by maputo95 8 Replies latest jw friends
Can anyone on the board here, (NOT of the GB) read the original manuscripts of the Bible in their original languages? I am reading RC theologian, Ian Boxall's "The Revelation of Saint John" in the "Black's New Testament Commentary" seies. Boxall a don of Oxford University, includes in his work, a lot of quotes in the original Greek. Is there a way to type in Greek from one's PC keyboard?
Does "Revelation: It's Grand Climaz at Hand!" have any Greek quotes in it?
according to most scholars the original manuscripts don't exist anymore, and weren't they ion aramaic?
Good point ssn587, the original manuscripts DON'T exist, I should have written "earliest manuscripts in the original languages. Correct me if I'm wrong, but only tiny bits were in Aramaic, a Jewish dialect similar to Arabic, but the bulk of the OT is in Hebrew and the NT is in Greek. But wait, wasn't Hebrew a dead language when Jesus walked the Earth?
Yeah there are some limited Aramaic in the gospels and in Paul. There is no Aramaic in Revelation. But there are many Aramaisms...the Greek is that of an Aramaic-speaker who made a lot of "mistakes" in writing Greek as a second language. The commentary by Aune (in the introduction in Volume 1) gives a full listing of all the solecisms.
Is there a way to type in Greek from one's PC keyboard?
I simply transliterate into English characters on this board, using diacritics to distinguish vowel length. There are Greek characters available (see the Omega symbol on the style palette), so you can use these if you wish.
Does "Revelation: It's Grand Climaz at Hand!" have any Greek quotes in it?
LOL I seriously doubt it; if any appear at all, I would guess only superficial use if made of them. The book you are presently reading is an actual commentary devoted to understanding the meaning of the text. The Climax book is nothing of the sort.
But wait, wasn't Hebrew a dead language when Jesus walked the Earth?
No, it wasn't. But it wasn't widely spoken by the general population.
Acts 4: 13 shows the apostles or at least two of the most prominent were illiterate and unschooled, fishermen, since when did they learn all the ins and outs supposedly of koine greeK. Please, someone others than these illiterate peasants wrote those books. decades after the fact.
Thank you to all contributors, so far, for their enlightening comments.
It's a bit more complicated than that. Many Jews, particularly those in Galilee, were probably bilingual. There was a strong Greek presence in Galilee, much more than in Judea. Also, illiteracy does not preclude authorship because an illiterate person could have used an amanuensis to whom he dictated his message. But the kind of Greek found in, say, 2 Peter, is definitely not the kind of Greek that such a person would have used; Revelation however has exactly the kind of Greek that an Aramaic-speaking bilingual could have used. Paul, as a child of the diaspora living in Tarsus, probably had Greek as his first language.
Testing......
O hn ap archV, o akhkoamen, o ewrakamen toiV ofqalmoiV.....
Yes, as Leo pointed out it's possible to do a Greek text. Either select the Greek characters from the font flyout or mark the text up manually using
<span style="font-family: symbol;">
Of course, without diacritics and accents the value of doing this is debatable.
Maputo95, there's a lot of veiled humor in your post. Whether it's intentional or not, I love it!!
Thank you , TD, I am glad you like my stabs at humour.
Here's a joke:
What do you get when you cross Jehovah's Witness with a Mafia hitman ? Lots of converts.
