A pioneering, comprehensive study of the pronunciation of Judeo-Palestinian Koine Greek. How was New Testament Greek pronounced? Often students are taught Erasmian pronunciation, which does not even r
A pioneering, comprehensive study of the pronunciation of Judeo-Palestinian Koine Greek.
How was New Testament Greek pronounced? Often students are taught Erasmian pronunciation, which does not even reproduce Erasmus’s own pronunciation faithfully, let alone that of the New Testament authors. In his new book, Benjamin Kantor breaks a path toward an authentic pronunciation of Koine Greek at the time of the New Testament.
To determine historical pronunciation, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek surveys thousands of inscriptions and papyri. Kantor’s work integrates traditional methodology and statistical analysis of digital databases to examine spelling variations in the chosen texts. Kantor covers this cutting-edge approach, the primary sources, and their contexts before explaining the pronunciation of each Greek phoneme individually.
Written for interested students and specialists alike, this guide includes both explicatory footnotes for novices and technical analysis for veterans. As the first comprehensive phonological and orthographic study of Judeo-Palestinian Koine Greek, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek will be an essential resource for years to come.
Religious Studies Review
“Careful readers will find here a trove of information and persuasive judgments in a book that sets a new and high standard for studies of ‘New Testament’ Greek phonology. Highly recommended.”
“This is a major work of research, first-rate quality, and will immediately become indispensable to all working in Greek epigraphy of the region, as well as literary texts and papyri written in Koine. I am deeply impressed. It will become the reference work on the subject.”
—Jonathan J. Price
Tel Aviv University
“This book displays exceptional learning spread across many centuries and various languages to get at a topic that always intrigues Classicists and New Testament scholars. Kantor shows just how much evidence, spanning a vast range of material from classical and Rabbinic literature as well as from inscriptions and documentary papyri, is relevant to this task. It is a monumental achievement to assemble a book of such massive scope as well as linguistic sophistication. A triumph!”
—Simon Gathercole
University of Cambridge
“This book succeeds in establishing a precise chronology for the phonological development of Koine Greek in Judea-Palestine from Alexander to Mohammed—in an exhaustive yet accessible manner. The challenge is to apply its approach to the more numerous papyri and inscriptions from Egypt.”
—Peter van Minnen
University of Cincinnati
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Benjamin Kantor is preceptor in Classical Hebrew at Harvard University. He was previously a research associate in Biblical Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Symbols and Abbreviations
1. Phonology of Koine Greek in Modern Scholarship
2. How Do We Know How Koine Greek Was Pronounced?
3. Language and Society in Judea-Palestine
4. The Authors of the Inscriptions and Documents
5. How to Read (the Phonology Section of) This Book
6. Judeo-Palestinian Koine in Time and Space
7. Phonology: Consonants
8. Phonology: Vowels and Diphthongs
9. Accents: Regions, Registers, and Demographics
10. Conclusions: Nature of Judeo-Palestinian Koine
Transcribed Texts
Bibliography
Indexes
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