This thesis uses insights from a modern theory of communication, Relevance Theory, to examine the function of certain particles - in particular the conjunction hina - in Koine Greek. This particle has been regarded from the time of Classical Greek as an introducer of purpose clauses and so has been thought to have the lexical meaning of ‘in order that.’ More recently, however, scholars have recognised that in the New Testament at least, no more than 60% of the uses of hina merit such a translation, with a considerable number of independent clauses being introduced by this particle also. Apart from the New Testament it is the case that pagan writers of Koine used this particle to introduce a wider range of clauses than merely those with a telic relationship to the main clause of the sentence. This is particularly noticeable in the Discourses of Epictetus, a philosopher who taught in the latter half of the first century of the Christian era. In addition, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a notable critic of literary style and the historian Polybius, both writing within the Koine period used hina to introduce indirect commands and noun clauses as well as purpose clauses. The frequency of such uses (approximately 10% of all the instances of this particle) in their writings is considerably less than that of Epictetus, but those uses are nevertheless present in their works. Since iota-nu-alpha was used for this wider range of clauses by pagan, non-Jewish authors, some of whom spoke Greek as their first language, it seems extremely implausible to attribute such use to the incompetence of the implied authors of the New Testament, or ‘Semitic interference’. Since the many instances of non-telic hina in the New Testament are identified with reference to the context in which they occur, the telic instances should also be deduced from such context. I claim that the function of this particle is not to introduce a purpose clause nor does it have a fixed lexical meaning of ‘in order that’, but rather that it alerts the reader to expect an interpretation of the thought of the speaker or implied author. Of course in many instances a clause introduced by hina will be a purpose clause, but this is inferred from context rather than solely from the presence of this particle. This thesis proposes a unified account of the function of hina which fits the developing pattern of the language and relates it to the particle 'hina', and provides a theoretical basis for its use as an indicator of speaker or subject’s thought, thus enabling a reader to re-examine biblical texts whose interpretation has been problematic to date.

"The Quotations From the Septuagint in the Synoptic Gospels" is the result of a statement made in the Septuagint Class concerning the relation between the quotations of the Septuagint as found in the New Testament. An objective study ensued with the purpose of gathering together these quotations in a comparative study and a tabulation of the results.

In the discussion of the relationship between aspect and Aktionsart, it is generally agreed that aspect is a feature of the tense-form and Aktionsart depends on tense-form together with other clausal and contextual features such as lexical meaning and adjuncts used with the verb. Recent works have tried to find predictable patterns of meaning that emerge when a certain set of clausal factors and lexical features combine with one of the aspects. Most of these works are theoretical in nature and heavily rely on Zeno Vendler's quadripartition of lexical classes as part of their theory. These works are confined to the Greek of the New Testament, and often produce different and even incompatible results. This study presents an empirical approach to verify these results. Following previous works on corpus linguistics to analyze Hellenistic Greek, this study attempts to look for empirical evidence regarding what role lexical semantics and other contextual factors contribute to the choice of aspect. Using a body of text that forms a representative sample of Hellenistic text, the goal is to investigate distribution of tense-forms and lexis in the literature. Lexis are tested in groups according to Vendler's classes and also individually, and other contextual factors will also be considered. To narrow down this study to a manageable scope, the semantic feature of telicity is chosen for examination. This feature is foundational in the formulation of Vendler's taxonomy and is often mentioned with or even conflated with the perfective aspect. It has not been adequately demonstrated whether or not aspectual choices in Koine Greek are dependent on Vendler's telicity distinction. It is argued that, based on empirical evidence, telicity and perfectivity are not related in a systematic manner in Koine Greek. As a corollary, Atkionsart should be considered as an interpretive category, meaning that the value cannot be systematized in a linguistic analysis but can only be determined in the process of interpretation. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation identifies and addresses key issues in Septuagint lexicography using case studies from the Greek version of Judges. The first chapter outlines the state of the question on the textual history of Judges in Hebrew and Greek, and also presents my lexicographical method and related matters. Chapter two surveys the history of Septuagint lexicography. I demonstrate how data about the meaning of Septuagint vocabulary has been insufficiently or in appropriately derived, expressed, and/or documented. I also highlight debates over the nature of post-classical Greek and the language of the Septuagint, which has predisposed scholars against viewing the Septuagint corpus as part of post-classical Greek in general. By pointing out methodological flaws that have plagued Septuagint lexicography-as well as theoretical problems in a Hebrew-priority view of the language-I argue for a Greek-priority view that evaluates Septuagint vocabulary in light of contemporary sources and emphasizes the importance of documentary evidence. The following chapters provide case studies from Greek Judges that demonstrate the benefits of a Greek-priority view. Many cases of consistent vocabulary disagreement in the textual history of the book cannot be explained on the basis of the Hebrew text nor given the data available in current lexicons. Examination of post-classical Greek evidence demonstrates that the motivation for the language change is multifaceted, but clearly includes matters of style and semantics in Greek independent from the source text. Chapter three focuses on παρατάσσω and παράταξις; chapter four on παιδάριον, παιδίον, νεανίας, and νεάνισκος; and chapter five on ἀπάντησις and συνάντησις. Each chapter concludes by discussing the relevance of the evidence for Septuagint lexicography, the motivation underlying the revision of Greek Judges, and the potential of Septuagint vocabulary to inform Greek lexicography in general. Chapter six summarizes my lexical analysis and discusses the benefits of a Greek-priority approach and its value for Septuagint lexicography. I posit a time-frame for the translation and revision of Greek Judges based on linguistic evidence. I conclude by emphasizing the need for renewed efforts in Septuagint lexicography to incorporate literary and nonliterary post-classical Greek sources. To address this need, I provide several sample lexicon entries for words discussed in the preceding study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Pereira Anselmo Junior.pdf: 1232432 bytes, checksum: dde59cb94a9f2ac482c7d48193286f58 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-18 / The whole set of the texts in the book of the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke (Luke) and the book of Acts of the Apostles (Acts) creates the Lukan work. Its primary recipients, in the second half of the first century AD, are Hellenistic Gentiles who joined the announcement that the hope of ancient Israel takes place in the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, the Christian kerygma. This religious expression (the Early Christianity) is inserted into an existing tradition, Judaism. Such expression needs to be continued, to provide a self-comprehension and to be based on the roots of that tradition. Otherwise, it would face the risk of provoking a definitive break that would imply a spare expression and without support for both Jews and Gentiles who chose Christianity. This research aims to present the final text of Lukan work, the pericope of Acts 28:16-28, as a summary, climax and paradigm of the confirmation of continuity and completeness of Israel's hopes in the Christian kerygma. Paul, the character, a Hellenistic Jew, apostle of the Gentiles, becomes the protagonist of this process. Therefore, the book of the Acts of the Apostles not only proposes his innocence from the charges, made by the Jewish leaders, as well as it presents him as an imitator of his master, Jesus, and model for other Christians, especially concerning to the reasons given in the Jewish tradition, to the freedom as for the practice on Mosaic usages and laws and to the vocational openness for the announcement to all nations. Thus, this research accesses the Greek text, analyzes it in several instances, translates it into Portuguese and presents an exegetical-theological study of the pericope / O conjunto dos textos do livro do Evangelho de Jesus Cristo segundo Lucas (Lc) e do livro dos Atos dos Apóstolos (At) forma a obra lucana. Seus destinatários primeiros, da segunda metade do século I AD, são gentios helenistas que aderiram ao anúncio de que a esperança do antigo Israel se realiza no Messias Jesus de Nazaré, o querigma cristão. Essa expressão religiosa (o cristianismo primitivo) está inserida numa tradição já existente, o judaísmo. Ela precisa ser continuidade, autocompreender-se e fundamentar-se nas raízes dessa tradição, sob o risco de provocar uma ruptura definitiva que implicaria numa expressão avulsa e sem sustentação tanto para os judeus quanto para os gentios que optassem pelo cristianismo. Esta pesquisa busca apresentar o texto final da obra lucana, a perícope de At 28,16-28, como sumário, clímax e paradigma da confirmação dessa continuidade e completude das esperanças de Israel no querigma cristão. O personagem Paulo, judeu helenista, apóstolo dos gentios, passa a ser o protagonista desse processo e, por isso, o livro dos Atos dos Apóstolos não só propõe sua inocência quanto às acusações dos líderes judaicos, como também o apresenta como imitador de seu mestre, Jesus, e modelo para os demais cristãos, especialmente quanto à sua fundamentação na tradição judaica, quanto à liberdade na prática dos costumes e leis mosaicas e quanto à abertura vocacional ao anúncio a todas as nações. Para tanto, a pesquisa acessa o texto grego, analisa-o em várias instâncias, além de traduzi-lo para o português, e apresentar um estudo exegético-teológico da perícope

This dissertation analyses seven modern Bible translations in French with respect to their renderings of Koine Greek participles. The sample consists of the Passion Story from the four Gospels (Matt 26-28, Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24 and John 18-21), and is comprised of 603 Hellenistic participles in all. The participle forms are studied in six categories according to their syntactic function. The comparison focuses on differences in translation strategy, i.e. formal equivalence, omission and different kinds of transpositions, with special attention given to the choice of verb form. There is a discussion of the adequacy of contemporary, explicative theories of systemic differences between the passé simple/passé composé and the imparfait. A large number of examples are analysed in detail. The results of the survey show that the most prominent differences in translation strategies concern the predicative participle. Furthermore, this was the category that occurred most frequently in the sample. The Catholic scientific and literary translation La Bible de Jérusalem (1998) is the most literal of the seven versions. A high level of formal equivalence is also registered in the other scientific translation, La Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible (1988), even though application of this strategy outweighs the use of finite verbs, that is to say, the most common transposition. La Bible en français courant (1996) is the least literal: generally, it transposes the participle of the source text with a finite verb. This transposition is also very frequent in the literary La Bible de la Pléiade (1971). Most of the omissions are recorded in the recent literary La Bible, Nouvelle traduction (2001), which is shown to be the most divergent translation. Omissions are also frequent in the pastoral La Bible des moines de Maredsous (1968) and the liturgical La Traduction liturgique de la Bible (1977). When translated in conjunction with an element comprising a verb in one of the non-indicative moods (infinitive, imperative, participle and subjunctive), both the present and the aorist predicative participles are, to a large extent, rendered by a simple form, expressing non-accomplishment. However, the Bible de Jérusalem stands out with its greater use of compound present participles than any other version. When the predicative participle of the source text is transposed with a verb in the indicative mood, the passé simple is generally used to render the aorist; for the present participle, the imparfait is more frequent than the passé simple. Nevertheless, here too the passé simple accounts for a significant portion of the equivalents, especially in the two translations where transpositions formed by finite verbs are particularly important. There exist a few cases where some translators chose to use the passé simple/passé compose, while others chose the imparfait. The various details, tables and linguistic analyses in this dissertation provide a solid basis for accurately characterizing the various modern attempts made at reproduce this ancient text – a text so often translated, paraphrased, interpreted and deeply integrated in our cultural heritage.

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This essay surveys the current theoretical landscape of modern linguistics, asking whethe generative and possibly transformational linguistics can be applied to syntactic analysis of New Testament texts written in Koine Greek to find lingual hallmarks in the form of personal usage of syntactic rules that uniquely identify the authors of the texts. The conclusion is that there seems to be evidence that an application of a minimalist approach could make the detection of such lingual hallmarks possible.