., p. 502 (= 3 iii., p. 24). [Eng. Trans., II., ii., p. 230.]
Cf. alsoc. 7 4 .
8 Compare with the expression y $6va/j.is rov 6eov y /caAoujue'j/Tj (j.eyd\ri,
Pap. Par. Bibl. nat. 1275 ff. (Wessely, i., 76), &rifca\ov/*a{ trc rty /j.eyi<TTr)v 8vva/j.iv
rV eV T$ ovpavy (&\\oi : T^V eV TT> fycT<y) inrb Kvpiov 6eov Tfro.y^vt]V. See also
Harnack, Bruchstilcke des Evangeliuws und der Apakalypse des Petrus (TU.
ix. 2), 2 Aufl., Leipzig, 1893, p, Q5 f.
VII.
SPICILEGIUM.
22
Ira firj TI
1. THE CHEONOLOGICAL STATEMENT IN THE
PROLOGUE TO JESUS SIEACH.
'Ev yap TM oySoy KOI rpiaicoo-Tw ere*. eVl rov 'Evepyerov
TrapayevrjOel? els AiyvTrrov KOI <rvy%povi,<Ta<; evpov ov
ias acj)o/jLotov : of this chronological statement of
the grandson of the son of Sirach, which is of the highest
importance not only as regards the date of the book itself,
but also, on account of the other contents of the prologue,
for the history of the Old Testament canon, various inter-
pretations are given. 1 If it be "a matter of course " that
the writer of the Prologue wishes to indicate, not the year
of his own life, but the thirty-eighth year of King Euergetes, 2
no doubt can exist as to the year in which the writer came
to Egypt; of the two Ptolemies who bore the surname
of Euergetes, the reign of the second only, Ptolemy VII.
Physcon, extended to thirty-eight years, and hence the
date given in the Prologue would signify the year 132 B.C.
But when we find a writer like L. Hug preferring the other
interpretation, 3 we cannot but feel that there must be a
difficulty somewhere. The chief support of those who inter-
pret the date as the year of the prologue-writer's age, and,
at the same time, the chief difficulty of the other inter-
pretation, lie in the eiri which stands between the number
and the name of the king. " La preposition eirl parait ici tout
& fait superflue, puisque toujours le mot erovs est suivi d'un
gtnitif direct. On ne dit jamais erovs Trpcorov, Sevrepov . . .
Girl TWOS, en parlant d'un roi, mais bien erovs . . . TWOS ou rfj$
pacrCkeias TWOS. Gette locution serait done sans exemple " : the
difficulty in question may be formulated in these words of
1 See O. P. Fritzsche, HApAT. v. (1859), p. xiii. ff.
2 Sclmrer, ii., p. 595 (= 3 iii., p. 159). [Eng. Trans., ii., iii., p. 26.]
Cf. HApAT. v. (1859), p. xv.
340 BIBLE STUDIES.
Letronne, 1 written in reference to a passage in the Inscrip-
tion of Rosetta to be noticed presently.
The difficulty, nevertheless, can be removed. But
certainly not by simply referring, as does 0. F. Fritzsche, 2
to the passages LXX Hagg. I 1 , 2 1 , Zech. I 7 , 7 1 , 1 Mace.
13 42 , 14 27 , to which may be added LXX Zech. I 1 , for, all
these passages being translations of Semitic originals, the eVt
might be a mere imitation of 7, and would thus yield nothing
decisive for the idiom of the Prologue to Sirach, which was in
Greek from the first. The following passages seem to the
present writer to be of much greater force. In an Inscription
from the Acropolis, 3 as old as the 3rd cent. B.C., we find in
line 24 f. the words tepevs ryevopevos ev r&5 eVt Av<ridov ap^ovros
eviavrq). Still more significant for the passage in Sirach
are the following parallels of Egyptian origin. The Inscrip-
tion of the Eosetta Stone (27th March, 196 B.C.), line ie, 4
runs thus : Trpoa-eragev [Ptolemy V. Epiphanes] Se KOI
TTCpl TWV lepidDV, O7TO)9 ftrjOeV 7T\LOV $(,ScO(TlV t9 TO T6\O-Ti/COV
ov erdo'O'ovTO e'o>9 rov Trpcarov erou? eTrl TOV Trarpos avrov
[Ptolemy IV. Philopator] . Though Letronne, in view of
the alleged want of precedent for this usage of eVt, 5 tries
a different interpretation, he is yet forced to acknowledge
that, if we translate the concluding words by until the first
year [of the reign] of his father, the whole sentence is made
to fit most appropriately into the context ; 6 the priests, who
are hardly inclined to speak of the merits of Epiphanes for
nothing, would be again but manifesting their ability to
do obeisance to him, and, at the same time, to extol the
memory of his father. Had Letronne known the example
1 BeciteU, i. (1842), p. 277. 2 P. xiii.
3 Bulletin de corr. hell, i. (1877), p. 36 f.
4 In Letronne, Eecueil, i., p. 246 = GIG. iii., No. 4697. Lumbroso,
Recherches, p. xxi., has already referred to this.
5 See his words as cited above. J. Franz, in GIG. iii., p. 338, agrees
with Letronne, and refers to line 29 of the Inscription. But the present
writer is again unable to see how the words occurring there, viz., e'ws rov
6yd6ov erous, can signify the years of the priests' service.
6 The author thinks that the explanation given by Letronne (year of
their priesthood) is somewhat forced.
257, 258] EDICT AGAINST EGYPTIAN JEWS. 341
from the Prologue to Sirach, perhaps he would have decided
for this way of taking eW, which so admirably suits the
context. The two passages mutually support one another.
But the usage of eVt is further confirmed by other passages
of Egyptian origin. In Pap. Par. 15 1 (120 B.C.) two aljvTr-
TICU (Tvyvpafai are mentioned, which are dated as follows :
/ua? fjbkv yeyovvias [roO IH f erou? Tra^Ja)^ eTrl TOV $I,\O/JLIJ-
ro/009, the one of Pachon (Egyptian month) of the 18th
year (of the reign) of Philometor; erepas Se yeyovvias TOV AE'
fjueaoprj 67rl TOV avrov /3a<rA,ece>9, the other of Mesore [Egyptian
month] (of the year) 35 (of the reign) of the same king. Finally,
Pap. Par. 5 2 begins thus : ftao-iKevovrwv KXeoTrdrpas teal
^ayrrjpcov erot>9 '
6eov $i\OfjLiJTOpo$ ^corfjpo
/cal 6ewv ^cortjpcov, KT\. If the interpretation advocated by
Brunet against Brugsch, 8 viz., under King Ptolemy . . . . , the
priest of Alexander [the Great] and of the gods be correct,
then this passage also must be taken into consideration.
The pleonastic eW of the Prologue to Sirach is thus sup-
ported by several authorities of about the same date and
place. Hence also, in the light of this result, the passages
from the Greek Bible, cited above, acquire a new signi-
ficance. The pleonastic eVt found in these is not to be
explained by that excessive scrupulosity of the translators
which manifests itself elsewhere ; in point of fact, their
desire to translate literally was assisted by a peculiar idiom
of their locality, and hence we have a translation which
is at once literal and accurate.
2. THE SUPPOSED EDICT OF PTOLEMY IV. PHILO-
PATOE AGAINST THE EGYPTIAN JEWS.
In 3 Mace. 3 n ff - is quoted a decree of Ptolemy IV.
Philopator against the Egyptian Jews, according to which a
reward is promised to every one who informs against a Jew.
In our editions the Greek text of verse 28 runs thus :
1 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 220 f . 2 Ibid., p. 130.
3 Ibid., p. 153. Brugsch translates thus : under the priest of " the " king
Ptolemy. . . .
342 BIBLE STUDIES. [258
B rbv {3ov\6fj,evov e</>' c3 rrjv ovcriav rov e/ATrwrrovTO? VTTO rrjv
evdvvcLv X^T/reraf. /cal etc TOV ySao-tXt/coO apyvpiov
&(7%Xia9 KOL rr)<; e\ev9ep'ia<; reuferat KOI a-Te^av
Grimm l explains the ungrammatical (constructionslos) accusa-
tive at the beginning of the verse as an anacoluthon, as if
the writer had in his mind some such construction as efc rr/v
e\6vQepiav afyaipyo-opeOa. In that case we translate as fol-
lows : him, however, who is willing to inform against a Jew he
shall receive, in addition to the property of him upon whom the
punishment falls, two thousand silver drachmae from the royal
treasury, shall obtain his freedom, and shall be crowned with a
garland. A most extraordinary proclamation, extraordinary
even for the third Book of Maccabees, which is by no means
wanting in extraordinary things. "It cannot but seem
strange that slaves only are invited to become informers,
and that this fact is announced quite indirectly, and, what is
more, only at the end of the statement." 2 But even this
invitation, which, in the circumstances related in the book,
is by no means impossible, does not appear so strange to
the present writer as the proffered reward, which, in con-
sideration of the great ease with which an information
might be lodged against any individual Jew among so many, 3
is hardly less than horrifying: not so much, indeed, the
monetary reward, as the declaration that the slave who
acted as informer was to receive not only his freedom, but
also the honour which was the special prerogative of dis-
tinguished men, viz., the being crowned with a garland.
The passage thus awakes suspicion of its being corrupt, and,
as a matter of fact, the Alexandrinus, as well as other
manuscripts, omits Tevgerat, KCLI, and reads thus : /cal TT;?
\ev6epia^ a-TeQavcoOrjo-erai,. But nothing is really gained
thereby, for this reading, as such, gives no sense though,
indeed, its very unintelligibility makes it probable that it
represents the older, though already corrupt, form of the
1 HApAT. iv. (1857), p. 249. 2 Grimm, ibid.
3 According to 4 *, the number of the Jews was so enormous that, when
their names were being entered in the lists before their execution, pens and
papyrus ran short 1
259] EDICT AGAINST EGYPTIAN JEWS. 343
text, by which the received reading can be explained as
being an attempt to make the statement more plausible.
Hence Grimm gives it the preference, and " cannot hesitate
for a moment " to accept the emendation of Grotius, viz.,
KOI rot? *E\ev6eploi<$ crT<f)av(i)6ij(rTat,, i.e., and he shall be
crowned at the feast of the Eleutheria. The alteration is
certainly not extensive, and the conjecture has at all events
the advantage of explaining away the invitation to the
slaves, which seems so offensive to its proposer. Neverthe-
less, 0. F. Fritzsche 1 hesitates to accept it, and, as we
think, not without good reason. We know nothing of
any feast of the Eleutheria as a custom in Egypt under
the Ptolemies, and it is extremely precarious to take refuge
in a conjecture which, by introducing an entirely new
historical consideration, would give the text such a very
special meaning.
The author believes that the following facts from
Egyptian sources contribute something towards the elucida-
tion of the verse.
In the first place, for the supposed " construction-less "
accusative fir/vveiv Be rbv /3ov\6/jL6vov } reference might have
been made to the similar, apparently absolute, infinitive at
the end of the edict of Ptolemy II. Philadelphus which is
given in the Epistle of Aristeas (ed. M. Schmidt), p. 17 f.,
viz., rbv Be fiov\6fjLevov irpocra<y<ye\\ei,v irepl r&v aTreiOr/a-avrcov
eVt roO fyavevTos evo%ov rrjv icvpiav e^etv (p. 18 7 f. ) ; as a matter
of fact, e&iv depends upon the technical SieLXfaa/jiev of the
previous sentence. Similarly we might construe the fiyvveiv
Se TOV /3ov\6fji6vov with the StetX^a/^ei/ of verse 26 . We
cannot but perceive that there is on the whole a certain
similarity between the official formulae of the two edicts,
and it seems very natural to suppose that, even if both
are spurious, yet in form they fully represent the official
style of the Ptolemaic period. In fact, a comparison of
this Maccabean passage with Pap. Par. 10 2 (145 B.C.) a
1 In a critical note upon the text of the passage in his edition of the
Old Testament Apocrypha.
2 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 178 f .
344 BIBLE STUDIES. [260
warrant for the apprehension of two runaway slaves raises
the supposition to a certainty. The warrant first gives an
exact description of each fugitive, and then sets forth a
reward for their recapture, or for information concerning
their whereabouts. When we place the two passages in
parallel columns as below, we see at once the remarkable
similarity between the formulae employed in each ; be it
noted that the Maccabean passage has been correctly
punctuated.
3 Mace. 3 28. Pap. Par. 10.
fjurjvveiv Be TOV /3ou- TOVTOV 09 civ avcvydyy
\6fJievov, ec/>' <p TTJV ovaiav \r)tyerai, %a\Kov rakavra
TOV e/jLTTLTTTOVTOS V7TO T7)V 6V- BvO T p L O")^i\ia^ (Bpa^/Jid^} .
Qvvav \tftyeTai, KOI etc TOV /jLijvveiv Be TOV ftov-
dpyvpiov Spa^^as \6jjbevov rot? irapa TOV (TTpa-
[Codd. 19, 64, 93, TTJJOV.
Syr.: Tpt,a"x,i\la<i\.
In reference to the absolute ^vveiv Be TOV /3ov\6jjievov
of the Papyrus, the French editor 1 remarks that the in-
finitive does duty for the imperative, as in similar formulae
generally. It would perhaps be more accurate, especially
as the imperative infinitive is itself to be explained as a
breviloquence, to make the infinitive depend upon a verb
of command which the edict tacitly presupposes. 2 We must,
in any case, reject the hypothesis of an anacoluthon in ,the
Maccabean passage ; it would destroy the impression given by
the peculiarly official style of the edict. The words ^vveiv
Be TOV /3ov\6fjLevov are a complete sentence in themselves :
he shall inform, who so desires. Hence the comparison in-
stituted above is not without interest for the criticism of
1 Notices, xviii. 2, p. 203.
2 Cf. SieiA/^ayuei/ in the other two edicts. The official language of the
Ptolemaic period may depend here also (ante, p. 104 ff.) on the usage of
Greek jurisprudence. The identical usage of the infinitive is found in an
Inscription on a building in Tegea (ca. 3rd cent. B.C., Arcadian dialect), line
24 f. : i/j.<t>aivev Sk rbfj. fioXoptvov eirl rot ^i^iffffoi ras fouiav (edited by P. Cauer ;
see p. 114, note 2, above). These examples of the absolute infinitive in
edicts might be largely supplemented from Inscriptions.
261] EDICT AGAINST EGYPTIAN JEWS. 345
the third Book of Maccabees ; while, conversely, it may be
maintained that the Ptolemaic edicts in Jewish-Alexandrian
literature, even if they were each and all spurious, and were
without value as sources for the facts, are yet of great
historical importance, in so far, that is, 1 as they faithfully
represent the forms of official intercourse.
What, then, shall we say of the "extraordinary" pro-
clamation at the end of v. 28 ? There is no necessity what-
ever that we should connect the passage itself (according to
the ordinary reading) with slaves; the present writer is
surprised that Grinim did not perceive the much more
obvious explanation, viz., that the invitation is really
directed to the Jews. The edict threatened their freedom
and their lives, as may not only be inferred from the circum-
stances of the case, but as is also confirmed by the expression
of their feelings once the danger had been happily averted :
they felt that they were da-weis, e\evOepoi,, vTrep^apel^. 2
Hence when those who appeared as king's evidence against
their proscribed brethren were thereby promised the freedom
which was otherwise in danger, the bargain was an exceed-
ingly tempting one. It is, finally, quite unnecessary to speak
of a crowning of the informer. Assuming that the reading of
the Alexandrinus, ical rfjs faev&ephvi arrefyavasOricreTai, is the
older though itself a corrupt form of the text, the author
would propose to make a trivial alteration, and read teal rfj
e^evOepia a-TefyavwOiia-erat,? The verb a-recfravoa) has not
infrequently the general meaning reward* and this is what
it means here.
1 To say nothing of their value as indicating the wishes and ideas of
the writers of them.
2 3 Mace. 7 20 .
3 In rfj eA.eu9e/n? <rre:/>ai'a>0^<reTo, e\ev9epias might very easily arise from
dittography, and this error, again, might result in TTJS e\ev3epias.
4 Brunet de Presle, Notices, xviii. 2, p. 308 ; he refers, inter alia, to
Polyb. xiii. 9 5, effTefyfocixrcu/ rbv 'AVTIOXOV irevTa.Ko<riois apyvpiov raXavrois, and to
the use of ffTtfy&viov for reward in Pap. Par. 42 (155 B.C.) ; on this cf. the
Thesaurus, and Lumbroso, Rscherchss, p. 235. In reference to the whole
subject see now E. Ziebarth, Popularklagen mit Delator enpramien nach
griechischem Recht, in Hermes, xxxii. (1897), pp. 609-628.
346 BIBLE STUDIES. [262
3. THE " LARGE LETTEKS " AND THE " MAEKS OF
JESUS " IN GAL. 6.
Paul began his preaching of the gospel to the Gala-
tians in most promising circumstances ; they received the
invalid traveller as a messenger of God, yea, as if it had
been the Saviour himself who sank down upon their thres-
hold under the burden of the cross. Whereas others might
have turned from Paul with loathing, they came to him,
aye, and would have given away their eyes if by so doing
they could have helped him. And then with childlike piety
they gazed upon the majestic Form which the stranger
pictured to them. Ever afterwards they were his children ;
and like a father's, indeed, are the thoughts which, across
land and sea, bind him to the far-off churches of Galatia.
True, he knows that they had forsaken their native idols
with the zeal of the newly- awakened, but he also knows that
they had not followed up this advance by full realisation
of the sacred fellowship in which the majesty of the living
Christ ever anew assumes human form. The confession
regarding his own life in Christ, which Paul, on the very
eve of his martyrdom, made to his dearest friends, had been
confirmed in his own mind by the painful yet joyful experi-
ence of his long apostolic labours among the churches : Not
as though I had already attained/ So then, as he left these
infant churches in Asia Minor, his heart, full of love and
gratitude, would yet have some foreboding of the dangers
which their isolation might bring about ; we cannot imagine
that he was one to think, with the blind affection of a father,
that the newly-awakened had no further need of tutors and
governors. Nay, but rather that, as he prayed to the Father
on their behalf, his remembrance of them would be all the
more fervent.
With their good-natured Gallic flightiness of disposition,
these young Christians, left to themselves, succumbed to the
wiles of their tempters. Paul was compelled to recognise
that here too, the wicked enemy, who was always sowing
tares among his wheat, did not labour in vain. In their
263] "LARGE LETTERS" AND " MARKS OF JESUS ". 347
simple-hearted ignorance the Galatians had allowed them-
selves to be bewitched by the word of the Law, and, in
course of time, their idea of the man whom they had once
honoured as their father in Christ became somewhat dis-
torted in the light which streamed from national and
theological animosity.
How shall, we figure to ourselves the feelings of the
Apostle as the news of this reached his ears ? If we would
understand not only the words, but, so to speak, also the
spirit, of the Letter to the Galatians, we must, above
all, endeavour to bring home to our minds the movements
of this marvellous human soul. The keen biting polemic
of the missive gives us to know exactly how Paul judged
of the legal particularism of his opponents ; it was the
salutary indignation of the reformer that guided his pen
here. But we dare not assume that he meted out the
same measure to the tempted as to their tempters. The
bitter incisiveness with which he speaks of these churches
does not proceed from the self-willed sullenness of the mis-
interpreted benefactor who is pleased to pose as a martyr :
it is rather the lament of the father who, in the unfilial
conduct of his son, sees but the evil which the wrong-doer
brings upon himself. The harsh and formal speech of the
first page or two of the letter is that of the TrcuSaycoybs e/9
Xpiarov. But he speaks thus only incidentally ; once he
has risen above the warfare of embittering words to the
praise of the faith in Christ which may again be theirs,
the warm feelings of the old intimacy will no longer be
subdued, and the man who a moment before had feared
that his labour among these foolish ones had been in vain,
changes his tone and speaks as if he were addressing the
Philippians or his friend Philemon.
As in his other letters, so in this does Paul add to the
words he had dictated to his amanuensis a postscript in his
own handwriting. More attention ought to be paid to the
concluding words of the letters generally; they are of the
highest importance if we are ever to understand the Apostle.
The conclusion of the Letter to the Galatians is certainly a
348 BIBLE STUDIES. [264
very remarkable one. Once again, in short and clear anti-
theses, the Law and Christ are set over against each other ;
and, moreover, the fact that it is only his opponents whom
he now treats severely, fully consorts with the mood of
reconciliation with the church, to which, in course of writing,
he had been brought. The letter does not close with com-
plaints against the Galatians ; and in view of the occasion
of the letter, this must be taken as signifying very much the
same as what can be observed in the conclusion of other
letters called forth by opposition, viz., the express indication
of the cordiality that subsisted between the writer and the
readers. Paul has again attained to perfect peace so far,
at least, as concerns his Galatian brethren ; and we are of
opinion that in this placid frame of mind lies the explanation
of the much-discussed words at the beginning of the auto-
graph conclusion : See with how large letters 1 write unto you
with mine own hand. The true mode of interpreting these
words is to take them as a piece of amiable irony, from which
the readers might clearly realise that it was no rigorous
pedagogue that was addressing them. The amanuensis,
whose swift pen was scarcely able to record the eloquent
flow of Paul's dictation upon the coarse papyrus leaves, had
a minute commonplace handwriting. Between his fluent
hand and that of Paul there was a pronounced difference x
not only in the Letter to the Galatians. Surely it is hardly
quite accurate to say that Paul used large letters in the
present isolated instance for the purpose of marking the
importance of the words to follow. The large letters naturally
suggest that the explanation rather lies in the formal and
external matter of caligraphy, and the fact that Paul calls
special attention to them can only be explained, as we
think, on the theory indicated above. Large letters are
calculated to make an impression on children ; and it is as
his own dear foolish children that he treats the Galatians,
playfully trusting that surely the large letters will touch
their hearts. When Paul condescended to speak in such a
1 See the remarks of Mahaffy, i., p. 48.
265] "THE MAKES OF JESUS." 349
way, the Galatians knew that the last shadows of castigatory
sternness had died from his countenance. The real stern-
ness of the letter was by no means obliterated thereby ; but
the feeling of coolness that might have remained behind was
now happily wiped away by Paul's thrice-welcome good-
natured irony, and the readers were now all the more ready
to receive the final message that still lay on his heart.
The closing words present no difficulty in themselves.
It is only the last sentence but one l one of the strangest
utterances of Paul which is somewhat enigmatical. Tov
\OLTTOV 2 KOTTOVS jjbot, fjLijSel? 7rape%T&) eyo> yap ra o-TiyfjLara
TOV 'Ir/aov ev T&> o-cuyu-art JJLOV jBaard^w, henceforth let no man
trouble me, for I bear in my body (R.V. branded on my body) the
marks of Jesus. Two questions arise here: first, what does
Paul mean by the marks of Jesus ? and, secondly, to what
extent does he base the warning, that no one shall trouble
him, upon his bearing of these marks ?
" o-riy/jLara . . are signs, usually letters of the alphabet
(Lev. 19 28 ), which were made upon the body (especially on
the forehead and the hands) by branding or puncturing,
on slaves as a symbol of their masters, on soldiers as a
symbol of their leaders, on criminals as a symbol of their
crime, and also, among some oriental peoples, as a symbol
of the deity they served (3 Mace. 2 29 , . . )." 3 Hence an
ancient reader would know perfectly well what these stig-
mata were, but the very variety of their possible application
renders less evident the special reference in the case before
us. In any case, it seems to us quite evident that Paul is
speaking metaphorically; is alluding, in fact, to the scars
of the wounds he had received in his apostolic labours, 4
and not to actual, artificially-produced o-Tiy^ara. Sieffert 5
decides in favour of the hypothesis that Paul's intention
was to describe himself as the slave of Christ ; but in that
case, how can the yap possibly be explained? We feel,
in fact, that the yap is of itself sufficient to invalidate
the hypothesis. Had Paul said the exact contrary; had
1 Gal. 6 17 . 2 For rov AonroG cf. W. Schmid, Der Atticismus, iii., p. 135.
3 F. SiefEert, Meyer, vii. 1 (1886), p. 375. 4 2 Cor. 11. P. 376.
350 BIBLE STUDIES.
he said, for instance, Henceforth go on troubling me as you
will, 1 then the yap would have admirably fitted the con-
text ; that is, Paul might have gone on I to say, with
proud resignation, 1 am accustomed to that, for 1 am naught
but a despised slave of Jesus Christ.
No one will seriously contend that Paul wished to com-
pare himself with a branded criminal ; and the reference to
the tattooing of soldiers would seem equally far-fetched.
The yap speaks against the latter explanation quite as
forcibly as against the hypothesis of slave-marks ; for the
miles christianus does not quench the fiery darts of the Evil
One by striking a treaty, but by going forth to active warfare,
armed with the shield of faith.
The explanation of Wetstein 2 still seems to us to
be the best ; according to this, Paul means sacred signs,
in virtue of which he is declared to be one consecrated to
Christ, one therefore whom no Christian dare molest. But
Wetstein, too, fails adequately to show the causal relation
between the two clauses, and as little does he justify
the unquestionably strange periphrasis here used to express
metaphorically the idea of belonging to Christ. 3
Provisionally accepting, however, this theory of the
a-riy/jLara, we might represent the causal relation somewhat
as follows : Anyone who bears the marks of Jesus is His
disciple, and, as such, is under His protection ; hence any-
one who offends against Paul lays himself open to the
punishment of a stronger Power. We should thus be led to
look upon the o-rLyfjuara as sacred protective-marks, and to
interpret our passage in connection with certain lines of
thought to which B. Stade has recently called attention. 4
Already in the Old Testament, according to him, we find not
1 Cf. J. J. Wetstein, Novum Testamentum Graecum, ii., Amsterdam,
1752, p. 238 f. : " Notae enim serviles potius invitabant aliorum contumeliam ".
2 P. 238 : " Sacras notas intelligit Paulus; se sacrum esse, cui ideo nemo
ewum, qui Christum amant, molestus esse debeat, profitetur ".
3 Besides, Paul does not speak of the marks of Christ at all ; he uses
the name Jesus, otherwise rare in his writings.
4 Beitrage zur Pentateuchkritik, ZAW. xiv. (1894), p. 250 ff.
"THE MAKES OF JESUS/' 351
a few indications of such protective-marks. He explains
the mark of Cain as such, but, even apart from this,
reference may be made to Is. 44 51 and Ezek. 9; 2 in the
latter passage we read that, before the angels bring ruin
upon Jerusalem and destroy its inhabitants, one of them
sets a mark upon the forehead of all those who mourn for
the abominations practised in the city ; these are spared by
the destroying angels. 3 In Lev. 19 27 V 21 5f -, Deut. 14 lf -,
there is likewise implied an acquaintance with sacred signs
by which the bearer indicates that he belongs to a certain
deity : were the Israelites to permit of the sign of another
god among them, they would thereby rupture their special
relation to Jahweh as being His people. Circumcision, too,
may be looked upon as a mark of Jahweh. 5 The following
passages, belonging to a later time, may be mentioned : 6
Psal. Sol. 15 8 on TO a-^^elov rov deov eVt SIKCILOVS e*9
crmrrjpiav, cf. v. 10 , where it is said of the TTOIOVVTCS a
that they have TO o-^fjuelov rfjs aTrwXeta? eVl rov
avr&v ; according to 3 Mace. 2 w the Alexandrian Jews were
compelled by Ptolemy IV. Philopator to have branded upon
them an ivy leaf, the sign of Dionysos, the king himself
being similarly marked ; 7 Philo, de Monarchia (M.), p. 220 f.,
reproaches the Jewish apostates for allowing themselves to
be branded with the signs of idols made with hands (GVLOI Se
rocravrrj Ke%pr)vrai, fjLavuas V7rp/3o\f], &VT . . . levrcu TT/JO?
Sov\eiav ro)v ^etpoKfjiijrcov ypafjupao'Lv avrrjv 6/jbo\o<yovvr<; ....
ev rot9 (rcb/Aa&i, Karaa-rl^ovres avrrjv (TiStfpq) TreTrvpcofjueva)
7T/30? ave^aXeiTTTOv Siafjuovrfv ov$e yap %p6vq) ravra afiavpovv-
1 KaL Zrepos firiypdfyei xeipl avrov rov Oeov elfju ; see the remarks upon 1
Kings 20 <t, and Zech. 13 6 in Stade, p. 313, also p. 314 ff.
2 Stade, p. 301.
8 Stade also draws attention to the protective-marks of the Passover
night ; as these, however, were not made upon the body, they come less into
consideration here. But note that in Exod. 13 9 - 16 the feast of the Passover
is compared to a sign upon the hand and upon the forehead.
4 Note that the LXX has ypd/n/jLara ffrucrd here.
6 Gen. 17 n , Bom. 4 11 ; cf. on this point Stade, p. 308.
8 Cf., most recently, Stade, pp. 301, 303 ff.
7 Etymologicum Magnum, sub r&\\os.
352 BIBLE STUDIES. [268
rcu) ; and similarly the worshippers of the beast in Revela-
tion bear the name or the number of the beast as a %dpayjjia
on the forehead or on the right hand, 1 while the faithful are
marked with the name of the Lamb and of the living God. 2
Finally a fact which is specially instructive in regard to the
significance of protective-marks in Greek Judaism the The-
phillin, prayer-fillets, were regarded as protective-marks, and
were designated $v\aKTr)pia, the technical term for amulets.
These various data are sufficient, in our opinion, to justify
us in supposing that the Apostle might quite easily charac-
terise his scars metaphorically as protective-marks?
In confirmation of this supposition we feel that we
must draw attention to a certain Papyrus passage, which
seems to grow in significance the longer we contemplate it,
and which, moreover, may even merit the attention of those
who cannot at once accept the conclusions here drawn from
it, as we think, with some degree of justification.
It is found in the bilingual (Demotic and Greek)
Papyrus J. 383 (Papyrus Anastasy 65) of the Leiden
Museum. C. J. C. Eeuvens 4 was the first to call attention
to it, assigning it to the first half of the 3rd cent. A.D. 5
Then it was published in fac-simile 6 and discussed 7 by C.
1 Rev. 13 16 * -, 14 9 ff-, 16 2 , 19 20 , 20 4 . See ante, p. 240 ft.
2 Rev. 14 1 , 7 2ff -, 9 4 . On the meaning of signs in the Christian Church,
see the suggestions of Stade, p. 304 ff.
3 We think it probable that the expression forms an antithesis to the
previously mentioned circumcision (cf. Rom. 4 n ffijut'iov Treptr 0^775), and that
emphasis is to be laid upon rov 'lr)<rov.
4 Lettres a M. Letronne . . . sur les papyrus bilingues et grecs . . . du
musee d'antiquitts de Vuniversitt de Leide, Leiden, 1830, i., pp. 3 ff., 36 ff.
In the Atlas belonging to this work, Table A, some words from the passage
under discussion are given in fac-simile.
5 Appendice (to the work just cited), p. 151.
' Papyrus dgyptien d&motique a transcriptions grecques du muste d'an-
tiquiUs des Pays-Bas d Leide (description raisonnee, J. 383), Leiden, 1839.
Our passage is found in Table IV., col. VIII. ; in the tables the Papyrus is
signed A. [ Anastasy?] No. 65.
7 Monumens tgyptiens du musie d'antiguiUs des Pays-Bas d Leide,
Leiden, 1839.
269] "THE MABKS OP JESUS." 353
Leemans, the director of the museum, who has lately again l
indicated his agreement with Eeuvens' date. H. Brugsch 2
has expressly emphasised the great importance of the
Papyrus for the study of the Demotic, and has made most
exhaustive use of it in his Demotic Gram mar. 3 He follows
Eeuvens and Leemans in describing it as Gnostic a term
that may either mean much or little. The passage in
question has been recently discussed more or less elaborately
by E. Eevillout, 4 G. Maspero 5 and C. Wessely. 6
It is found in the Demotic text of this " Gnostic "
Papyrus, 7 which belongs to that literature of magic which
has been handed down to us in extensive fragments, and
recently brought to light. To judge from the fac-similes,
its decipherment is quite easy so far, at least, as it affects
us here. First of all, the text, as we read it, is given, the
various readings of Eeuvens (Es), Leemans (L), Brugsch
(B), Maspero (M), Eevillout (Et) and Wessely (W) being
also indicated.
It is introduced by a sentence in the Demotic which
Eevillout translates as follows : " Pour parvenir (a etre aimd de
quelquun qui lutte contre toi et ne veut pas te parler (dire) : "
1 Papyri graeci musei antiquarii publici Lugduni-Batavi, ii., Leiden,
1885, p. 5.
2 Uber das agyptische Museum zu Leyden, in the Zeitschr. der Deutschen
morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vi. (1852), p. 250 f.
3 Grammaire de'motique, Berlin, 1855. A fac-simile of our passage is
found on Table IX. of that book, a transcription on p. 202.
4 Les arts fyyptiens, in the Revue egyptologig_ue, i. (1880), p. 164 ; cf. the
same author's discussion of the Papyrus, ibid., ii. (1881-1882), p. 10 ff. His
book, Le Roman de Setna, Paris, 1877, was not accessible to the present
writer.
6 Collections du Muste Alaoui, premiere serie, 5 e livraison, Paris, 1890,
p. 66 f. ; see the same author's discussion of the Papyrus in his Etudes
d&motiqiies, in the Recueil de travaux relatifs a la philologie et a I'arche'ologie
dgyptiennes et assyriennes, i. (1870), p. 19 ff. A study by Birch mentioned
there is unknown to the present writer. Our passage is found on p. 30 f.
6 Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer, v.
(Vienna, 1892), p. 13 f.
7 This Papyrus contains another and longer Greek incantation, most
recently read and discussed by Kevillout, Rev. eg., i. (1880), p. 168 f.
23
354 BIBLE STUDIES. [270
In the original the spell occupies three and a half lines.
A rent runs down the Papyrus column, nearly in the middle ;
the number of the missing letters is indicated in the tran-
script by dots, the ends of the original lines by | .
MHMEAIflKEOAE ANOX
TIAnillET.. METOTBANES
BASTAZn\THNTA$HN
5 KATA . . HSAIATTHNE S
ABIAOS\KATA2THSAIEIS
TASTASKAIKATASESOAI
EIS . . . XA2EANMOIOA
10
2 ircnwreT . . : Us. iraTwre . . ., L. iraTrnrer . , B. 7ra7n7reT(ou), M.
Papipetu, Rt. ncureiriTov, W. iraTrnrerov | 4 offipecas : W. oaipios [I] \
5 Kara . . -rjffai : E/s. 7roTa(o'T7j)a < ot, L. Kara . . TJCTOI, B. M. Bt. KOTO-
ffrrjffai, W. Kara[ffrrj](rai \ e s : Us. B. M. Rt. eis, L. e . s | 7 raaras :
Rs. TOS ras, B. ray raQas, W. ras rassic | 8 . . . x as : ^ s - (M) a X ay >
L. . axas, M. aAxs, W. . . a%as | A : B. M. Rt. interpret as Setra,
W. 5(6)i(ya) | 9 peij/co : B. M. Rt. T f>ff*w, W, ^epw |
The editors differ from one another principally in their
reproduction (or restoration) of the non-Greek words in the
text. As these are irrelevant to our present purpose, we
shall not further pursue the subject, feeling constrained to
follow Maspero in reading thus :
Mr) yu,e Stance oSe
/3ao-rd%a) rrjv r
rov 'Oo-ipeco? /cal v
]rja-ai, avrrjv
, tcarao-Trjo-ai, els
teal KaraOicrOai
4? [^]%tt5 * edv poi, 6 Seiva
KOTTOV 9 irapdffjffl, irpo<r-
10 (r^petya) avrrjv avra).
In the Papyrus a Demotic rendering of the incantation
follows the Greek text, not literal, indeed, but showing,
271] "THE MARKS OF JESUS." 355
few variations. This Demotic version is thus rendered by
.Revillout : 1
" Ne me persecute pas, une telle ! Je suis Papipetou Metou-
banes, je porte le sdpulcre d' Osiris, je vais le transporter a Abydos; je
le ferai reposer dans les Alkah. Si une telle me rdsiste aujourd'hui,
je le renverserai. Dire septfois."
We perceive at once that we have here a formula of
adjuration. The following notes will help towards an under-
standing of the Greek text.
Line 1. The commentators take avo% to be the Coptic
anok (cf. ^pDN) I am. In the Greek books of magic we very
frequently find similar instances of the eyw dpi followed by
the divine name, by which the adjurer identifies himself with
the particular deity in order to invest his spell with special
efficacy, and to strike the demon with terror.
L. 2. We have not as yet discovered any satisfactory
etymological explanation of the words TT^TT 'iTrerov ^rov/Saves ;
Reuvens and Leemans give nothing more than conjectures.
It is sufficient for our purpose to remember that such foreign
words play a very great part in adjurations. Even if they
had originally any meaning at all, it is yet unlikely that those
who used the formula ever knew it; the more mysterious
the words of their spell sounded, the more efficacious did
they deem it.
L. 3. The editors translate rrjv ratyrjv rov 'Ocripeco? as
the coffin, or the mummy, of Osiris, rafyr] in this sense is of
frequent occurrence in the Papyri and elsewhere. 2 By this
ra<f)r) rov 'Ocripecos we must understand a model of the coffin
or of the mummy of Osiris used as an amulet. The efficacy
1 Cf. also the translation of Brugsch, Gramm. ddm., p. 202.
2 Notices, xviii. 2, pp. 234, 435 f. Wessely, Mitth. Rainer, v., p. 14,
explains that "TO</>TJ here means mummy, as we learn in particular from the
language of the wooden tablets which were employed in the conveyance of
mummies as labels of recognition". See also Leemans, Monumens, p. 8.
C. Schmidt, Ein altchristlicJies Mumienetikett in the Zeitsclir. filr die
agyptische Sprache und Alter thiimskunde, xxxii. (1894), p. 55, says, " I am
of opinion that in "Roman times ra<t>-f) was understood as the ' mummy ' only ".
356 BIBLE STUDIES. [272
of this amulet is explained by the Osiris myth. 1 The Osiris
of Graeco-Roman times was the god of the dead. His
corpse, dismembered by Typhon, was again put together
with the greatest difficulty by Isis ; and it was ever after-
wards the most cherished task of Isis, Nephthys, Horus,
Anubis and Hermes, deities friendly to Osiris, to guard his
tomb, and to prevent the wicked Typhon from repeating
his mutilation of the divine body. The magicians took
advantage of this conflict among the gods in order to make
sure of the assistance of those who were friendly to Osiris.
They strove to get possession of the sacred coffin; they
carried it about with them at least in effigie, as an amulet
and they threatened to demolish it if their desires were
not fulfilled. Thus, according to Jamblichus, 2 the threats
to destroy the heavens, to reveal the mysteries of Isis, to divulge
the ineffable secret hidden in the depths, to stay the sacred sun-
barge, to gratify Typhon by scattering the limbs of Osiris belong
to the Piao-Tifcal a7rei\ai of the Egyptian magicians. The
adjuration under notice is an efficacious minatory formula of
this kind. It is directed to a demon, who is believed to
be the cause of the difficulties which, it is hoped, will be
eluded by its means ; 8 the possession of the ra(f>r/ rov 'Ocrtpeox?
cannot but impress him, being a guarantee for the support
of the most powerful deities, seeing that it was to their own
best interests to be favourable to the possessor of the im-
perilled mummy. A quite similar menace, made by some
" obscure gentleman," is found in a recently-published
tabula devotionis 4 from Adrumetum : if not, I shall go down
to the holy places of Osiris, and break his corpse in pieces, and
throw it into the river to be borne away. 5
1 In reference to what follows, see Maspero, Coll. AL, p. 66.
*Demysteriis,65 (ed. G. Parthey, Berol., 1857, p. 245 f .) : *) ybp r)>v
ovpavbv Trpoffapd^fiv ^ TO KpvTrra T7js y l(rt8os fK(pavetv ^ rb v a^vfffftf air6ppr]rov [for
this we find, 6 7, p. 248, ra e 'A/3v8<? air6pp-r)Ta ; cf. 1. 6 of our formula] Se^ew
$ ffrJiffciv T^V ftdpiv, t) ra yue'M; TOV 'OffipiSos SiaffKtSdfffiv T<? Tvty&vi.
3 Eeuvens, i., p. 41. 4 See p. 279.
5 Collections du Muste Alaoui, prem. se"rie, 5 livraison (1890), p. 60 :
Si minus, descendo in adytus Osyris et dissolvam rfy ra^v et mittam, ut a
flumine feratw. See Maspero's explanatory notes.
273] "THE MAKES OF JESUS." 357
L. 6. "AfiiSos is the Egyptian Abydos. The town is
of great importance in the history of Osiris. It was looked
upon as the burial-place of the god, and its mysteries are
spoken of by several ancient writers. 1 The assertion of the
bearer of the amulet, viz., that he is about to convey the
mummy of Osiris to Abydos, seems to us to signify that he
wishes, by means of an act which exercises a secret influence
upon the friends of Osiris, to be all the more assured of their
favour, and all the more dangerous to the demon.
L. 7 and 8. rao-ras and <xX%9 are the Greek transcrip-
tions of two Egyptian words which are rendered by Maspero 2
as les retraites and les demeures e'ternelles respectively. They
help us to obtain a clearer understanding of the preceding
lines : the user of the spell, in thus reverently entombing the
body which Typhon had abused, lays the most powerful
deities under the highest obligation to himself.
L. 8. 6 Selva is represented in the original by the
abbreviation 4> which is frequently used in the Papyri in
the same way ; when the formula prescribed in the book of
magic was actually used against some troublesome person,
this person's name was substituted for the o Seiva, just as
the name of the demon who was the cause of the KOTTOI, took
the place of the 6'Se in line 1. (U. von Wilamowitz-Moellen-
dorff informs the author by letter that he reads o 8e(lva) also
in line 1 (not o8e), for which there is much to be said).
L. 9. 7rpocr(T)petya> : the Papyrus distinctly shows
Trpoo-ptya), i.e., the future of TrpocrpeTrco, to incline towards,
intransitive : here it would be transitive, for which usage
there is no authority, 3 Hence TrpocrTpetyco 4 would seem the
preferable reading. But the question is of no importance
for the sense of the concluding sentence ; in either case, the
adjurer threatens to use his efficacious amulet against the
troubler.
1 E.g., Epiphanius, Adv. Haer., iii. 2, p. 1093 D (Dindorf, vol. iii., p.
571). See Beuvens, p. 41 ff. and Leemans, Monumens, p. 9.
2 Coll. Al. t p. 67. 3 Leemans, Monumens, p. 9.
4 Leemans, ibid., suggests
358 BIBLE STUDIES. [274
The spell may accordingly be translated as follows :
Persecute me not, ihou there ! I am PAPIPETOU METU-
BANES ; 1 carry the corpse of Osiris and I go to convey it to
Abydos, to convey it to its resting-place, and to place it in the
everlasting chambers. Should any one trouble me, I shall use it
against him.
Now, differ as we may as to the meaning of the indi-
vidual details of this spell, and, in particular, as to the
allusions to Egyptian mythology, it is, after all, only the
essential meaning which concerns us here, and this meaning
the author holds to be established : the fiao-Ta&iv of a par-
ticular amulet associated with a god acts as a charm against
the KOTTOVS 7rap6%ei,v on the part of an adversary.
Starting from this point, let us now seek to understand
the enigmatical words of the Apostle. One can hardly resist
the impression that the obscure metaphor all at once be-
comes more intelligible : Let no man venture KOTTOVS Trapi^eiv
for me, for in the jSao-rd^eiv of the marks of Jesus I possess a
talisman against all such things. In this way the sense of the
yap, in particular, becomes perfectly clear. The words are
not directed against the Judaisers, but to the Galatians, and,
moreover, it seems probable that we must explain the threat
by the same temper of mind 1 to which we attributed the
sportive phrase about the large letters. Just as the Apostle,
with kindly menace, could ask the Corinthians, Shall I come
unto you with the rod ? 2 so here, too, he smilingly holds up his
finger and says to his naughty but well-beloved children :
Do be sensible, do not imagine that you can hurt me I am
protected by a charm.
We must confess that we do not feel that Paul, by this
mixture of earnest and amiable jest, lays himself open to
the charge of trifling. Only by a total misapprehension of
1 We would not, however, attach any special importance to this. The
explanation given above is quite justifiable, even if Paul was speaking wholly
in earnest.
2 1 Cor. 4 21 ; see p. 119 f .
275] "THE MARKS OF JESUS." 359
the actual letter-like character of his writings as they have
come down to us, could we expect that he should in them
assume the severe manner of the doctor gentium, who, caught
up into the third heaven, proclaims to mankind and to the
ages what eye hath never seen. Paul is no bloodless and
shadowy figure of a saint, but a man, a man of the olden
time. One in whose letters utterance is found for the rap-
tured glow of faith and for a sensitive and circumspect love,
for bitter feelings of scorn and relentless irony why should
the winning kindliness of the jest be deemed alien to him ?
He wishes to bring back the Galatians to the true way, but
perhaps feels that he, in treating as rekeuoL those who are but
vrjinoi, has overshot the mark. So he withdraws, though as
regards the manner rather than the matter of his charges ;
and who that has ever loved the Apostle could find fault ?
Paul has taken care, in this passage, that his words shall
have no hackneyed ring; he does not use general terms
about the purposelessness of the attacks made on him, but
intimates that what preserves him are the protective-marks of
Jesus. Jesus guards him ; Jesus restrains the troublers ;
Jesus will say to them : ri avrw KOTTOVS Trape^ere ; Kakov
epyov rjpydcraTO ev ejjioL
We cannot, of course, go so far as to maintain that
Paul makes conscious allusion to the incantation of the
Papyrus ; but it is not improbable that it, or one similar
to it, was known to him, even were it not the case that he
composed the Letter to the Galatians in the city of magicians
and sorcerers. The Papyrus dates from the time of Ter-
tullian ; the incantation itself may be much older. 1 The
same Papyrus furnishes us with another incantation, 2 mani-
festly pervaded by Jewish ideas, another proof of the
supposition that the Apostle may have been acquainted
with such forms of expression. Moreover, we learn even
from Christian sources that Paul on more than one
1 See p. 323.
2 It begins thus : (TriKa\ovfj.ai <re T'OV eV r< Ktvef irvev/j.a.Ti deivbv aoparov
Tra.vTOKpd.Topa Qcbv 0ecDv fyOopoiroibv KO.\ fpf]/jLOTroi6v (Revue dgyptologique, i., p. 168).
360 BIBLE STUDIES. [276, 277
occasion came into contact with magicians, 1 while he him-
self warns the Galatians against ^apjjua/ceia, 2 and reproaches
them for having suffered themselves to be bewitched : 3 all
these things but serve as evidence for the fact that the sphere,
from which, haply, some light has been thrown upon the
obscure phrase about the marks of Jesus, was in no wise
outwith the circle of ideas in which the writer moved. 4 Be
it at least conceded that our contention should not be
met by aesthetic or religious objections. We would not
maintain, of course, that the figure used by Paul can
be fitted into the formulas of dogmatic Christology ; but in
its context it forms a perfectly definite and forcible metaphor.
And as for the possible religious objection, that Paul was
not the man to apply terms originating in the darkest
"heathenism" to facts distinctively Christian, it is a fair
counter-plea to ask whether it is an unchristian mode of
speech, at the present day, to use the verb charm (feien) in
a similar connection, or to extol the Cross as one's Talisman.
In the same manner does Paul speak of the wounds which
he had received in his apostolic work and which in 2 Cor.
4 10 he describes as the veicpaxj-^ rov 'lya-ov as the marks
of Jesus, which protected him as by a charm.
4. A NOTE TO THE LITEEAEY HISTOEY OF SECOND
PETEE.
Graven upon the stones of a locality where we should
not expect it, we find a piece of evidence which, in any
treatment of the Second Epistle of Peter, deserves the
highest consideration. The beginning of this early Christian
booklet has many points in common with a decree of the
inhabitants of Stratonicea in Caria in honour of Zeus Pan-
hemerios and of Hekate, which, dating from the early im-
perial period, has been preserved in an Inscription. This
Inscription has already, in our investigation of the word
1 Acts 13 and 19. 2 Gal. 5 . 8 Gal. 3 *.
4 The peculiarly emphatic eyd>, too, recalls the emphasis of certain
incantations ; see p. 355 with reference to anok.
277, 278]
A NOTE TO SECOND PETER.
361
aperr), been laid under contribution, 1 and it will once again
engage our attention. 2 We begin here by giving the two
texts in parallel columns, duly marking the cognate elements
in each ; be it observed that it is not only the unquestion-
able similarities in expression and meaning which are thus
emphasised, but also certain for the present let us call
them mechanical assonances between the two texts, the
calling of attention to which will be justified as we proceed.
In order to understand the Inscription, which, omitting the
introductory formula, we give in the original orthography,
let it be borne in mind that the infinitive creo-wo-Oai, depends
upon an antecedent elirovros.
Decree of Stratonicea.
. . . rrjv TTO\LV avcoOev rfj rwv
irpoearvrwv avr^
0euv [trpovola
[plov KOI '
KOI ^eyd\cov KOI avve^v KIV-
Mvcov veffwrBtU, &v Kal ra
lepa &<rv\a Kal lai Kal j
lepa
r
K a
&v rb rla fj&v KOI
eVayryeVara
................... v> 5. \ /
pvjTai, iva bia TOVTODV
2 Pet. I 3ff -
009 ra Trdvra rj/jiiv
Q e [ a<; Swdieco^ avrov ra
'Papaiw alcoviov j-
ap<yela<$ /caXw9 Se e%t Tracrav
v l(T(f)epe(T0ai, k rrjv
K0ltmvo l ^609
rfr ev ra5
(f)0opa$, /cal avro
TOVTO Se (nrovSrjv Traaav Trap-
7T/309 [avroix; evve^eiav Kal
pySeva Kaipov Trapa\iTrlv TOV
evcrefteiv Kal \iraveviv av-
6 V rfj Trio-ret, v^v rrjv aperrjv
ev Se rfj apery rr)v ryvoHrw ev
8e rfj yvvaei, rrjv ejKpdreiav
VTTO-
ev T3 o-efiao-rw /3ov\evrr)pi(*>
rav irpoeip'nfiev(o[v Oewv eiri-
(f>av]ea-rdra<; irape^ovra rg9
Oelas SvvdfJLea><; dperd?, Si a9
1 See p. 95 ff. The Inscription is given in CIO. ii., No. 2715 a, b =
Waddington, iii. 2, Nos. 519-520 (p. 142).
2 P. 370.
evo-efteiav ev Be ry evcre-
p e ia r^v (f)i\aSe\(f)lav ev Be
rfj ^i\aBe\(j)ia rrjv
362 BIBLE STUDIES. [278, 279
KOI TO o-vvTrav 7rXrj#o9 Ovet, re ..... (V. n) : oimw? yap
/cal eTriGvuia ical ev'xerai real 7T\ovcria)s eTT^op^rjOricrerai
d[el roi<r]$e rot? vfuv 77 et'croo9 els rrjv aiaviov
iTTavecrrdroK 06069
, T v
N a ft r > Irjcrov Xpiarov.
i Vpr)<TKeia<$ evaepeiv av-
e'Sof e ry {3ov\fj
Let us allow these parallels to speak for themselves,
wholly ignoring the feelings of unpleasantness or, it may
be, of wonder which they may wake in the breasts of some.
The most important feature is manifestly this : that both
texts contain the expression 77 6ela Svvafus, 1 and in the same
case to boot. Now this is no trite expression ; its occurrence
in the Inscription could not be ignored, even if there were
no further point of similarity with the Epistle. But the fact
that this solemn periphrasis of the term God is in both
passages connected with the word apery, and further, that
it occurs in an altogether peculiar and unfamiliar sense,
lends a peculiar intrinsic importance to the external simi-
larity. Suppose for a moment that the T?JS Oelas SwdfAews
dperds of the decree occurred somewhere in the LXX ; there
would not, in that case, be the shadow of a doubt that the
Epistle had quoted it dismembered, it might be or at
all events had alluded to it. Nor can this analogy be set
aside by the objection that the use, by the author of the
Epistle, of an out-of-the-way Inscription, in a manner corre-
sponding to that of biblical quotation, is inconceivable for
we have as yet said nothing as to our idea of the relation
between the two texts ; the objection, in any case, would
be a pure petitio principii But further : it is an especially
significant, though apparently trivial, circumstance, that in
both texts a relative sentence beginning with Sid follows
the aperds (or apery) ; if on other grounds it seems probable
that the Inscription and the Epistle are so related that either
1 In 2 Pet. 1 3 the genitive TTJS Betas Stwfytews is of course the subject of
the middle
279, 280] A NOTE TO SECOND PETER. 363
presupposes a knowledge of the other, then we should have
here the recurrence of a phenomenon often observed in
parallel or internally-dependent texts, viz., that consciously
or unconsciously the dependent text has been so framed, by
means of a slight alteration, 1 as to obliterate the traces of its
origin.
We are of opinion that the parallels already indicated
are sufficiently evident. Should further instances be made
out, these will naturally gain a much stronger evidential
value from their connection with what has been already
pointed out. There is nothing remarkable in the mere fact
that the Inscription contains this or that word which occurs
in the Epistle. But what is significant, is that the same
definite number of what are, in part, very characteristic
expressions, is found in each of the two texts ; and it is this
which renders improbable the hypothesis of mere accident.
Little value as we would place upon individual cases of
similarity, yet in their totality these strike us as very forcible.
Hence the connection also brings out the full importance of
the parallels 77 alcovios jBaaikeia rov /cvpiov and 77 rcov /cvptwv
alavtos apxr), an importance which appears still more decided,
when we compare these parallels with, e.g., those (by no means
so striking) given by H. von Soden 2 in connection with the
Epistle ad loc., viz., Heb. 12 28 /3acri,\ela acrahevros, and 2
Tim. 4 18 Paa-ikela eTrovpdvios. In both of these passages the
only real parallel is the word paaCkeia -, but it was surely
unnecessary to seek references for that. 3 The outstanding
feature of the phrase in the Epistle is the term al&vw,
applied to kingdom ; 4 hence, even if the Inscription joins this
term with what is only a synonym of /3aa-i,\eia, the force of
1 Note that the cases following Sid are different.
12 HC. iii. 2 2 (1892), p. 199.
3 A real biblical parallel is LXX Dan. 3 33 .
4 al(avLos, of which the Inscriptions contain many examples, is, in titles
and solemn forms of expression, nearly similar in meaning to the Latin
perpetuus; cu'Sios, in similar connections, appears to be a synonym. Refer-
ences in Bull, de corr. hell., xii. (1888), p, 196 f. Hence, when we find the
word in the Bible, we should not allow the presuppositions concerning an
alleged biblical Greek to induce us to interpret it mechanically in every case,
364 BIBLE STUDIES. [280, 281
our parallel is in no way lessened. Observe, moreover,
Kvpiov. Then, again, the likeness of iraa-av O-TTOV&TJV
in the Inscription to O-TTOV^V iracrav Trapeio-evey-
/cavres in the Epistle, cannot fail to strike the eye. Even at
some risk of repetition, we cannot help remarking that this
expression would not of itself prove anything, for it is com-
mon in later Greek. It is only by a false method of pro-
cedure that M. Krenkel x reckons it among the assonances
which are thought to prove an alleged indebtedness to
Josephus on the part of the author of the Second Epistle of
Peter. But in the present case the phrase, connected as it is
with the other parallels, has a force at least equivalent to
that ascribed to the shorter cnrovSrjv iraaav 2 in connection
with our Epistle's numerous unquestionable plagiarisms from
the Epistle of Jude. 3 The same will hold good, with more
or less force, of the evcrefieia. The statistics of the word in
the biblical writings if we may, for once, isolate the
concept " biblical Greek " are very remarkable. Eelatively
seldom, 4 on the whole, as it occurs there, it is yet quite
frequently found in the Pastoral Epistles and the Second
Epistle of Peter ; while the Acts of the Apostles also uses
evaefteia, evo-eftelv and evaefirjs. 5 Now these words occur
frequently in the Inscriptions of Asia Minor : they appear to
have been familiar terms in the religious language of the
imperial period.
The more external resemblances between the two, texts
have also been indicated ; for, if the hypothesis of relation-
ship be valid, they cannot but prove to be of interest. In
connection with this very Epistle of Peter it has been
demonstrated that the writer of it not seldom depends upon
his assiduously-used model, the Epistle of Jude, in quite an
1 Josephus und Lukas, Leipzig, 1894, p. 350, Krenkel refers to Jose-
phus, Antt. xx. 9 2 ; a more acute glance into Wetstein would have made him
more cautious.
2 Cf. Jude 3 . 3 See e.g., Jiilicher, Einkitwng in das N.T., p. 151.
4 The same may be said of the adjective and the verb. The " Fourth
Book of Maccabees " forms an exception.
5 These words are not found elsewhere in the New Testament.
281, 282] A NOTE TO SECOND PETER. 365
external way. " Some peculiar expression, the purpose of
which is made plain only by the context in Jude, is retained,
or an expression is fabricated from reminiscences of the
purely local connection in that book. In 2 Pet. 2 13 , the
leading word o-vvevwxpvfjLevot, is taken from Jude v. 12 , and
yet its concrete relationship to the love-feasts has been allowed
to fall out, so that it is only the sound of the words which
influences the choice of the essentially different expressions
(o-Trarat? 1 instead of dyaTrais, o-7ri\oi instead of c-TTtXaSe?)." 2
Now, precisely as in regard to the formal assonances in the
very instructive example just given, viz. :
Jude v. 12 : 2 Pet. 2 13 :
ovroi elaw ol ev rats a<yd- o-Tn'Xoi 3 KOI JJUCO/JLOI, evrpv-
(7VVeva>- WVTS 6V TCU<$
a</>o/3a>9 TCOZ/ o-vvevco^ov/jievot,
so might we perhaps judge of the instance
eTrcvyyeh/jLara in the Decree and the Epistle respectively
although the author would advance the point with all due
reserve. Shall we count it more probable that the eiriQvpia
of the one text has exercised an outward influence on the
syntactically and lexically different eTriOv/Ma of the other?
Once more, the use of the superlative fjieyia-ros in both pass-
ages cannot be ignored, though, at first sight, such a state-
ment may seem strange ; but its cogency will be more readily
perceived when it is remembered that the superlative of
occurs nowhere else in "the" New Testament. 4
1 [But see Revisers' text. TB.].
2 B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das N.T., Berlin, 1886, p. 439.
3 For the accentuation see Winer-Schmiedel, 6, 3 6 (p. 68).
4 Further, in the whole range of " biblical " Greek (apart from 2nd, 3rd
and 4th Maccabees), neyiffros occurs elsewhere (if we may depend upon
Tromm) only in Job 26 3 and 31 M ; moreover, the Alexandrinus reads ^yd\^
for fj-eyiffTTj in the latter passage, ^e7i<rros seems to be very rare also in the
Papyri of the Ptolemaic period. According to the indexes we have only the
idiomatic phrase & c>ol p.iyi<rrov eo-rot, in Pap. Flind. Petr., ii., xiii. (19), ca.
255 B.C. (Mahaffy, ii. [45]), and rijs ^yiffr-ns 6eas"Hpas, Pap. Par., 15, 120
B.C. (Notices, xviii. 2, p. 219), as a solemn designation, most probably a
fixed form of expression, similar to that in our Inscription.
366 BIBLE STUDIES. [282, 283
Is it possible to hold that the similarities in the two
texts are merely accidental? We have again and again
pondered this question, but have always come to the con-
clusion that it must be answered in the negative. Doubt-
less, the deciding of such questions always implies a certain
inner susceptibility, and is thus subjective. But here, as
we judge, there are objective grounds to proceed upon. We
would endeavour, therefore, to define more precisely the very
general impression made by the two texts, by saying that
they must be inter-related in some way.
Now the Decree of Stratonicea is undoubtedly older
than the Second Epistle of Peter. From its contents, we
might infer its date to be previous to 22 A.D. ; from its form,
somewhat later. But even if the Inscription were of later
date than the Epistle, it would be an improbable hypothesis
that the former was in its contents dependent upon the
latter. The dependence must rather be, if the relationship
is granted, on the side of the Epistle. Hence the general
statement made above may be specialised thus far : the
beginning of the Second Epistle of Peter must be in some
way dependent upon forms of expression occurring in the
Decree of Stratonicea.
We speak of the forms of expression of the Decree.
For it is not urgently necessary to assert a dependence
upon the Decree itself. Of course, it is certainly possible
that the writer of the Epistle may have read the Inscrip-
tion. Assuredly Paul is not the only Christian of the
century of the New Testament who read "heathen" inscrip-
tions, and reflected thereon. The inscriptions, official and
private, found in the streets and market-places, in temples
and upon tombs, would be the only reading of the great
majority of people who could read. Of what we call classical
literature, the greater number would hardly ever read any-
thing at all. The heads of the Christian brotherhoods who
were versed in literature were influenced, in respect of their
range both of words and thoughts, by their sacred books, but
manifestly also by the forms of expression common in their
locality. The present writer would count the expressions
283, 284] A NOTE TO SECOND PETER. 367
before us, found in the Inscription of Stratonicea, as belong-
ing to the solemn forms of the official liturgical language of
Asia Minor. From the nature of the case it seems certain
that they were not used for the first time in this Decree in
honour of Zeus Panhemerios and Hekate. Conceivable
though it be that the author of the Second Epistle of Peter
had adopted them directly from the Carian Inscription, 1 yet
we would confine ourselves to the more cautious conjecture
that the author of the Epistle, like the author of the Decree
before him, simply availed himself of the familiar forms and
formulae of religious emotion. 2 The mosaic-like character
of the writer's work, specially evident in his relation to the
Epistle of Jude, is illustrated once more by the facts just
adduced.
Should our conjecture hold good particularly, of course,
if a direct dependence upon the Decree of Stratonicea could
be made probable we should have a new factor for the
solution of the problem as to the origin of the Epistle.
Certainly the hypothesis of an Egyptian origin, which has
gained great favour in recent years, is not confirmed by the
local colouring, which belongs to Asia Minor ; we would,
however, refrain meanwhile from categorically asserting
that it originated in Asia Minor, 3 as we have not yet mastered
1 The above-discussed series of purely formal assonances might be put
forward as supporting this.
2 How such formulae were used, spontaneously, so to speak, in the
writings of other representatives of the new Faith, may be seen, e.g., in the
relationship between certain Pauline passages and the solemn words made
known to us by an Inscription of Halicarnassus of the early imperial period :
see C. T. Newton, A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and
Branchidae, ii. 2, London, 1863, p. 695. Cf. also W. M. Kamsay, The Greek
of tlie Early Church and the Pagan Ritual, in the Expository Times, vol. x.,
p. 9ff. A similar instance from ancient times has been noted by B. Kittel in
ZAW. xviii. (1898), p. 149 ff. : Isaiah 45 lff - shows dependence upon the court-
phraseology made known to us by the clay-cylinders of Cyrus.
3 The theory becomes still more probable when we compare the above
conjecture with what Th. Zahn, Geschichte des Neutestamentl. Kanons, i. 1,
Erlangen, 1888, p. 312 ff., says about the locality in which the Epistle "was
first circulated, and gained the esteem of the church " ; but see A. Harnack,
Das N.T. urn das Jahr 200, Freiburg i. B M 1839, p. 85 f.
368 BIBLE STUDIES. [284, 285
the lexical relations of the Epistle. It would at least he
necessary to inquire how far its peculiar vocabulary has
points of contact with that of literary sources (of the im-
perial period) from Egypt, 1 or Asia Minor, 2 including those
of the Papyri and the Inscriptions.
5. WHITE EOBES AND PALMS.
"After these things I saw, and behold, a great multi-
tude, which no man could number, out of every nation,
and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes,
and palms in their hands ; and they cry with a great voice,
saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth on the throne,
and unto the Lamb." So does the early Christian seer
depict those who have been made perfect, who have come
out of the great tribulation, and now serve God day and
night in His temple. Few Bible passages have taken such
hold of the everyday Christian consciousness, few have been
inscribed so hopefully on the impassive tombstone, as these
chaste verses from the mysterious final pages of the Holy
Book. So deeply have they entered into the sphere of
religious ideas, that, generally speaking, we are not struck
by the thought, how eloquent of ancient days is the colour-
ing of the artist who created the picture. The inner
beauty of the thought keeps in abeyance any impression
which its form might suggest ; the captivated spirit even
1 Of course, such expressions as may probably seem to be derived from
the Alexandrian translation of the O.T. would not prove anything regarding
the hypothetical Egyptian origin of the Epistle.
2 So far as we are able, from a general knowledge of a portion of
the Inscriptions of Asia Minor, to judge, the lexical relations of the Epistle
do, indeed, point to Asia Minor or Syria. He gives but one example here,
which he would likewise attribute to the fixed phraseology of solemn speech.
In 2 Pet. 1 4 we find the peculiar phrase, 'Iva . . yevrjffde Qt'ias Koivwvol Qva-ftas ;
with this compare a passage from a religious Inscription of King Antiochus I.
of Kommagene (middle of 1st cent. B.C. ; discovered at Selik), viz., iraffiv offoi
(pixreus Koivwvovvres avQpw\Tri\vns (in Humann and Puchstein's Beisen in Klein-
asien und Nordsyrien, Textband, p. 371). The resemblance had already struck
the editors of the Inscription. The Kommagenian Inscriptions, moreover,
afford other materials for the history of the language of early Christianity.
285, 286] WHITE KOBES AND PALMS. / 369
of the modern man readily and unconstrainedly accepts
the unaccustomed scenery, which yet has its proper place
only under the eternal blue of the eastern sky, or in the
serene halls of an ancient temple. The pious Christian of
the times of decadence did not depict things to come in the
forms of the pitiful present ; he saw them rather in the
crystal mirror of the authoritative past.
The exegetes of Kev. 7 9 ff - have striven, in widely diver-
gent ways, to explain the peculiar colouring of this celestial
scenery. How does it come about that the adornment of
the blessed choir of the saints before the throne of God
should be portrayed exactly as it is? The explanation of
the individual elements provides no difficulty. 1 The white,
robes, of course, according to the bold symbolism of the text
itself, are connected with the cleansing power of the blood
of the Lamb (v. u ) ; and, even without this special reference,
they have already a distinct and well-known sense (see
6 u ). Again, the expression palms in their hands is familiar
to the reader of the Bible as a sign of festive joy. Attempts
have been made to supply a more definite background for
this latter feature, now from Jewish, now from Hellenic,
ideas. On the one hand, the palms have been looked upon
as suggesting a comparison of the heavenly glory with the
Feast of Tabernacles; on the other, they have been taken
as an allusion to the palm-twigs bestowed upon the victor
in the Greek games.
We would not deny that such explanations, so far
as concerns the details of a picture which is not after
all so difficult to grasp, are quite adequate. But they
do not elucidate the scene in its entirety. How did the
writer come to bring together precisely these two features ?
And how comes it that both are assigned to the choir of
the blessed, which, in alternate song with the angels, raises
a hallelujah to the Most High ? If we knew of no historical
circumstance which might suggest an answer to these
questions, we might naturally enough infer that the writer
of the Apocalypse had himself composed his picture from
1 For what follows cf. F. Diisterdieck, Meyer, xvi. 4 (1887), p. 289.
370 BIBLE STUDIES. [286, 287
diverse elements. But we are of opinion that there are
good grounds for the supposition that the portrayer of the
Travtfyvpis eirovpavios had availed himself of the scenery of
a religious ceremony with which he was familiar.
In the Inscription of Stratonicea in Caria (already
mentioned several times), belonging to the beginning of the
imperial period, 1 the inhabitants of the city, out of gratitude
to Zeus Panhemerios and Hekate, resolve that, in honour
of these deities, thirty boys of noble parentage, under the
leadership of the iraiSovofios and the Tra^So^uXa/ce?, shall
daily sing a prescribed hymnus in the bouleuterion clothed
in white and crowned with a twig, likewise holding a twig in their
hands. This custom would hardly be inaugurated by the
piety of the people of Stratonicea ; such choirs of sacred
singers, similarly accoutred, were, without doubt, also to be
seen elsewhere in the Greek districts of Asia Minor.
Here, then, in all probability, we have the model by
which the writer of the Apocalypse was consciously or un-
consciously guided ; and those belonging to Asia Minor who
read his book a book full of the local colour of that region
would grasp his imagery with special facility. What they
beheld in heaven was something that had, by association
with their native soil, become familiar and dear to them
a choir of pious singers in festive attire ; and if they had an
ear to hear what the Spirit said to the churches, they could
also, of course, surmise that in this instance what came from
holy lips was a new song.
1 See pp. 96 f . and 360 ff . The passage runs : ... Xevx^ovovvras /col
effr(pav(afj.evovs 6a\Xov exoj/ras 5e /iera x?pas [for this construction of fierd, which
is found elsewhere in the idiom pera x^pas ex etj/ (W. Schmid, Der Atticismus,
iii., p. 285), cf. the variant of LXX Gen. 43 21 , ris eVejSoAej/ jyuv /xero x<Ps T*>
apyvpiov, Codd. 31 and 83, Field, i., p. 61] d/j-olus Qa\\ovs o'lrives <rwTrap6v[T-<av
/co]l KiOapurrov /col irfipvicos o.ffovra.1 ii^ivov. The original orthography has been
retained. On the fact cf. the remark of the scholiast upon Theocr. Id. ii. 12,
quoted by the editor, Waddington, iii. 2, p. 143 : ol ira\aiol rV 'E/COTTJJ/ rpi/j-optyov
%ypa<pov xpvo"eo(rdV5aAoj/ /col K^v^ifj-ova /col ^Kuvas rouv xtpw sxovaav /cal A.o/i7ro8as
THE END.
INDEX OF GEEEK WOKDS AND PHEASES.
a interchanging with , 182.
-a, -as in imperf. , 191.
'Aa&>0, 281.
'Aj85ej/a7c6, 310.
'Afle'AjSaAos, 325.
AeA/3eA, 325.
"AjStSos, 357.
'Aj8pad>, 187.
'AjSpacfyuos, 187.
Afipaav, 281.
Aj8pa0iaj8pt, 334.
Aj8pa/ios, 187.
Appanage, 327.
070^-77, 198 f.
dyyapevca, 86 f., 182.
&77apos, 86 f.
aypinrvea) CTT:, 283.
a7<w, 190.
dSeAtJxk, 87 f., 142.
aSoAos, 256.
aSuToi/, 287.
AT? [?], 326.
dflaj/aTos, 293.
els a&eTTfjffiv, 228 f.
ets afleTTjo'U' /col aKvpaxriv,
228 f.
a0e'T7?<m, 228 f.
Ai'a, 322, 325, 326.
Afcios, 363.
aftpioj/, 99.
arpa>, 93.
aidvios, 283, 363.
^ aldvios apxh, 363.
77 aidvios jSamAeia, 363.
aKardyvooffTos, 200.
'A/cuAas, -a, 187.
'A/cuAas, -ou, 187.
'A/cuAAos, 187.
oAajSapx^s, 184.
aAac/, 183 f.
oAAoTptoeirtaKOTTOS, 224.
aAxas, 357.
o/ica (rvf , 64.
a/j.apria, 225.
efAeo, 225.
327.
e, 327.
OS, 257.
for -oa-t, 192.
&/ supplanted by eov, 202 f .
iwf, 139 f.
aya els eKOtrros, 139 f.
avayeypairrai, 249 f.
dyaTre/iTTO), 229.
oj/a<rTpe</)OjUot, 88, 194.
, 194.
ts, 88.
, 88.
avaipepo), 88 f.
avaQepd) ras afjiaprias, 88 f.
ava<pep(i) TCI o<
192.
219.
iOj/, 220.
dj/5poAo7to, 219 f.
, 248.
, 189.
, 355.
, 91.
is, 92, 223.
, 187.
a\i<as rov &eov, 248.
aTreptTurjTos, 153.
dTreYcw, 229.
d7r(Cl96, 216, 227.
ewrb TOU ^eATtrToy, 93.
airb rov vvv, 253.
rw, 192.
, 257.
, 309.
'AiroAAciij/ios, 149.
229.
xrjs, 184.
, 183 f.
, 324.
ApfiaOiauO, 327.
'Ape'aos, 183 f.
dpeavcefa, 224.
dpeTaAo7/a, 93 f.
apera\6yiov, 94.
operaA^os, 96.
'Aperas, 183 f.
dpeT^,95f.,362.
ap/cT<Js, 257.
apirayfia, 291.
apTrdta), 190.
appafr^, 108 f., 183 f., 230.
f37i)
ot itprot of & Air to i, 157.
of &proi TTJS TrpoOe<T(as, 157.
of Sprot ToG irpoff&irov. 157.
, 267.
apxio'<tyia
-as, 188 f.
Hff'ifjfj.os, 153.
-oo-t for -av, 192.
'Ao-iSatbi, 68.
257.
j', 150.
, 332.
98 f.
SouAot, 68.
A0, 281, 288.
, 334.
BoAtojSa, 334.
Baptrjo"oi, 163.
Bopw, 188.
Bopi/)3as[?], 310.
Bap/oj8os, 187 f., 307.
Bapj/ojST? [?], 309.
Bopj/o^i[?] ( 309.
BapwefloSs [?], 187 f., 309 f.
Bapyas[?], 188.
Bopj/ejSoGs, 188, 309.
Boprapas, 189.
/JatriAe/a deroAeuros, 363.
j8ao-tAe/o eVovpaVtos, 363.
pao-rdfa, 102 f., 191, 257,
354 f., 358.
, 107, 109.
, 108 f., 230.
viv, 229.
, 104 f., 230.
, 105.
, 332.
, 331 f.
, 162.
, 162.
yeyovav, 192.
/card rb yeypa^evov, 250.
yfypairrai, 112 f., 249 f.
yevdpevos, 191.
KOTO yeveffiv, 239.
, 184.
372
INDEX OF GEEEK WOEDS AND PHEASES.
ytvwa, 109 f., 184.
yevT]/j.aToypa<j)0), 184.
yevvdu, 184.
- -s, 184.
184.
S^vju^i,?, 191.
yivofiai, 184, 191, 192.
rb yvfjffiov, 250.
7<>77uw, 110.
ypdfjLfjiara ffriKrd, 351.
7pa/t/iOT6us, 106 f.
ypafAfjiaTebs rwv Swduewv,
110 f.
i ypttLLLLQ,TV$ TftJJ'
110.
KOTOI TOS ypaQds, 250.
7pa^j, 112 f.
/cara T^V ypa^v, 250.
7pd>a>, 112 f., 249 f.
A, 357.
i, 182.
SaA/xart/d?, 182.
SeSw/ces, 192.
Serjffiv. SeJjffeis iroiovu.ai,
250.
i, 182.
, 1, 182.
Selmf SiSwut, 251.
s 5fS/u, 251.
5etaj/ Kajjifiaveiv, 251.
s AaywjSaVeij/, 251.
Aepuaria, 182.
Sic( 289^
Sta <f>a>vris, 289.
Sta8ex^A tei/os J US.
5ta"5oxos, 110, 115.
SiaKOvca, 230.
5iax&>p(*ci?. 284.
Si'St, 192.
StSowres, 192.
8i5(ta, 192.
Si'Sco, 192.
8t5ft>, 192.
8t5a>jut, 192.
Sieria, 258.
fls rb SiTji/ewes, 251.
St/catos, 115 f.
t, 116.
rb SoKifj.e'iou, 259 f.
rb SoKifuov, 259 f.
Tb5oKt>toj/[?], 259 f.
$OK'I/U.IOS, 259 f.
y, 260 f.
Aop/cas, 189.
SueTi/, 187.
5iW/m, 110 f.
^ Swctfus TOU 0eou ^ /caAou-
8wo/j.ai and tvvw, for 5w-
m/tat, 193.
5vo, 187.
Su(rt, 187.
5vw (numeral), 187.
- v, 187.
e, interchange of, with a,
182.
'</, 201 f .
eaV with indicative, 201 f.
e'oV for j/, 175, 202.
ffidffrafav, 191.
fyyapevu, 182.
" |J/, 191.
, 192.
e'7c6 et>t, 355, 360.
e'Se^St, 192.
e8os, 251.
/caret rb !0os, 251.
eT^dv, 208.
et fj.ii, 206.
et u-i] Ti aV, 204.
e? (e/?) ^v, 205 f.
e? /iV, 206.
-fta, 181 f.
d8d\\ofuti, 291 f.
Elfia\Koval, 321.
et7T(Jo'i, 201.
etpijices, 192.
ets, 117 f., 194 f., 197.
ets fefraiaxriv, 105 f.
ets rb 5yojuc rtvos, 146 f.
els e'/eaa'Tos, 139.
eTs Kafl 3 els, 138 f.
eTs Ka0' e'Kao-Tos, 138 f.^
e/c rS>v reffffdpcav aveuwv,
248.
eKfipdfa, 290.
eicyova rrjs fyypafyias, 165.
eicyovos rov aya6ov, 165.
6/cAi/c/xaco 226.
eVreVeia, 262.
e/CTeycos, 262.
e/crbs et ju^, 118.
KTpOfJLOS, 290.
eAajSa, 191.
e'Aatc^y, 208 f.
eAe7as, 191.
eAeiJ/a, 190.
ypauufvois, 248 f.
eV, 76, 118 f., 197, 284.
ei/ bv6fji.a.ri TWOS, 147.
eV pa'jSSy, 120.
eV T?7 oa)85y, 120, 284.
evyapia, 182.
evTatyiao'T'fis, 120 f.
ej/Teu|ts, 121, 146.
fVTpOfJLOS, 290.
i/a>, 121.
,, 121.
,150.
, 213 f.
fVWTlOV, 150.
e'le'Sero, 192.
191.
,225.
eiiAdV/couat a^aprtaj/, 225.
^t\affn6s, 127.
, 283.
,191.
<ri, 192.
o-av, 191.
eV/, 197, 339 f.
6 eirl TOJV TTpayp.a.T(av, 306 f.
6 eTrl TU>V XP'7M C * TC " / . 307.
rb eVi)8dAAoj/ ue'pos, 230.
' ' , 185.
,185.
,192.
,125.
eiri8v/j.e<0 Tivd, 293.
TTlQvfJL't]Ti}S, 224.
4TTiKa\ov/j.evos, 6, 210.
eirt/ceKATj/iei/os, o, 210.
eiriovffios, 214.
eVi'o-KOTroi, 230 f.
, 156, 230 f.
,190.
,122.
, 122.
,191.
tpur'duy 195, 290.
-es for -as, 192.
m, 263.
, 191.
~- ' 252 '
fvdptffTos, 214 f.
euapeVrwy, 214 f.
emAaros, 122, 258.
evffe&eia, 364.
: w, 364.
, 364.
122.
exw, 191, 293.
ea>s eTs Tra^Tes, 139.
fcas irdvTes, 139.
^, interchanging with <r, 185
332.
', 330 f.
^uvpva, 185.
Zfj.vpva, 185.
Z/j.vpvcuos, 185.
/, 206 f.
289.
, 191.
f)fji.iovos, 285.
'/IfMiffos, 186.
f)/j.[<rovs (gen.), 186.
rivoiyrjv, 189.
rivvyt), 189.
^a, 190.
, 192.
, 190.
0apa, 189.
0ap^a, 189.
^ 0eta 5vva/j.is, 362.
0e?os, 218.
0eoA<$70s, 231 f.
TO 06/^eAta T^S 7^5, 287.
INDEX OF GREEK WORDS AND PHRASES.
373
rb Qfu.4\iov, 123.
0e<k, 167, 223.
rov 0eou 0e \OVTOS, etc. , 252.
Qf6<pi\os, 336.
6p6vos rvjs x^ptTos, 135.
KOTO Ovyarpoiroitav, 239.
0o>0, 288, 325.
t as a consonant, 326.
r=tt, 182 f.
-la for -efo, 181 f.
la, 322. 324.
'la oval, 321.
'la ove, 321.
Iaj8a, 325, 333.
Iaas, 334.
Ia/3ao>0 334.
Iae, 322, 330 f.
IaeCej8w0, 330 f.
IOTJS[?], 334.
lajSoe, 333.
la&ovv-n, 334.
lajSoux, 334.
10)80?, 334.
Iaa?x, 334.
IOTJ, 322, 325 f.
larjA, 325.
laKKcafii, 282.
lo/cou, 282.
laKoyfr 282, 324.
'la/caijS, 316.
'Ia/co>j8os, 316.
laoat, 324.
Iao0, 322, 326.
'laov, 321, 322.
'laoye', 321, 322, 327 f,
laws, 334.
'Idffwv, 315.
loo?, 282, 322, 324.
Iao> la, 322, 325.
Iao?at, 324.
Iao?0, 327.
Iaa?A, 325.
law, 324.
Iao?ove, 328.
Iaa?oi/e77, 328.
lawourje, 327, 328, 329.
lauovrji, 327, 329.
lawr, 327.
i5ctAA.oyu.at, 291 f.
ftios, 123 f.
IBHnOTA, 329.
tet = t, 182 f.
fepareuw, 215 f.
'lepoo~6\v/j.a, 316.
iXdffKOfj.ai, 224 f.
lAaV/cojwat a/jiaprtas, 224 f.
l\a<rriipiov, 124 f.
i\ao~ri]piov eTTiOe/jLa, 125.
t\affr-fjpios, 124 f.
iA7j[?], 326.
'ijUaA/coue, 321.
tVSaA Ao^at, 291 f.
foSaAjua, 292.
'I O-OOK:, 189.
'lo-a/c, 189.
"lo-awos, 189, 282.
Iff papa, 282.
tVrJs, 135.
to>/, 332.
, 184.
149.
,216.
. >&7rrf, 216.
KaQapbs air6 nvos, 196, 221 .
/ca0o>s 767paTrTOt, etc. , 249 f.
/caf placed between prepo-
sition and noun, 64, 265.
6 Kal, 309, 313 if.
Kaivifa, 290.
6 Ko0' els, 138 f.
KaOo\iK6s, 50 f.
/ca/co7ro0eja, 263 f.
KaKoiraQia, 263 f.
fcaAeivJ/rj, 192.
/caAou/tevos, ^, 210.
Kapirbv ff<ppayio/j.ai, 238 f.
KOpTrJo), 135 f.
KdpircofjLa 138.
KdpTTCOfflS, 138.
/carc, 138 f.
KOTO Trp^o-wTr^ rtros, 140.
, 264 f.
/a, 190.
190.
Kivvpa, 332.
KAeoTras, 315.
KAeo^as, 315.
KAo?7ra[s?], 315.
KAw7ras[?j, 315.
K.QlV(t)V(d (bVQFGOJS
np, 368.
Koiyoovbs 6eias (pvffews, 368
" ' ,68.
,68.
. c , 147.
Kvpiaic-f) (r/yu.e'pa), 218 f.
/cupta/c^s, 175, 217 f.
Kvpios, 219.
5 /cuptos, 219.
o /cuptos ^uaV, 83 f., 219.
Kvpios raV irvevfjidrfav, 327.
Kupos, 332.
KO?^CW, 237.
ta, 68.
,191.
', 209.
\ey6fjLfvos, 6, 210.
Ae'7o?, 191.
\cfcrw, 190.
\eirovpyeca, 140 f.
\eirovpyia, 140 f., 1 14.
AetTOup7tK(is, 141.
\eirovpy6s, 140 f.
\iK/j.dw, 225 f.
At>, 141 f.
Ao7ei'a, 142 f., 219
\oycvca, 143.
Ao7ta[?], 142 f., 219 f.
TOD AfltTTOl), 349.
, 226 f.
Aotfw d7r<J, 227.
Mai/a-^/t, 310 f.
-jno f.
fj.aprvpovfj.ai, 265.
ixax^j 201.
/j.eyiffros, 365.
fj.ei6rpos, 144.
^/c TOW fjLfffov alpoo, 252.
juera /cat, 64, 265.
/nera x e *P a s ^X*? 370.
yU6TaSi'5o?/xt evtinriov, 213.
fj.tr en lytypafyav, 192.
ueroiKos. 228.
~ /es, 355.
, 144 f.
^, 229.
ea?, 293.
?,293.
/jLvppa, 332.
NajSrj, 308.
Nai, 308.
Na/3oKodp6ffopos, 309.
NafiovxoSovoffop, 309.
Na^w, 309.
Navjj, 308.
NeoGs, 309.
vzKpia, 142.
veKpcaffts rov 'irjffov, 360.
73.
t, 185.
,145.
220.
o!5es, 192.
oi'/celbs^m
oiKovofila, 246.
d\oKapTf6(>}, 138.
b\oKapir<DfJia, 138.
6\OKdpTTto)fflS, 138.
6\OKavrufj.a, 138.
oAo/cayroxris, 138.
<5/xoAo*yfa, 249.
/car' orap, 253.
/car' oveipov, 253.
^o/to, 146 f. , 196 f.
T& ovofj.a rb ayiov, 281.
T^ ovofj.a evri/j.ov Kal
^ pbv Kal fjieya, 282 f.
ets rb t>vou.a. rivos, 146 f.,
197.
oroyua $piKr6v, 288.
ry ov6u&rl nvos, 197 f.
ej/ Ty ov6fj.ari nvos, 197 f.
fV 6v6/j,aros, 197.
oTrdrai/ with indie. , 202, 204.
<5p/cio> Ttya, 281.
bffioi 'Iou5a?ot, 68.
STOJ/ with indie. , 202.
374
INDEX OF GBEEK WOEDS AND PHRASES.
.oS*, 188.
?, 221.
6<t>i\(a a/jLaprlav, 225.
6<pt\aT, 191.
8<pi\ev, 191.
Mfltmer, 148, 266.
b^wviov Xafifiavci), 266.
TT for 1 (?), 189.
), 192.
s, 293.
T _.....*, 293.
TrcwTO/epciTajp, 283.
oprpr
irapayej/dfjievos, 191.
7rapd"5et(ros, 148 f.
7TOpc86T6, 192.
irapatnos ayaQ&v, 253.
irapaKaraTiBou.ai, 193.
s, 308.
x, 143.
, 143.
, 149.
-, *, 149.
irdpea-ts, 266.
TTOpeXO^ 1 * 1 ffJMVr6v, 254.
irapiffTiifju Ovffiav, 254.
irdpoiKos, 227 f.
naprapas, 188 f.
TraffTO&opiov 149 f.
7TOTpo7rap(8oTos, 266.
HaDAos, 316.
7T?*>, 182 f.
Trepi8el-iov, 150.
Ta Trepiepya, 323.
Trepiepyd^o/JLai., 323.
Treptepyia, 323.
TTparaTtv al-ioos, 194.
vepiffraffis, 150.
TTplTf/J.V(a, 151 f.
vcpiroffffi, 152.
a7T& irepvffi, 221.
irijyw, 153 f.
1W, 183.
TT/J/W, 182 f.
wiffTU, 79.
7TA7J00S, 232 f.
TrA^payia, 110.
TroTi<rfj.6s, 154.
TrpayiJ.a, 233.
irpayna ex&> irp^s rti/o, 233.
irpdKToap, 154.
7rpa|is,323.
Trpea-jSurepot, oi, 154 f. , 233 f.
Trpeff/SvTepoi tepe?s, 154 f. ,
233 f.
irpfffftvrepos, 154 f., 233 f.
7rpe0"j8tT4/c(Jj', 156.
/caret ra irpoyeypafA/JLeva,
250.
irpoyfypa-Trrai, 250.
irpoeyafiova-av, 191.
irp69effis, 157.
irp6de(ris apruv, 157.
js -n-poOv/jiias, 254.
^, 222.
i Trpoffpeirci), 357.
irpoffpiirra), 357.
irpoffrl8effOcu, 67.
TrpoffTpeiro), 357.
trpo^rrjs, 235 f.
TTTOtOJ, 68.
irvppdKrjs, 157.
336.
o- interchanging with , 185.
-<roj/ for -v, 191.
SaouA, 316.
SaSAos 6 /cal HaCAos, 313 f.
2ej8., 218.
2ea<rr/j, 218 f.
, 315.
' , 315.
2t>wj/, 315, 316.
I^lZ'/XCcA./COUT? 321.
fflTOfJLTp(a, 158.
fflTOfJLCTpia [ ? ], 158.
(TidxavoXoyeia, 219.
""], 158.
, 158.
;, 158.
er/jiapdySivos, 267.
2/J.vpva, 185.
'S.fj.vpva'ios, 185.
ffovSdptov, 223.
(TO(bl(.OLLG,l. 292.
ffTreipas, 186.
(TTrefpyjs, 186.
(nrvpiSiov, 158.
(TTTVpls, 158, 185.
ffrdffis, 158 f.
ffT<j)dviov, 345.
ffr<pav6ca, 345.
(TT^Aa/ia, 159.
(TT^AftJO'tS, 159.
(TTiy/j,aTa, 349 f.
crrpoTefa, 181 f.
ffrparla, 181 f.
(rvyyevfjs, 159.
a-v/jifiios, 283.
(TvLtQiooti) 293.
<ri/yu,)8ouAiof, 238.
2u/U6>Z/, 316.
e/c ffv/jubcavov, 255.
<rw KOI, 265.
ffvveSpiov
156;
/w, 310.
, 191.
, 160.
i 290.
:, 287.
o-wrpo^os, 305, 310 f.
<rvvTpo(bos rov
311 fT
, 287.
f j>, 238 f.
'toy, 185.
, 158, 185.
/, 185.
ffSjfia, 160.
orf)t;A
,83.
T for ]1, 189.
rapaaO, 333.
Tafjiew, 182 f.
ra/uetbt', 182 f.
-rapa, 189.
Tapafl, 189.
Toerras, 357.
ra<|)^, 355 f.
raxtf, 289.
re/ci/a cwrajAeias, 163, 165.
TfKva rov SmjSdAou, 163.
reKva T7)s 7ra77eAios, 163
riitva Kardpas, 164.
re'/cj/o op77js, 164.
TtKva iropveias, 165.
rfKva TTJS ffO(f>ias, 163.
TKVa UTTCCKOTJS, 163.
TKva ())(ar6s, 163.
-, 161 f.
,190.
,267.
nfle'co, 192 f.
T^7?;U, 192.
Tt0a>, 192.
T/0a>, 192.
T^TTOS, 267.
TVyYUVO}, 190.
TtJpos, 332.
oix ^ TVX&V, 255.
u = Heb. o, 332.
-u0, 332.
vloeeffia, 239.
Ka0' vio6effiav, 239.
wfoi TOU aluvos TOVTOV, 163.
uiol TTJS avao"Ta(recJs, 163.
Ui'ol TTJS 07ret06tos, 163.
viol airoiKias, 165.
Viol TT)S fiaffitelas, 162.
tnol )3povT7js, 162.
VIOL T7]S OiCtuT^/CTJSj lOO.
viot Svvdfj.(i)s, 165.
u/ol 7)/j.fpas, 163.
uiol 0eou, 73.
uiol TOU vv/uupcavos, 162.
tnol irapavoficav, 165.
Utol TOU TTOJ'TJpOV, 162.
utol rwr 7rpo$7jTa)j/. 163.
UiOi TOW </)WT^S, 163.
vl6s, 161 f.
u/^s avofjiias, 165.
uibs TT)S OTTwAeias, 163.
6CBV, 166.
, 162.
><r/as, 165.
uibs ToO 8"f)/ji.ov, 165.
ufts StojS^Aou, 163.
u/5s flpj)vr]s, 163.
ui^s 0oi/etTou, 165.
u&sfleoD, 73, 83, 131, 166 f.
wbs Tropo/cA^o-ecos, 163, 307 f.
V&S T7JS TT^ACWS, 165.
vli>5 TTJS U7rep7jd)av/ias, 165.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
375
v&s inrovylov, 162.
viol [?] d>apeVpas, 164.
ol inrepavu) 6eoi, 283 f.
ot eV vTTfpoxf) fares, 255.
nrrat, 250.
/, 160.
v, 223.
vTroriQovffa, 193.
, 327.
<bi\avSpos Kal
255 f.
$iAo7rpcoTevw, 198.
<j>/Aos, 167 f.
<pt\os deov, 168.
<i>fAos roD Kaftrapos, 168.
, 198.
, 256.
, 352.
<})vo~is avdpuirivri, 368.
0efa </>v(m, 368.
Xapa 7 /xa, 240 f.
Xei'p, 251.
T^J/ %e?pa ^/cSfScojUt, 251.
T&S x e *P as St'Sayu, 251.
, 247.
, 122.
, 247.
-eo0, forms in, 326 f.
-cfo, 208 f.
, 191.
II.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Abelard, Letters of, 46.
Abydos in Egypt, 357.
Accentuation of Greek Transcriptions of
Semitic Words, 274.
Acts of the Apostles
Lexical, 323.
Literary Character, 39.
"We" Source, 58.
Address, Form of, 22 ff.
Angel, 79.
Aorist, 190 f.
Aorist as Inchoative, 68.
O7ro| \ty6jitjra, 64.
Apocalypse of John
Letters to Seven Churches, 54.
Linguistic Character, 74.
Literary Character, 39.
Local Colouring (Asia Minor), 368 f.
Mark of the Beast, 240 ff.
Method of Exegesis, 240 ff.
Apocope of Prepositions, 192.
Apocrypha of 0. T., Linguistic Character,
74 f.
Aristeas, Epistle of, 42, 72, 343.
Aristides, Epistles, 32.
Aristotle, Letters, 26 ff.
Epistle, 31.
Ark, Noah's, as a l\ao-r-fipiov, 128.
Associations, Language of Religious, 232,
267.
Atossa, Supposed Inventor of Letter-writ-
ing, 3.
Attributes of God, 1 Heaping up of, 297.
Augment, 189, 191.
Authority of Bible, Juristic Conception of,
113 f.
Barnabas, 307 ff.
Barnebo, 188.
Baruch, Epistle of, 42.
Beast, the, in Revelation, 240 ff.
Beelzebuth [?], Belsebuth, Belzebud, Bel-
zebuth. 331 f.
Berytos, 333.
Bible, Authority of, see Authority.
Mode of Using, 271 f., 281, 294 f., 300.
Quotation of, see Quotation.
Biblical Writings, 36.
Material in Greek Magic Books, 280 f.
" Biblical" Greek, 65 ff., 173 ff.
Words and Constructions, 198 ff.
Bills of Sale, in Papyri, 242 ff.
Bishops, 230 f.
Blass, 173 ff, etc.
Book, Idea of, 6 f.
Book of Humanity, 173.
Cain, Mark of, 351.
Camerarius, J., 13.
Canon, 295.
History of 0. T., 339 ; N. T., 56.
Catholic Epistles, 50 f.
Writings, 51.
Cato, Epistles, 32.
Charagma, 240 ff.
Children of God, 73.
Christianity and Literature, 58 f.
Chyl, 333.
Cicero, Letters, 29 f.
Circumcido, 152.
Circumcision, 151 ff.
Citation, see Quotation.
Claudius, Emperor, and the Jews, 68.
Classics, Greek, and the N. T., 80, 366.
Clavis3, 176, etc.
Cleophas, 315.
Codd. Sergii, 214.
Conjugation, 190 ff.
Consonants, Variation of, 183 ff.
Corinthians, Letters to, 47 f.
Second Letter to, 47 f., 54.
Court and Religion, Language of, 73, 91 f.
Creator of Heaven and Earth, 284.
Cremer, H., 176 f., etc.
Dalmatia, 182.
Declension, 186 f.
Delmatia, 182.
1 On the same characteristic in Christian liturgies, see F. Probst, Litmgie des
vierten Jahrhunderts und deren Reform, Miinster i. W., 1893, p. 344 ff.
376
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Demons, in Tombs, 281.
Believing and Trembling, 288.
Diogenes, Epistle of, 42, 51.
Dionysius oi Halicarnassus, Epistles of, 31.
Egyptian Chnrch Fathers, 70.
Egyptian Greek, 70 ff.
Eisenmenger, J. A., Entdecktes Juden-
thum, 288 f.
Eldad, 336.
Eicon, 209.
Eleutheria, Festival of, in Egypt [?], 343.
Emperor's Day, 218 f.
Epicurus, Letters, 9, 28.
Epistles, 31.
Epistle, 9, 20.
Idea of, 9f., 31 f.
and Letter, 9 ff.
Address, 12.
Epistles
Catholic, 38, 50 ff.
Early Christian, 50 ff., 57.
Egyptian, 17.
Graeco-Roman
Gastronomic, 33.
Juristic, 33.
Magic, 33.
Medical, 33.
Poetical, 33.
Religious, 33.
Jewish, 38 f.
Aristeas, 42, 72, 343.
Aristides, 32.
Aristotle, 31.
Cato, M. Porcius, 32.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 31.
Epicurus, 31.
Lysias, 31.
Pliny, 32.
Plutarch, 31.
Seneca, 32.
'Baruch," 42.
'Diogenes," 42.
'Esther and Mordecai," 41.
'Heraclitus," 42.
'Jeremiah," 41.
Epistle to Hebrews, 49 f.
Epistle of James, 52 f.
Epistles at beginning of 2nd Mace.,
42.
Pastoral Epistles, 54.
First Ep. of Peter, 51 f.
Second Ep. of Peter, 360 ff.
Seven Epistles in Revelation, 54.
Herder, 11 f.
Epistles, Collections of, 12 ff.
Unauthentic, 12 ff., 33 f.
Forged, 12.
Epistolography, Pseudonymous, 33 f.
Esau, 336.
Esther and Mordecai, 41.
Esther, Royal Letters subsequently added
to, 41.
Evangelium, 39.
Forgery, Literary, 13 f.
Forms, Literary, 37.
Formulaic Expressions, 191, 195, 196,
197 f., 204, 205 ff., 213, 221, 228 f.,
230, 248-256.
Friend of God, 167 ff.
Fruit, Sacrifice of, 135 ff.
Galatians, Letter to, 47, 346 ff.
Genuineness, Literary, 13 f.
Gnostic, 353.
God, 79.
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in Magic
Formulae, 282.
Grace, 73.
Greek, "Biblical," 65 ff.
Egyptian, 70 ff.
Spoken among Jews, 77.
of Biblical Writings, 61 ff.
Translation of Semitic into, 74 ff.
Biblical Writings originally in, 76 ff.
Gregory VII., Letter of, 46.
Grimm, W., 176, etc.
Hebraisms of N.T., 177.
Imperfect, 195.
So-called, 67, 70, 161 ff, 165, 194-198,
205 ff., 213, 248, 286, 289, 290, 295 ff.
Hebrews, Epistle to, 49 f.
Heliodorus, 303 ff.
Heloise, Letters, 46.
Heraclitus, Epistles, 42.
Herder, Epistles, 11 f.
Homeromancy, 294.
Homily, 53.
Humanists, Letters, 16.
Immortality, 293.
Imperfect, 191.
Inscriptions, 173 ff, 178 ff., etc.
Greek (from Asia Minor) and the N. T.,
80 ff.. 366 ff.
Greek (from Egypt) and the LXX, 72.
Hebrew (outside Palestine), 77.
Importance for Textual Criticism, 280.
Imprecation-Tablets, see Tabulae Devo-
tionis.
Inspiration (verbal), 63, 81.
Introduction to N. T., 55.
Isocrates, Letters, 26 f.
Ja, Ja, 322.
Jahava, 333.
Jaho, 322.
James the Less, 144 f.
James, Epistle of, 52 f.
Jaoth, 326 f.
Jason of Gyrene, 304.
Jeremiah, Letter of, 40 f.
Epistle of, 41.
Jesus, 58 f.
Words of, Translated into Greek, 75.
Jesus Justus, 315.
Jesus Sirach, Prologue, 69, 339 ff.
Chronology, 339 ff.
Jews, 222 f., 232.
Edict of Ptolemy IV. Philopator against,
341 f.
In the Fayyum, 149.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
377
Jews (continued]
Dissemination of Greek among, 77.
on Coast of N. Africa, 280 f.
(See also Claudius, Name, Trajan.)
Jewish Greek, 68, 296 ff.
Words and Constructions, 198 S.
Jobel, 100 f.
John the Divine, 231.
John Mark, 317.
John, "Letters" of, 49 f.
Joseph Justus, 315.
Josephus, Hebraisms in, 67, 70.
The Jewish War as a Translation, 67,
75.
Jubilee, Year of, 100 f.
Juristic Expressions, 196 ff. , 200, 213, 221,
227, 228 f., 229 f., 230, 231, 232 f., 233,
238, 239 f., 242 ff., 247, 248 f., 249 f.,
251 f., 253, 254 f., 257, 264 f., 266.
Kapporeth, 124 ff.
Kepler, Letters, 5.
the, 80.
Late Greek, 173 ff., 296.
Legal Terms, etc. , see Juristic.
Letter, Conception of, 3 f., 6 f.
Address, 50 f.
addressed to more than one, 4, 18 f.
and Epistle, 9 ff.
and Literature, 6 f., 16, 21.
Ancient Classifications, 35.
Modern Classifications
Congregational, 19, 45.
Doctrinal, 45 f.
Family, 18 f.
Official, 28.
Pastoral, 46.
Private, 19, 45.
Subsequently Published, 8 ff., 20 f.
True, 20.
See also Atossa.
Letters, Babylonian-Assyrian, 17.
Early Christian, 42 ff.
Greek, 21 ff.
Jewish, 38 ff.
Papyrus, 22 ff.
Roman, 28 ff.
Aristotle, 26.
Abelard and Heloise, 46.
Cicero, 29 ff.
Epicurus, 9, 28.
Gregory VII. , 46.
Isocrates, 10, 26 f.
Italian Humanists, 16.
Jeremiah, 40 f.
Kepler, 5.
Luther, 28.
Moltke, 5.
Ninck, 19.
Origen, 48.
Paul, 42 ff.
Roslinus, 5.
Letters, Public Papers and Speeches, in-
sertion of, in Historical Works, 28 f.,
39, 41 f.
Letters and Epistles of the Bible, problem
of Literary History, 34 ff.
Literature of [Brieftitteratur], 17, 50.
Collections of, 27 f.
Letter-writing, Guides to, 35.
"Letters," "Large," 348.
Lexical and Syntactical Notes, see Voca-
bulary and Syntax.
Litanei, 298.
Literature, Character of, 6 f. , 13 f.
Biblical, 36.
History of Early Christian, 55 f.
Jewish, its Influence on Early Christian
Authors, 39.
See also Letter, Christianity.
Liturgy, 298.
Logia, Translators of, 75.
Longinus, 43.
Lord's Day, 218 f.
Love Spell, 279.
Luke, Prologue to Gospel of, 76.
Luther, Letter to his Son, 28.
Luther's Bible, 73, 134 f.
Lysias, Epistles of, 31.
Maccabees, Books of, 179.
Second, 42, 303 f.
Third, 342.
Fourth, 50.
Magic Literature, Greek, 273 ff., 323,
352 ff.
Manaen, 310 ff.
Mark of the Beast, in Revelation, 240 ff.
Marks of Jesus, 349 ff.
Mercy-seat, 124 ff.
Minatory Formulae, 356.
Miracle at Red Sea in Magic Formulae,
285.
Moltke, Letter of, 5.
Mons Olivarum, 211.
Oliveti, 211.
Mordecai, see Esther.
Morphology, Notes on, 186-193.
Mother's Name in Magic Formulae, 283.
Mule, Infertility of, 285 f.
Mysehi, 333.
Name of God, Unutterable, 287 f.
Names, in -t\v, 310 f.
Double, of Jews, 314.
Greek, of Similar Sound added to Bar-
baric, 315 f.
Greek, substituted for Hebrew, 315.
Theophoric, 309 f.
See also Proper.
Nebo, 309 f.
"New Testament" Greek, 173 ff.
Words and Constructions, 198 ff.
Ninck, Letter to his Congregation, 19.
Nun, 308 f.
Olives, Mount of, 208 ff.
Origen, Letters, 48.
Orthography, Notes on, 181-185.
ofN. T., 81.
of Ptolemaic Papyri and LXX, 72.
378
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Osiris Myth, 356 f.
Overbeck, F., his Conception of the
Beginnings of Christian Literature,
37 f.
Palms and White Kobes, 368 ff.
Papyri, l73ff., 179 f., etc.
their Value for LXX-study, 71 ff.
Papyrus Letters, 21 ff.
Paradise, 148.
Pastoral Epistles, 54.
Paul, his Name, 313 ff.
Characteristics, 359.
and the Galatians, 346 ff.
his Greek, 64, 76, 296 f.
Legal Terms used by, 107 f. (see also
Juristic Expressions).
Opinion of Longinus, 43.
and the Eeligious Speech of Imperial
Period, 366 f.
was he an Epistolographer ? 42 ff.
Paul, Letters of "
Canonisation, 43.
Collection and Publication, 56.
False Conceptions regarding, 43.
Standpoint of Criticism, 57 ff.
Standpoint of Exegesis, 57.
their Value as Sources, 57 f.
to Corinthians, 47 f. ; (Second) 47 f., 54.
to Galatians, 47, 346 ff.
to Philemon, 45, 56.
to Philippians, 45.
to Romans, 48 f.
Eom. xvi. , 45, 283.
See also Camerarius.
Permutations of Vowels in Magic, 325, 329.
Perfect, 192.
Peter, First Epistle of, 51 f., Second,
360 ff.
Peschito, 211.
Philemon, Letter to, 45, 56.
Philippians, Letter to, 45.
Phrases and Formulae, see Formulaic.
Pliny, Letters, 32.
Plutarch, Letters, 31.
Praecido, 152.
Prayers, Form of, 297 f.
Prepositions, 192, 195, 196, 197, 213, 216 f.,
221, 227, 265 f.
See also Greek Preps, in Index I.
Presbyter, 154 ff. , 233 ff .
Priests, 233 ff .
Proper Names, 187 ff., 301 ff.
Prophets, 235 ff.
Propitiatory Cover, 124 ff.
Proseuche, 222 f.
Protective Marks, 240 f., 350 ff.
Providentia Specialissima, 285.
Pseudonymity, Idea of Literary, 13 if., 41.
Ptolemaic Period
Official Diction of, 343 ff.
Greek Legal Terminology of, 104 f. , 344.
Ptolemy IV. Philopator, Edict against
Jews, 341 ff.
Quotation, Mode of Biblical, 76, 89, 295.
in Synoptists, 102 ff., 162 f.
Religion of Book or Document, 59, 113.
Eeligion, History of, 36, 58, 271 f.
Religious ideas, Change of Meaning, 78 ff.
Religious Diction of Asia Minor, 360 ff. ,
366 f.
Religious Terms and Expressions, 195 f.,
196, 215 f. , 216 f., 222 f. , 224 f., 226 f.,
230 f., 231 f., 232 f., 233 ff., 235 ff.,
248, 250, 254, 258.
Remissio, 99.
Revelation, see Apocalypse.
Ritschl's (A.) view of IXaffvtipiov, 133 f.
Romans, Letter to, 48 f.
Rom. xvi , 45, 283.
Roslinus, Letter, 5.
Samaria in the Fayyum, 336.
Samaritan Pronunciation of Tetragramma-
ton, 334 ff.
Samaritans in the Fayyfim, 335 f.
Scholia, possible Value of, for Biblical
Philology, 200.
Seal, Roman Imperial, 242 ff.
Semitic Elements in Greek Inscriptions
188 f.
Semitisms, see Hebraisms.
Seneca, Epistles, 32.
Septuagint, 66 ff., 173, 179, 199, 202,
205 ff., 261 f., 271, 280, 294, 295 ff.,
etc.
Change of Meaning in terms of, 78 f. ,
124 f.
Lexicon to, 73 f.
Mode of Investigating, 124 ff.
Quotations from, 76.
Study of, x f.
and Early Christian Writers, 77 ff.
as a Monument of Egyptian Greek, 70 ff.
Egyptianising "Tendency" of, 73.
Influence of Hebrew Sounds on its
Greek Words, 99. -
Relation to the Ptolemaic Papyri, 70 ff.
Transcription of Unknown Hebrew
Words, 99.
Serapeum at Memphis, 140.
Show-bread, 157.
Signs, Sacred, 349 ff.
Son of God, 73.
Spirit, 78.
Stigma, Purpose of, 349 f.
Superstition, 272 f., 297 f., 323, 352 ff.
Sunday, 218 f.
Synagogue, 222 f.
Synonymic of Religious Terms of Early
Christianity, 104.
Synoptists, 297.
Linguistic Character of, 74 f.
Semitic Sources of, 162 f.
Syntax, Notes on, 194 ff.
Syth, 333.
Tabulae Devotionis, 279.
from Adrumetum, 273 ff., 356.
from Carthage, 274, 284, 289.
Technical Expressions, 228-247, 254, 257,
264 f., 266, 267.
See also Formulaic Expressions.
INDEX OP TEXTS.
370
Tetragrammaton, 31 Off.
Thayer, J. H. , 176, etc.
Thephillin, 353.
Traditional Forms of Sem. Names in Greek
Texts, 330.
Trajan's Jewish War, Sources for, 68, 316.
Transcriptions, Vocalic, of the Tetragram-
maton, 330.
Translations of Sem. Originals into Greek,
74 ff.
Verb, 189 ff.
Vocabulary and Syntax, Notes on, 194-
267.
Vowels, Variation of, 180 ff.
Vulgate, 211, 225.
White Robes and Palms, 368 ff.
Y, Phoenician = Heb. 6 (and 6), 333.
Yth, 333.
III.
INDEX OF TEXTS.
1 16 f .
1"
GENESIS.
.... 284
286
289
289
286
148
128
1419-22 284
17" 153,351
1712 152
IS" 168
22" 207
234 149
23" 164
2316 260
25 25 157
321 120
3429 160
366 160
S6 24 160
4Q2i 267
41i 258
43 21 370
45 5 258
47 J2 158
4718 123
50 2 '- 120
EXODUS.
426 152
5 6- 10- 14- 15-19 f t _ H2
139-16. ..'..'! 351
14i5f. 284
15 8 , '. '. '. . . 285
151 8 283
17 5 120
2017 293
2120 120
2516P7] 125 f.
25 20 [21] 128
25 30 157
2634 127
3026 125
31i 141
3522 150
37 125,127
38 5 127
39i 141
39 4i P9] . 141
LEVITICUS.
2"
.135f.
JUDGES.
510
160
418
. 123
110,112
. 160
13 41- 42- 43
1614 ...'.'!
. 88
. 127
1910
1Q22
IfiK
1923
. 151
1 SAMUEL.
42-3
68
1927t ....
. 351
1928 . .
349
1936
116
21*
. 106
16 12,1742 (
17 22
. 157
158
21 5f -
351
24 18
288
17 43 . .
. 120
2510
101, 138
. 100 f.
106, 229
106
2013
. 90
2510-11-12. 13-15-
25 s3 ... '. '.
25 30
20 3i ....
165
216
. 157
28 2
. 98
27 . .
101
2 SAMUEL.
27 .
165
NUMBERS.
4 12- 26
, 141
714
120
75
. 141
125 13 28
165
. 110
. 205
327
22 3
91
1 4 28 .
98
16 22
1 KINGS.
4 2 7 [si] ....
72- 38
. 120
. 292
23 19 . .
. 199
. 327
. 150
27i 6
3150
3327*.
. 189
36U
164.
1911
20 35
. 287
163
DEUTERONOMY.
116 . . . 230
351
2 KINGS.
2 3 ' 5- 7
. 163
310
131
. 199
. 114
726 ...
123
12 32
. 310
. 151
. 283
. 310
114
ISi 4
. 102
. HOf.
. 310
24isf. 25 19
25 8 '..!.' '.
14 if.
351
1 CHRONICLES.
51 ... 13Q
15 2
. 123
. 165
25 2
251 5 ....
116
926-33
II 23 . . . . '.
16 25 .
. 150
. 120
283
26 14 ...
136f
27 2 6
. 248
28 58 ....
. 282
18" .
115
30 6 ....
151
28 2
158
JOSHUA.
512 .
, 136
28
28"
294
. 190
. 127
2bU 262
380
INDEX OF TEXTS.
2 CHRONICLES.
4 9 , 6i 3 127
18
29
32
32
32
33
38
46
47
50
57
59
66
71
73
73
75
76
77
78 2
88
88
88
88
89
95
96
98
98
102
103
104
108
110
110
117
118
125
127
143
145
17
3 8
6 2
8 2
8 *
9i
9i
Hi
138
15i
16 2
22 4
227
27 8
27 2
306
31 5
2 5
4i
19 8.10 .... 292
30 6 95
ISAIAH.
3 12 . . 154
9"
. 260
33 8 ... 291
3 2 o 150
5 7 220
. 308
33 9 289
33 i 4 290
13H
. 157
6 is 159
. 308
34 5 150
10 2 4 120
221
. 145
39 i 3 149
II 6 ' 7 .... 291
2414 .
. 141
47 3 283
13 5 . . . . 290
26H t (
110, 115
. 164
48 i 6 293
13 8 . 293
28 6
51] 12 ... 290
14 12 164
28 7
. 115
58 8 151
19 2 145
31 12
. 115
60 4 . . .290
22 1 5 112
32 30
. 141
67 8 291
26 4 283
33 14
141,288
RAS.)
165
72 i 4 282
27 1 2 ... 116
EZRA.
(2 EZRA or ESD
41
74 w . . . . 284
30 1 7 ... 135
74 i 6 . 289
3318 112
76 2 283
77 19 290
3321 116,283
3323 135
3622 112
78] 15 287
614
308
162
89 8 283
89] 23 165
89] 25 109
38 12 135
620
. 139
40 3 162
8 2 9
107-16
. 150
. 165
40 n 102
40 12 . . 291
NEHEMIAH.
15
. 283
89 33 . .' . 120
40 2 8 . . . . .. . 283
42 12 95 96
90] 6 151
96] 4 . . . .283,284
97] 1 293
43 21. 20 f. 96
28
. 148
44 5 351
414
. 283
99] 3 . . . . 283
45 1 ff- 367
6 12 ....
. 308
99] 8 122
46i 309
46 4 102
lO 33
. 157
103] 5 .... 290
104] 32 .... 290
105] 4i .... 287
109] u .... 154
111'* .... 282
111 = i" 292
|H8]io.ii.i2 [ 151
119] 170. ... 92
126] 4 .... 98
128' . . . .220f.
144] i 2 .... 220
|146] e .... 284
PROVERBS,
292
154
. 113
53 4> n 102
1328
. 290
53 12 89
ESTHER.
1 s , 2i8 . . . .
168
56 2 164
574 163 165
595-6 135
221
. 98
62" 162
65 25 291
66 1 2 102
53-8
92
. 153
6 9
168
JEREMIAH.
4 4 151
72.
92
7 9
. 153
. 41
4 24 291
10 2
. 114
10 5 103
10 3
. 115
Hie 152
27 [50] 3 292
JOB.
123
38 [31] 9 116
38 [31] 10 226
44 [37] 15> 20 . . . 110,112
5223 nof.
7 10- is
. 123
> 287
1 283
) 909
14 2
. 151
149
. 220
LAMENTATIONS.
3i 3 164
347 98 ff.
EZEKIEL.
63 291
213
. 102
116
216
. 293
123
L-ifU
2132
. 283
24 12 . . 123
5199
26 3
. 365
9Q9
27 3
31 2 3
. 205
. 293
. 365
199
35 123
9 351
31 2 8
10 1, 11 - . . . 283, 284
11 19 290
34 24
. 293
. 291
. 285
. 113
114
i fi^
38 39
16 4 . . 151
38 ff-, 39 !- 3 . . .
4218
ECCLESIASTES.
148
193-6 . ... 291
2225 291
275 135
PSALMS.
29
. 120
27 16 99
33 27 , 34 s , 35 G , 36 5 . 205
36 6 . 291
CANTICLES.
J . .148
11 [12] 7 ....
.261f
17H81 8 .
. 290
36 23 . . 283
INDEX OF TEXTS.
381
36 28 . . .
. 290
4 ESDRAS.
753^ 352 .... 148
PSALMS OF SOLOMON.
15 8 - 1 351
38 19
205
39
120
TOBIT.
2*2 135
10 10 160
JUDITH.
112 205
1 MACCABEES.
I 6 . ,
247 f
323.32
. 310
. 165
306
40M122. . . .
4314.17.20 . . .
45 10 . . ...
4519
. 153
. 126
. 116
. 127
101
46 17
5 42 .
112
47 3
99
658 ..,
. 251
. 314
232
DANIEL.
I 10
123
2 2 ? 226
7 5- 12- 20 ff.
8 2 .
4 9 . . . 262
911 91
954ff.
314
3^
6 7
. 363
92
12 7 98
10 25.45
86
WISDOM OP SOLOMON.
1 15 9Q C 5
11 39 . .
11 50- 62- 66
13 42 . . !
. 321
. 251
. 340
6"
85
290, 291
. 141
HOSEA.
24
221f.
. 165
. 107
3 5 . 248
13 50 . . ,
14 27
. 251
. 340
6 19 107
714 168
2 MACCABEES.
18
I 12 ...
I 24 *-. . . ,
3
. 214
. 290
. 298
. 303
727 i(jg 290
4 12 .
120
S 13 -" '293
8 2 i 121
JOEL.
13t
107
153 293
173 9Q9
I 20 ....
. 98
SlRACH.
(ECCLESIASTICUS. )
Prologue. . . . 340 ff.
1 15 123
31-39
293
230
290
S 7 . .
3 11 . .
. 306
255
AMOS.
91
MlCAH.
51 714
. 127
. 120
43
121
4 16 .
150
429.31
115
12 12 267
434 g
251
13 5 293
447 .
200
293
290
293
160
310
NAHUM.
I 6 . ...
. 287
13 22 , . 91
4 49 . . . ,
36 [33] 11 * .... 284
3(} 19 [14 or 16?] ... 93
37 7 . 117
5 8 ....
7 35 , 8 4 .
311
. 158
8 11 . .
HABAKKUK.
33
ZEPHANIAH.
317
. 95
. 290
43 29 283
4514 138
929
103 ...
157
306
232
253
251
232
251
293
219
51 9 C 13 ] . . . 293
10 11 ....
BARUCH.
2 29 205
4. 35 981
11 W
II 19 .
II 26 .
HAGGAI.
I 1 , 2 1 . . . .
. 340
II 34
EPISTLE OP JEREMIAH.
v 9 117
1211-12
12 a . i
ZBCHARIAH.
1117
CMA
12 43
SONG OF THE THREE
CHILDREN.
v. 14 136
SUSANNA.
v. 42 283
13 2 - 2 ->
13 22 . . .
306
251
314
251
115
93
262
293
92
298
293
9,351
92
255
341 ff.
342
138
298
121
fi!3
OK
14 3
71
. 340
14 19 . . .
1426 ..
99 ... 160,162,164
11 6 9dS
14 30 . . .
11 13
9fi9
14 38 . .
13 6
351
15 2
15 7
3 MACCABEES.
22ff.
144
. 211
BEL AND THE DRAGON.
v 2-3 117
MALACHI.
Ql
10
v 5 117 284
1 [3] ESDRAS.
1 . . 281
v. ^ . . . 117
221
229 '. ! ! ! 134
233
S 7 ....
v. 32 160
REST OF ESTHER.
5 1 293
PRAYER OF MANASSES.
v.i- 4 . . 298
3 4
98
3 11 ff. 28
420
452 .
136
612
8*
. 284
. 92
. 122
5 s4
Q2ff.
853 .
6 4 .
382
INDEX OF TEXTS.
720
4 MACCABEES.
425 52 gs-8 . m m
98 ......
ID") ......
13 K.17 141
16 24
1722
18"
MATTHEW.
120 212119-22
5 .....
62-5-16 ..... 229
6n
y 22
812
817
915
1025
10 37 *- ...... 248
llio
1112
12
1335-38 ..... 162f.
15 37 ,16i
18 32 ..
211 ..
21 5 ..... 160-2-4
21 * . . . .
23i 5 ....
243 ....
2431 ....
25 30 ....
26 30 ....
27 19 ....
27 s2 ....
2765*66, 28" .
12*.
5 .
735 .
8 8>2
8 19f -.
MARK.
f . 2 is 31^
2
5 ! '. '. '.
20 *. '.
9 f . .' " . .
8 "...
Ill ....
12i 9 ....
IS 3 ....
13 27 ....
14i 9 138,139
1426 211
15 21 86,182
15 40 ....
168 ....
16 20 ....
LUKE.
19
lio
2 42
262
306
345
139
263
95
139
126
138
253
182
229
214
198
162
02 f.
162
332
248
163
258
281
32 f.
158
221
211
-2-4
225
162
211
248
68
211
253
86
68
162
76
281
209
189
158
118
198
09 f.
190
211
248
139
211
182
144
293
109
252
232
252
3 s4 ....
. . 282
1313 .
.... 317
5" ....
5 33 .
. . 190
. . 250
1321 .
. 316
14 27
190
534 ....
. . 162
151
252
e 524 ....
229
1512-30
15 14
233
315 316
6 48 f . . . .
123
7 87-35,10 8. .
II 3
. . 163
214
15 39 .
317
16 2
265
1242 ....
158
16 33 .
227
12 58 ....
. . 154
17" .
.... 254
1334 ....
. . 190
18 2 .
. . 187
141 ....
. 267
18 6 .
253
14 29 ....
123
18 2 i
252
15 12 . .
230
19
360
16 8
. 163
19 9
233
16i 6 ....
. . 258
19 11 .
... .255
171 ....
19 29 . . . .
. . 68
. 209 ff .
191 3
. . . 281
19 18- 19
20 26
323
19 37 . . . .
. 212 232
196
20 18 . .
225
2113 .
2122 .
252
233
20 34- 36
. . 163
21 37 ,22 39 . .
22 63 ....
. 209 if.
. . 160
22 7 -iy.
... 316
221 2 .
... 265
23 7 ....
. . 229
2335 .
. . 230
23 43 ...
. . 148
24"
117 f
24 4 ...
263
2427
258
2418 ....
. . 315
25 13 .
257
JOHN.
8 1 ...
. 211
25 21 .
.... 229
25 23 .
.... 64
252-1
232
8 9 ....
12
. .138f.
. . 257
26 24
26 7 .
316
262
1236 . . , .
. . 163
27 24 .
316
13 16 *-. , . .
. . 242
28 2 .
255
15 15 . . . .
. . 168
28 30
... 258
17 12 . . . .
. . 163
3 25 .
KOHANS.
.... 129, 266
19 22 . .
113
1925 ....
. . 315
20 15 ....
. . 102
4" .
416 f
. . . 153, 351 f.
... 109
21 8 ....
. . 153
ACTS.
I 10 ...
. 263
53-5 .
5 16- 18
8i
107
264
264 f
I 12 ....
. 208 ff.
S 22 .
253
I 15 ....
. . 196
826
122
I 23 ...
. . 315
827-34
9 8 .
10 14 f -
... 121
I 25
267
163
107
2 6
232 f
325 ....
163
II 1 .
316
4 3 ....
. . 267
II 2 .
121
4 32 ...
. . 233
12 1 .
.... 254
436
163 307
12 5
138
518
267
156 .
15 8
119
109
6 2
190 233
6 5 ....
. . 233
1516 .
258
7 57 . . . .
. . 191
1 5 19 .
316
8 10 . . . .
94.1?
. . 336,15 2 '> .
316 1*26
123
118
925
158
1528
238
936.S9 m m .
. . 189
16 3 .
187
1Q22 ....
. . 265
16 7 .
192
12 10 ...
. . 189
16 9 .
283
13 ...
. . 360
1
16-8
CORINTHIANS.
109
131 . .
. 310 ff.
136-10
163
13 9
. 313 f.
421 t
. 119 f., 358
INDEX OF TEXTS.
383
6i .
233
17
108
JAMES.
202
23
256
1 3
259
7 2
124
108
13f.
107
7 3 .
192
3 8
316
250
7 5 .
. 204, 255
43
64,265
923
168
710-11-
, . . 247
4 18
229,258
313
194
10 6 .
224
510
198 263
10i .
110
COLOSSIANS.
252
110
224 248
1 PETER
1228
14 6 , 15
92
2 118
2 1 4
3 6
. . . 91,247,252
163
11
17
149
259 f
15 s t.
1525ff.
1538 .
250
316
252
411
1
315
114
117
163
88
16 2
. . . 118, 142 f.
. . . 142 f.
212
248
118
22 .
256
16 s .
316
417
55
64
163
25
29
96
16 7 .
252
510
64
... 149
212
... 194
2
16
I 9
CORINTHIANS.
109
257
2
23
THESSALONIANS.
163
2 2 3
.... 91
88 f.
111
1 J2 .
122
... 88
225
45
252
121.
109
1 TIMOTHY.
2 PETER.
3 3
59
91
121 250
11 .
.... 315
410
... 360
2 2
*255
I 3 .
.... 97,362
413
250
3 6
220
13ff. .
.... 361 ff.
55
109
915
88
14 .
368
5 16 .
253
45
121
1 10- 19
109
71
. . 216
519
118
25 .
190
8 4
118
616
293
213 .
365
8 s
250 261
ft 19
123
164
310
221
218
160
gi-ia
118
218 .
88
9 2
221
410
182
1C 4 .
. 181
4 18
363
310
163
10 5 .
73
418
199
11 . .
349
94
255
II 8 .
II 32 .
192
266
183
1 QO
27
28
254
200
V. 4 .
3 JOHN.
144
124
1214
..... 148
. 252
HEBREWS.
V 5
V.6. .
202
248
114
, . 141
GALATIANS
107
JUDE.
99
251
2"
225
V. 3 . .
364
qi
360
3
107
V. 6 . .
267
310
248
416
135
V.I 2 .
365
315
. 109 114
123
316
6 3
252
KEVELATION.
428 .
163
614
. . . . 205-6-7-8
2 7
148
520
360
616
. . . 107, 229
213 .
187
. . 346 ff.
718
. 228
3 4 .
. . . 196
(J17
103 346 ff
725
121
312 .
. . . 316
8 6
.... 190
4 3
267
EPHESIANS.
9"
.... 216
4 8 .
139
2 2
163
917
107
gii
368 ff
2 s .
.... 88,164
926
. 228 f .
72ff. .
. . 352
220
... 123
928
89
7 9ff - .
. . . 368 ff
56-8
. 163
103:;
88
9 4
352
H13
.149
10 6
284
PHILIPPIANS
1222
316
1113
196
I 4 .
250
1228
363
H19
. . . 189
I 5 .
253
13 18
88,194
iau-i.7
, 240 ff.
384
INDEX OF TEXTS.
15 8 '.
, 14ff-. . 352
. . 189
Ci EM ROM
16 2
352
18 1* . .
19 20 , 20 4
21 2 ' 10 . .
.... 160
.... 352
.... 316
1 CORINTHIANS.
10 1 17 2
168
21 6 . .
.... 192
23 2
292
21 17 .
... 153
122
21 21 . .
.... 139
56 *
121
22 18f -
. 114
6*1
265
CLEM. ROM.
2 CORINTHIANS.
5 1 , IQi ..... 190
DlDACHE.
13 3 . 236
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The Background of the Gospels ; or, Judaism in the
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doctrine of evolution is brought out in a most convincing fashion.' Glasgow
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Christian Theism and a Spiritual Monism. God,
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The World's Epoch*^al<ers.
Edited by OLIPHANT SMEATON, M.A.
IN NEAT CROWN 8vo VOLUMES. :: :: PRICE 3s. EACH.
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The following Volumes have now been Issued:
'Buddha and Buddhism.
ARTHUR LILLIE.
By
Luther and the German Re=
formation. By Principal T.
M. LINDSAY, D.D.
Wesley and Methodism. By
F. J. SNELL, M.A.
Cranmer and the English
Reformation. By A. D.
INNES, M.A.
William Herschel and his
Work. By JAMES SIME, M.A.
Francis and Dominic. By Pro-
fessor J. HERKLESS, D.D.
Savonarola. By G. M 'HARDY,
D.D.
Anselm and his Work. By
Rev. A. C. WELCH, B.D.
Origen and Greek Patristic
Theology. By Rev. W. FAIR-
WEATHER, D.D.
Muhammad and his Power.
By P. DE LACY JOHNSTONE,
M.A.(Oxon.).
The Medici and the Italian
Renaissance. By OLIPHANT
SMEATON, M.A., Edinburgh.
Plato. By Professor D. G.
RITCHIE, M.A., LL.D.
Wycliffe and the Lollards.
By Rev. J. C. CARRICK, B.D.
Pascal and the Port Royalists.
By Professor W. CLARK, LL.D.,
D.C.L., Trinity College, Toronto.
Euclid. By Emeritus Professor
THOMAS SMITH, D.D., LL.D.
Hegel and Hegelianism. By
Professor R. MACKINTOSH, D.D.,
Lancashire Independent College,
Manchester.
Hume and his Influence on
Philosophy and Theology.
By Professor J. ORR, D.D., Glas-
gow.
Rousseau and Naturalism in
Life and Thought. By Pro-
fessor W. H. HUDSON, M.A.
Descartes, Spinoza, and the
New Philosophy. By Princi-
pal J. IVERACH, D.D., Aberdeen.
Socrates. By Rev. J. T. FORBES,
M.A., Glasgow.
Newman and his Influence on
Religious Life and Thought.
By C. SAROLEA, Ph.D., Litt.
Doc., University of Edinburgh.
Marcus Aurelius and the
Later Stoics. By F. W.
BUSSELL, D.D., Vice-Principal
of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Kant and his Philosophical
Revolution. By Professor R.
M. WENLEY, D.Sc., Ph.D., Uni-
versity of Michigan.
T. & T.
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