Syntax. In the syntax the peculiar elements that mixed themselves with the common spoken lang,uage in the N. T. writings, make their ap pearance. The Hebrew element especially is note worthy. The translators of the Septuagint went on the principle of translating as literally as possible, and consequently the form of the sentences is essen tially Hebrew. Some of the writers of the N. T. were themselves Jews, or derived part of their in formation from Jews, and accordingly the form of portions of their writings, particularly in narrative, is influenced by Hebrew modes. At the same time too much stress is not to be laid on this He brew influence ; for the writers appear sometime? to differ from the classical types, not because they were Jews, but because they were simple plain speaking (rip yXcirrrav latcomb ovres, Eus. llist. Eccl. iii. 24) men, who cared little about rounded sen tences. The IIebrew element shews itself in par ticular phrases and constructions, as in trouiv eXEas p.erd npor ; but the amount of this Hebrew ele ment is not so great as it has often been supposed to be, and in some of the N. T. writers it is scarcely noticeable at all. Generally speaking, the syntax, like the grammar, is a tendency towards modern Greek. It has, like it, frequent recourse to the use of prepositions, and we find such expressions even as abvra els Nag, Thes. iv. 8. After the com parative rapd is used frequently instead of in the N. T. ; in modem Greek it is always employed. On account of the rareness of the optative, and an avoidance of the infinitive by some of the writers, both the N. T. and modern Greek abound in the use of rpa with the subjunctive, and sometimes even with the indicative, as in Revelations. The neuter plural is more regularly joined with a plural verb in N. T. Greek ; it is always joined with it in mo dem Greek. Many other peculiarities in which the syntax of the N. T. and that of modern Greek agree might be noted.
Vimabulary.—The words used by the N. T. writers shew a still greater variety of elements. Here we notice distinctly, also, the tendency towards the modern language, as, for instance, in the use of xop-rd,N, to feerl men, in the frequent employment of diminutives, in attaching a weakened sense to words like pciXXcd, which had originally the idea of vigour in them, and in a variety of ad . verbs and conjunctions rarely used by the classical ,writers. Some of these peculiar uses have been assigned to the supposed Alexandrian dialect ; but in the discussions no attempt has been made to dis jtinguish between what may have been pure Alexan drianisms, and what may have been common in Greek conversation though not in Greek writings.
In the words we find a Latin element, as niight be expected. The Latin words used in the N. T. are not very numerous, but they show plainly that the writers had no other desire than to call things by their common names. They do not translate them into Greek, as a scholar of those days or an imitator of Attic writings would have done. We find a few Greek phrases in the N. T. which have evidently been translated from Latin, such as aukc potAtov Xaf3eiv—consilium capere.
There are also several Aramaic words used in the N. T., especially by Christ. Most of these words and expressions are of a peculiar nature. They are almost all of them utterances employed on some solemn occasion. They were at one time appealed to as proof that Jesus regularly used the Aramaic in his addresses to the people ; but they have been recently adduced, and with considerable force, to prove exactly the contrary, that Jesus frequently used the Greek language in his public conversa tions as being more intelligible to all, but that when powerfully- moved or deeply touched, he em ployed Aramaic words as being more expressive from their associations (Roberts, Discussions on the Gospels, pt. I. ch. iv.) Besides this, the He brew or Aramaic has exercised an influence on the meanings of some Greek words, as, for instance, in the use of entteiXnua, for a Sin. In several in stances, however, where this Hebrew influence has been set down as existing, a more satisfactory explanation is given in another way. Thus osioni is taken by some to mean liberality in 2 Cor, ix. 9, ro, because they suppose that nirrIV has this meaning in Ps. cxii. 9, where the Sept. translates
amatocrtivn. In both cases it may be doubted whether &Kazoo-inn) ought to receive this meaning, and unquestionably in the second Epistle to the Corinthians it is much simpler to suppose that Paul looks on liberality as an essential part of righteousness, and rig,hteousness therefore as in cluding liberality.
There is also another element in the vocabulary of a peculiar nature. This arises from the novelty of the teachings combined with their exalted morality. The new thoughts demanded new modes of ex pression, and hence the writers did not hesitate to use words in senses rare if not entirely unknown to the classical writers. This fact could not be fully illustrated without exhibiting the results of investi gation into various characteristic words, such as ILUCTI)pLOP, obia103, SLICaL00-67,71, SUCCU6W, 71"10"TLS, 9-civaros, 8R'a, 50,5,4co, 6pyii, etc. These results seem to us to form no inconsiderable addition to the proof of the divinity of Christianity, for the grand moral ideas that were expressed by some of thcm are unique in the age in which they were uttered. Thus the word c,.,7) is frequently used to denote an entire and absolute consecration of soul, body, and spirit, to God, for it is this entire conse cration which they look upon as the life-principle of man. Living with them, if it be not living to God in Christ, is not living at all, but death,—and a death which works not merely in the soul, but necessarily also in the body. Plato and the Stoics have something like this notion of s'on'i, but with them it is a speculation. They are continually reasoning about it. The writers of the N. T. treat it as an unquestionable realized fact. So again 56Ea means glory ; but the writers of the N. T. separate from it every notion of material splendour or earthly renown, and use it to denote that spiritual irradiation of the whole man which takes place when God reigns in him, when the image of God is realized in him. Thus we come short of God's glory when we fail to present the purity and holiness of his character and image in our characters. And so the abEct of the N. T. is purely spiritual and moral. Then, again, it is re markable how in the case of words like Mop, Xotrrp6v, and parrice, the material meaning often vanishes entirely out of sight, and the writers ex press by them the spiritually purifying power of Christ, which really and entirely cleanses both soul and body (Alexander, Anglo-Catholicism not Apos tolkal, p. 293). The moral fervour of the writers is seen also in their omission of certain words. Thus the sensuous 4fal, is never used to express the idea which they had of love. The words ebdaLucop and Elizmjs are also unknown to the N. T., and indeed. the writers do not use any word to express mere happiness. ,uaxdpfas is used several times to de note something more than mere earthly felicity. They avoid all words connected with mythology, such as the compounds of Salp.op, which, with its diminutive, is used in a peculiarly Jewish and Christian sense. The writers of the N. T. are also remarkable for confining a word to one meaning. Thus, gerdvota is a turning of the whole soul from evil to good, and no other compound with p.erd is used in the same sense, while Justin Martyr uses gercivota as a change from good to evil as well as from evil to good, and he employs pxra-yryvdio-Kcv and acrari-eo-S-at, as well as iceravogco for the same idea.
The works on the subject of this article are very numerous. They are enumerated and criti cised in Winer's Granzmatik a'es Neutestamentlichen Sprachitlionis, Fiinfte Auflage, Leipzig 1844, Svo ; and Schirlitz's Grundziige der Neutedamentlichen Greicittit, Giessen 1861, 8vo. Much information will be found in works that discuss later Greek, such as Lobeck's Phrynichus, and Jacobs's Achilles Tatizes, and especially in a Glossary of Later and Byzantine Greek, by E. A. Sophocles, published as vol. vii. new series of the Memoirs of the American Academy, Cambridge and Boston, 186o, 4to. Much interesting and instructive matter is also to be found in the glossaries and articles given in the Pandora, a fortnightly periodical published in Athens.—J. D.