The main research focus of this study was to determine more clearly to what extent Atticism
influenced textual variants that are considered to belong to the Alexandrian text type.
Since the time of Westcott and Hort, the Alexandrian text type has been regarded as a manuscript
tradition which is representative of relatively high stylistic Greek. This assumption seems likely,
especially given the fact that Alexandria and the areas which gave rise to the manuscripts
comprising the Alexandrian text type were cultural centres of learning as well as of a newlyfound
Hellenistic awareness within the Roman Empire. One of the movements stemming from
this newfound awareness was Atticism, which was, amongst other things, an artificial literary
movement which strove towards emulating the classical Attic literary dialect.
However, in the last few decades the question of the alleged presence of Atticist influence in the
manuscripts of the Greek New Testament has received its share of conflicting scholarly
treatment among textual critics, especially since the 1963 publication of G.D. Kilpatrick s
influential article, Atticism and the text of the Greek New Testament . On the one hand, there
is common assent that Atticism exerted a profound influence on all Greek prose of the first
century. On the other hand, some difference of opinion exists as to whether Atticism actually
influenced the composition of the New Testament text in any significant way. The influence on
the transmission of the New Testament texts is another question that still needs a fuller treatment
in order to proceed from mere scholarly opinion to a more established empirical degree of
certainty.
The current study is an investigation into the nature of Atticism and its relationship with the
classical Attic dialect. The results of this investigation were then used as basis for an evaluation
of the alleged Atticisms in the Alexandrian witnesses, taking the witnesses to the text of I John as
sample. In the process, thoroughgoing eclecticism as text-critical method is evaluated, and an
adapted reasoned eclectic method proposed with which to conduct the investigation of the
variants in I John.
The results have shown that in the textual tradition of I John, inconsistencies of correction and
scribal usage occur frequently within the Alexandrian text type and that the correction was
predominantly not towards Attic, but rather displayed a tendency towards Hellenistic-Koine
usage. In summary, the investigation demonstrates that the uniformity of the Alexandrian text type as a
whole, if not completely suspect, should at least be judged very critically when it comes to
matters of characteristic features which have for decades been accepted as true, such as the
Alexandrian text type s reputation as one displaying stylistically polished Greek.
The investigation of I John has shed valuable light on the methodological
presupposition that categories of text types are fixed above all doubt, and that they display
general typical characteristics. This presupposition has been exposed as false and indicates that
one follows it at one s methodological peril. / MA (Greek), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/13318 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | De Lange, Phillippus Rudolph |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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