El rescriptum del emperador Majencio sobre Lucilla de Cartago en vísperas del cisma donatista

The study of some unpublished documents coming from several European and international libraries, after the publication of Anejos VIII, and the reconsideration of other primary sources that have already been studied, would seem to confirm most hypotheses raised in the book with a good margin of probability. The comparative analysis of these documents will allow us, as follows: a) to describe the historical background of the two letters, especially with regard to the rescriptum; b) to suggest a more precise dating of this rescriptum; and c) to outline the manuscript tradition of the two letters that, starting from the legal text in Koine Greek, are transformed into an apologetic literary text by means of interpolations that mostly affected the edict of tolerance. The preliminary study of some legal papyri, in comparison with the different versions of Ep. I, allowed us to propose a critical reconstruction of the text that has undergone numerous interpolations over the centuries. The first letter perfectly matches with both the structure and the legal terminology of the Hellenistic-Roman laws, in so fully mirroring the words used by Eusebius and Optatus to describe Maxentius' edict of tolerance. El estudio de algunos documentos inéditos procedentes de varias bibliotecas europeas e internacionales, tras la publicación de Anejos VIII, y la reconsideración de otras fuentes primarias ya estudiadas, parece confirmar la mayoría de las hipótesis planteadas en el libro con un buen margen de probabilidad. El análisis comparativo de estos documentos nos permitirá, de la siguiente manera: a) describir los antecedentes históricos de las dos epístolas, especialmente con referencia al rescriptum; b) hipotetizar una fecha más precisa de este rescriptum; y c) describir la tradición manuscrita de las dos epístolas que, a partir del texto legal en griego koiné, se transforman en un texto literario apologético mediante interpolaciones que afectan mayoritariamente el edicto de tolerancia. Además, el estudio preliminar de algunos papiros legales, en comparación con las diferentes versiones de Ep. 1, nos permitió proponer una reconstrucción crítica del texto que ha sufrido numerosas interpolaciones a lo largo de los siglos. La primera letra encaja perfectamente tanto con la estructura como con la terminología legal de las leyes helenístico-romanas, reflejando tan plenamente las palabras utilizadas por Eusebio y Optato para describir el edicto de tolerancia de Majencio.

Theologization of Greek Terms and Concepts in the Septuagint and New Testament

Hellenistic literature, having great achievements in the fields of philosophy, drama, and poetry, did not know the theological concepts and issues which underlie the texts contained in the Hebrew Bible. So when the creators of the Septuagint, and then also the authors of the New Testament, used the Greek language to convey God’s inspired truths to the world, they were forced to give secular terms a new theological meaning, frequently choosing neutral words for this purpose, not burdened with ne­gative associations. With their translation work, they built a kind of bridge between Hellenic and Jewish cultures. On the one hand, the Septuagint allowed Jews reading the Bible in Greek to remain connected not only with the religious heritage of their fathers, but also with the cultural values that were closely related to that language and its world. In turn, for the Greeks, who after some time began to appreciate this work and gained knowledge of its content, it opened vast horizons of new religious and spiritual values, which until then were completely alien to them. The work of the authors of the Septuagint was continued and developed by the authors of the New Testament, which added to their theological output many new religious and moral values arising from the teaching of Jesus Christ. That way they contributed considerably to the development of the Koinē Greek and significantly transformed the spiritual life of the people speaking the language.

The Life of St. Pancratius of Taormina: A Comparative Analysis of Excerpts from Manuscripts of the 10th and 11th Centuries

This work is dedicated to the comparison of textual variants of the life of St. Pancratius of Taormina represented in manuscripts of the 10 th and 11 th centuries. The presumable full corpus of Pancratius story is told in thirteen Greek manuscripts that have been currently uncovered. One of them, the 11 th century AD manuscript, written in Koine Greek, is currently being reposited in State Historical Museum in Moscow under cipher GIM Vlad. 381 (Sin. gr. 15). In this paper the manuscript Sin. gr. 15 is analyzed from codicological and paleographic perspectives; it is also compared to the manuscripts of the first edition. The purpose of the study includes a comparative analysis, namely through reading, studying and translation of excerpts from the lives in Greek language into modern Russian. The comparison between the first edition and the unpublished second edition of the life of St. Pancratius points to significant textual differences, both compositional and linguistic. The composition of the first edition is more extensive, while the second one is shortened and stylistically improved as a result of literary processing, as compared to the first version. Thus, the aforementioned conclusion confirms the hypothesis that the two editions appeared at different historical periods and in different intellectual circles.

The Nature of Septuagint Greek

Language provides core evidence for addressing most of the central questions of LXX studies. The achievement of an accurate understanding of the special nature of the Greek in which the LXX is composed is thus a key scholarly desideratum. Although the corpus does not lightly yield its linguistic secrets, significant progress has been made in recent scholarship. This chapter considers the linguistic and stylistic heterogeneity of the LXX corpus. It outlines the development of the main lines of interpretation, from emphasis on the ‘Semitic’ features of translation Greek to focus on natural Greek characteristics. It also traces the history of LXX lexicography from Rosenbach to Muraoka, taking into account the oblique impact of recent large-scale translation projects. Lastly it addresses the dynamic current state of research, and points to results that may flow from systematic analyses of the material that locate it within its broader linguistic context as a set of key specimens of early Koine Greek.

Paradigm of passive constructions in the Ukrainian translation of the Bible by Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko)

This paper investigates how passive constructions are used in Filaret’s translation of the Bible from Standard Russian (Russian Synod’s translation, 2002) into Ukrainian, not from biblical languages, e.g., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. It specifically argues the nuclear position of the Ukrainian passive constructions paradigm formed by passive constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyi, circumnuclear position of constructions with predicative forms in -no, -to, and peripheral position of constructions with passive verbs in -sia. Ranking of passive constructions with predicative participles over constructions with forms in -no, -to neutralizes syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian, i.e., a focus on predicativity in finite verb forms and forms in -no, -to. The peripheral status of passive verbs in -sia shows a positive tendency for Filaret’s translation of the Holy Writ to distance from the Russian translation succeeded to passive constructions with predicative participles from Old Church Slavonic. The Ukrainian translation is often marked by active constructions (a mononuclear or two-member sentence) which are the authentical feature of the Ukrainian syntax. Simultaneous synonymous usage of active and passive constructions, particularly in the same environments, however, is largely triggered by a lack of distinction between syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian and Russian, and, therefore, provides a syntactical variety. In the Ukrainian translation, usage of active constructions and different types of passive forms almost always intersects with the Russian Synod’s version. Keywords: Ukrainian translation of the Bible, paradigm of passive constructions, constructions with predicative forms in -no, -tо, constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyj, sentences with passive verbs in -sia.

A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View

This study seeks to demonstrate that the Pauline phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ is best understood grammatically as the ‘Christ-faith’ in accordance with the so-called ‘third view’, where ‘faith’ is taken to mean a system or set of beliefs, and ‘Christ’ qualifies what the system is about. I argue that the grammar disallows the meaning ‘faith in Christ’ where Christ is the object of one’s ‘trust’, since objective genitives can only mean ‘belief of something (to be true)’, as is shown by an analysis of the data in the NT and in Harrisville 1994; 2006. Additionally, the subjective genitive rendering often fails to make sense within the literary context and faces its own grammatical difficulties. Drawing on work from theoretical linguistics in lexical semantics and syntax, I show that the third view meaning, translated as the ‘Christ-faith’, is the most likely rendering given the context of each of the passages, the Greek case system and the meaning of the noun πίστις as used in the NT and other Koine Greek writings.

Understanding and Interpretation of Revelation 1:8 by Some Asante-Twi Speaking Scholars

Without Bible translation, it would have been very difficult for the Church to perform its preaching and teaching mandate in a new environment, for Scriptures were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. A faithful translation of the Bible allows the Church to help the local indigenes to understand the text and theologise aright in their mother-tongue. However, the Asante-Twi Bible, an example of a translated Bible has some text that have not been translated accurately. One of such is the translation of Revelation 1:8, the study area for this paper. The present translation of the Greek text in the Asante-Twi Bible does not allow God to possess an Ashanti name. This article delves into the study of the text with the lens of Ashanti scholars in the Asante-Twi context and an exegesis of the Greek text to look for the sameness in the Asante-Twi. The paper argues for the translation of Revelation 1:8 as: Mene Ahyεaseε ne Awieeε no, Awurade Nyankopɔn na ɔseε, deε ɔwɔ hɔ, na ɔwɔ hɔ dada na ɔreba, ade nyinaa so Tumfoɔ no (“I am the Alpha and Omega,” says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty).

Word order and closest-conjunct agreement in the Greek Septuagint: On the position of a biblical translation in the diachrony of a syntactic correlation

Clauses can show closest-conjunct agreement, where the verb agrees only with one conjunct of a conjoined subject, and not with the full conjoined subject. The aim of this study is to examine the properties of word order and closest-conjunct agreement in the Greek Septuagint to distinguish which of them are due to the native syntax of Koiné Greek, possibly influenced by contact with Hebrew, and which of them are the result of a biblical translation effect. Both VSO and closest-conjunct agreement in the case of postverbal subjects have been considered characteristics of Biblical Hebrew. VSO becomes a neutral word order for Koiné Greek, and Koiné Greek exhibits examples of closest-conjunct agreement as well. The present study shows that VSO is the neutral word order for various types of texts of Koiné Greek (biblical and non-biblical, translations and non-translations) and that closest-conjunct agreement is also present with similar characteristics in pre-Koiné Greek. All relevant characteristics reflect a type of a syntactic change in Greek related to the properties of the T domain, and evidenced not only in translations or Biblical Greek. However, the frequencies of word orders are indeed affected by the source language, and indirect translation effects are evident in the Greek Septuagint.

Πράξεις τε καὶ δωρεαὶ Σεβαστοῦ θεοῦ

Summary This paper discusses a number of linguistic and interpretative aspects of the Greek translation of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Linguistically, the text gives a good idea of the development of Koine Greek at the beginning of the 1st century. Even though the translation is clearly aimed at rendering the Latin original as faithful as possible, there are still a considerable number of deviations from the Latin version which enable us to get a glimpse of the translator, the intended audience and their world views. A number of deviations can be explained as attempts by the translator to tailor the text to the knowledge and attitudes of a Greek-speaking eastern audience. Occasional errors in the translation seem to reveal that the translator was not fully acquainted with Roman institutions, which may be an indication that he was based in the Greek East rather than in Rome. A third group of deviations, finally, appear to point to a different, provincial Greek, attitude toward Roman imperialism and Augustus’ status as monarch.