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Many authors have observed that there are frequent Hebraisms in the Greek of the New Testament. Several theories have been offered to explain the Hebraisms. Some have suggested that the authors of the New Testament were imitating the "translation Greek" of the Septuagint; others have suggested that the writers were working with source documents written in Hebrew (or Aramaic); and others have proposed that the original language of some of these books of the New Testament was Hebrew or Aramaic. I don't take a position on which of these theories is correct. I am interested in this topic because it leads us to a useful approach for interpreting the text of the New Testament.
Our English New Testaments are all translations of Greek manuscripts. How do we determine the meaning of Greek words written two-thousand years ago? One approach would be to look for other Greek texts of the period to see other contexts were a word in question is used; many of the texts we could look at would be of pagan origin. Alternatively, we could use Greek texts of Jewish origin as our primary context; many of these texts might be translations of Hebrew sources. The primary text in this category is the Septuagint; the Greek translation of the Old Testament. If we assume that the text of the New Testament is at least culturally Hebraic even if not directly or indirectly from a Hebrew source, then we should prefer to use Hebraic contexts for interpreting the Greek language of the New Testament. The Septuagint might serve for us as a kind of Rosetta Stone— a document for which we have essentially the same text in multiple languages that we can compare.
The New Testament mentions specific languages several times. What can we learn from these references to language? In the following texts, the Greek references are highlighted in orange and the Hebrew references are highlighted in yellow. Each instance of the word Greek or Hebrew is in bold; in parenthesis following each of these words is the Greek text from the Greek Bible, along with its English transliteration, and the Aramaic text from the Peshitta Bible, along with its English transliteration. (The Aramaic New Testament text is from the Peshitta Tool at Dukhrana Biblical Research.)
Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek (Ελληνικοις – Ellenikois / יונאית – yavnayit), and Latin, and Hebrew (Εβραικοις – Ebraikois / ועבראית – v'ebrayit), THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit), Gabbatha.
John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) Golgotha:
John 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit), and Greek (Ελληνιστι – Ellenisti / יונאית – yavnayit), and Latin.
Acts 21:37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek (Ελληνιστι – Ellenisti / יונאית – yavnayit)?
Acts 21:40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue, saying,
Acts 22:2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / דעבראית – d'ebrayit) tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
Acts 26:14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek (Ελληνικη – Ellenike) tongue hath his name Apollyon. (Aramaic: וארמאית שמא לה אית שרא – varmayit shma leh it share)
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue Armageddon.
Notice that in these verses, Hebrew is consistently referred to as Ebraisti in Greek and Ebrayit in Aramaic. The Greek references are also consistent but with one interesting exception (highlighted in green) on the word Greek is in Revelation 9:11 where the Aramaic Peshitta is translating into Aramaic rather than Greek and consequently does not say "in Greek."
Although these verses come to us from Greek manuscripts, it is the Hebrew language that is mentioned most frequently. Of special interest are the verses in Acts 21; Paul is in Jerusalem and a crowd has been stirred up against him.
Acts 21:35 When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. 36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, “Away with him!” 37 Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I speak to you?” He replied, “Can you speak Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 But Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; and I implore you, permit me to speak to the people.” 40 So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,...
Notice in this text that the commander asks "Can you speak Greek?" Would this question make any sense if Greek was commonly spoken in Jerusalem?
In a future study, I will have more to say about documentary evidence for a Hebraic perspective on New Testament texts. For the remainder of today's study I want to focus on one aspect of internal, linguistic evidence for a Hebraic perspective.
The following graph shows the number of occurrences, per 1000 words, of verses in the King James Version of the Bible that begin with the word and. The first occurrence of this pattern Genesis 1:2: "And the earth was without form...." The next verse also begins with and: "And God said, Let there be light..." In fact, 29 out of 31 verses in the KJV Genesis 1 begin with the word and. Take special note of the two dips in the graph. The first begins around the book of Job and continues somewhat lower for most of the rest of the Old Testament. The second dip begins after the book of Acts and continues up to but not including the book of Revelation.
Verses Beginning With And in the King James Version
Verses Beginning with And in the World English Bible
The World English Bible has many fewer verses beginning with and. Is this use of the word and to begin a verse some peculiar King James English trait that died out in more modern English? Let's look at the evidence. Following is a list of books of the Bible. The name of each book (or range of books) is followed by two numbers; a count of the verses in the book (or range) beginning with the word and followed by the count of the total verses in the book (or range). For example, 1142 verses in Genesis begin with and; there are a total of 1433 verses in Genesis. 80% of the verses in Genesis begin with and! A very large percentage of the verses in the King James Old Testament begin with the word and. In face, 8840 verses out of 23261 in the King James Old Testament begin with and— 38% of all the verses!
The Old Testament: King James Version
- Genesis 1142/1433
- Exodus 820/1213
- Leviticus 493/859
- Numbers 731/1288
- Deuteronomy 315/959
- Joshua 404/658
- Judges 415/618
- Ruth 54/85
- 1 Samuel – 2 Chronicles 2723/4804
- Ezra 80/280
- Nehemiah 135/406
- Esther 65/167
- Job 55/1070
- Psalms 84/2577
- Proverbs 11/915
- Ecclesiastes 14/222
- Song of Solomon 1/117
- Isaiah 252/1292
- Jeremiah 259/1364
- Lamentations 4/154
- Ezekiel 436/1273
- Daniel 109/357
- Hosea – Malachi 237/1050
William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616; the King James translation of the Bible into English occurred toward the end of his lifetime. A list of Shakespeare's works follows below. After the name of each work are two numbers; the first number is the count of the number of lines in the work beginning with and; the second number is the total number of lines in the work. (The source for this data is Open Source Shakespeare.) Clearly, none of the works of Shakespeare have a significant number of lines that begin with and. Perhaps all of those ands are not a characteristic of King James English at all— maybe they are somehow in the original language.
The Works of Shakespeare
- All's Well That Ends Well 18/3060
- Antony and Cleopatra 17/3845
- As You Like It 37/2610
- Comedy of Errors 18/1870
- Coriolanus 17/4005
- Cymbeline 13/3955
- Hamlet 14/4070
- Henry IV, Part I 17/3185
- Henry IV, Part II 17/3740
- Henry V 10/3370
- Henry VI, Part I 38/2960
- Henry VI, Part II 32/3350
- Henry VI, Part III 36/3140
- Henry VIII 8/3475
- Julius Caesar 13/2765
- King John 14/2755
- King Lear 12/3515
- Love's Labour's Lost 26/2875
- Lover's Complaint 0/330
- Macbeth 13/2565
- Measure for Measure 14/2985
- Merchant of Venice 13/2780
- Merry Wives of Windsor 25/2810
- Midsummer Night's Dream 13/2290
- Much Ado about Nothing 43/2680
- Othello 20/3740
- Passionate Pilgrim 4/430
- Pericles 12/2635
- Phoenix and the Turtle 1/65
- Rape of Lucrece 9/1905
- Richard II 13/2935
- Richard III 30/3930
- Romeo and Juliet 17/3285
- Sonnets 0/267
- Taming of the Shrew 26/2695
- Tempest 10/2420
- Timon of Athens 9/2655
- Titus Andronicus 21/2745
- Troilus and Cressida 22/3690
- Twelfth Night 24/2620
- Two Gentlemen of Verona 36/2330
- Venus and Adonis 7/1215
- Winter's Tale 11/3470
Let's look at the data from a different perspective. Without any knowledge of Hebrew, how can we convince ourselves that the ands are in the original Hebrew. What if we were to do a similar analysis on the Bible, but translated into a different language— Spanish for example.
The following graph shows the number of occurrences, per 1000 words, of verses in the Spanish Reina-Valera (1960) translation of the Bible that begin with the word y. (Y means and.) Notice that the graph has the same basic shape as the first KJV graph that we looked at first. In the Reina-Valera translation, 6309 verses out of 23270 begin with y; 27% of the verses! The same pattern of beginning ands is there even in a translation to another language. There doesn't seem to be any evidence for many ands at the beginning of lines in other contemporary texts (Shakespeare). The absence of many ands in Shakespeare's works and the presence of many ands in both Spanish and English translations of the Bible and that the KJV English and Reina-Valera Spanish graphs of the ands have a similar shape, together, are strong evidence that the ands are in the original text and are not just an artifact of the translation.
Verses Beginning With Y in the Spanish Reina-Valera (1960) Bible
What if we do the same analysis on the Hebrew text? Do we see the same pattern? The pattern is there, but it looks a little different in the graph. First, it is actually a little stronger; in fact 12504 verses out of 23213 in the Hebrew Bible begin with vav— vav is the Hebrew letter that is used to express that concept of and. Second, the shape looks different because the books are in a different order in the Hebrew Bible. However, just like in the other graphs, the low point is at the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, etc.
Verses Beginning With vav in the Hebrew Bible
Following below are some verses from Genesis 1 that are highlighted to illustrate this grammatical pattern in three languages. It should be possible to see the pattern without having a background in the Hebrew and Greek alphabets.
Each verse below is written in two sections; the first section is the text in English (KJV). The second section is the first few words of the verse in Hebrew and Greek (Septuagint) that was translated from the Hebrew.
The Hebrew and Greek section is written with the Hebrew and Greek letters along with a transliteration of the Hebrew and Greek into English letters. The Hebrew and Greek are separated by a slash (/) character and are enclosed in parenthesis in the following format:
(Hebrew – Hebrew-transliterated / Greek – Greek-transliterated)
Each word is highlighted in a different color to illustrate its grammatical role. The ands in each language are highlighted in green. The verb in each language is highlighted in orange. The subject/noun in each language is highlighted in light-blue. (When looking at the pattern, keep in mind that Hebrew letters are read from right to left.)
In English the order is and-subject-verb. In Hebrew and Greek the order is and-verb-subject. Verb-subject order is normal and common in Biblical Hebrew. Verb-subject order is possible in Greek but is not frequent in non-Biblical texts. (Greek is grammatically flexible with word order.) Word order is not as flexible in English grammer; it is not possible to write a good English sentence using verb-subject order.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
(ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
(וירא אלהים – vayar elohim / και ειδεν ο θεος – kai eiden o theos)
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
(ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)
Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
(ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)
Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
(ויעש אלהים – vaya'as elohim / και εποιησεν ο θεος – kai epoiesen o theos)
Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
(ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)
Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
(ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
(ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
(ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)
Genesis 1:12-22 in Greek (Septuagint) translated from Hebrew
The following text is the verses from Genesis 1:12-22 taken from the Septuagint; these verses were all translated from Hebrew into Greek and they continue to use the and-verb-subject pattern that we saw in the verses that precede them. (We can see the pattern even if we can't read Greek.)
12. και εξηνεγκεν η γη βοτανην χορτου σπειρον σπερμα κατα γενος και καθ' ομοιοτητα και ξυλον καρπιμον ποιουν καρπον ου το σπερμα αυτου εν αυτω κατα γενος επι της γης και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλον
13. και εγενετο εσπερα και εγενετο πρωι ημερα τριτη
14. και ειπεν ο θεος γενηθητωσαν φωστηρες εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου εις φαυσιν της γης του διαχωριζειν ανα μεσον της ημερας και ανα μεσον της νυκτος και εστωσαν εις σημεια και εις καιρους και εις ημερας και εις ενιαυτους
15. και εστωσαν εις φαυσιν εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου ωστε φαινειν επι της γης και εγενετο ουτως
16. και εποιησεν ο θεος τους δυο φωστηρας τους μεγαλους τον φωστηρα τον μεγαν εις αρχας της ημερας και τον φωστηρα τον ελασσω εις αρχας της νυκτος και τους αστερας
17. και εθετο αυτους ο θεος εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου ωστε φαινειν επι της γης
18. και αρχειν της ημερας και της νυκτος και διαχωριζειν ανα μεσον του φωτος και ανα μεσον του σκοτους και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλον
19. και εγενετο εσπερα και εγενετο πρωι ημερα τεταρτη
20. και ειπεν ο θεος εξαγαγετω τα υδατα ερπετα ψυχων ζωσων και πετεινα πετομενα επι της γης κατα το στερεωμα του ουρανου και εγενετο ουτως
21. και εποιησεν ο θεος τα κητη τα μεγαλα και πασαν ψυχην ζωων ερπετων α εξηγαγεν τα υδατα κατα γενη αυτων και παν πετεινον πτερωτον κατα γενος και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλα
22. και ηυλογησεν αυτα ο θεος λεγων αυξανεσθε και πληθυνεσθε και πληρωσατε τα υδατα εν ταις θαλασσαις και τα πετεινα πληθυνεσθωσαν επι της γης
Since Greek is a highly inflected language, it it quite flexible with word order. The Wikipedia article on Modern Greek Grammar has this to say about word order.
The predominant word order in Greek is SVO (Subject-Verb-Object), but word order is quite freely variable, with VSO and other orders as frequent alternatives.
Another site on Greek Grammar adds this:
An affirmative sentence in Greek follows the SVO pattern (Subject, Verb, Object), just like in English. However, the SVO structure is considerably more relaxed in Greek than in English.... One may assume that the normal structure is very similar to the one in English (often a word-for-word translation will not be far from an accurate one), but one should not be surprised if one encounters a sentence with slightly different order; if that happens, it will be for purposes of emphasis.
In Ancient Greek, particularly in Classic, the pattern SOV was more common than SVO.
Although Greek has a flexible word order, it is not the usual for Greek sentences to have a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order. If we encounter a situation such as we see in the Septuagint Genesis 1 where most of the verses have a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order, we are justified in asking "why?" Since we know that the Septuagint is a translation from the Hebrew Genesis and since it is usual and normal for Hebrew narrative texts to have a verb-subject-object word order, we can be confident that the VSO order in the Greek of Septuagint Genesis 1 is because it is a very direct (tending towards word-for-word) translation of the Hebrew.
Spanish is also an SVO language, but also allows for a flexible word in the same way that Greek does. In the text that follows from the Spanish Reina-Valera translation, can see the same verb-subject pattern that we saw in the Septuagint Greek.
Gen 1:3 Y dijo Dios: Sea la luz; y fue la luz.
Gen 1:4 Y vio Dios que la luz era buena; y separó Dios la luz de las tinieblas.
Gen 1:5 Y llamó Dios a la luz Día, y a las tinieblas llamó Noche. Y fue la tarde y la mañana un día.
Notice that in a contemporary Spanish translation— La Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos (2005)— that the word order is more flexible. The translators probably thought that a word-for-word translation using frequent verb-subject order sounded un-natural; verses 4, 5, 7 and 8 are in subject-verb order. Also notice that the Y is missing in some of the verses (or has been replaced by Entonces – Then).
We see the same kind of changes in contemporary English translations; there are many fewer ands (especially ands at the beginning of a verse) in contemporary translations. This explains why the graph of initial-ands in the World English Bible (the second graph in this post) does not show the same pattern as the KJV. The Hebraic character of the texts is harder to see in most modern translations.
Gen 1:3 Entonces dijo Dios: "Sea la luz." Y hubo luz.
Gen 1:4 Dios vio que la luz era buena; y Dios separó la luz de las tinieblas.
Gen 1:5 Y Dios llamó a la luz día y a las tinieblas llamó noche. Y fue la tarde y fue la mañana: un día.
Gen 1:6 Entonces dijo Dios: "Haya expansión (firmamento) en medio de las aguas, y separe las aguas de las aguas."
Gen 1:7 Dios hizo la expansión (el firmamento), y separó las aguas que estaban debajo de la expansión de las aguas que estaban sobre la expansión. Y así fue.
Gen 1:8 Y Dios llamó a la expansión cielos. Y fue la tarde y fue la mañana: el segundo día.
Following is a specific word pattern with examples from Genesis 1— And God said. They are all said in the same way in Hebrew and are consistently translated into Greek using a "kai Verb Subject" word pattern.
Gen 1:3 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:6 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:9 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:11 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:14 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:20 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:24 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:26 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:29 And God said ( ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
So far, we have looked at a grammatical pattern in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. We have determined that the verb-subject order, although possible in Greek, is not the usual order, but it is common in Greek that is translated from Hebrew. We have looked at a specific word pattern: And SUBJECT said. (Greek: και ειπεν ο SUBJECT – kai eipen o SUBJECT )
This is the point we have been heading for: does the New Testament Greek have this pattern? Let's look at a few examples. In each text is the first few words from the KJV followed by the Greek text and a transliteration of the Greek text. These texts confirm that the pattern exists in the New Testament.
Matt 8:13 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν ο Ιησους – kai eipen o Iesous)
Matt 8:32 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Matt 9:15 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 1:17 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 2:19 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 4:40 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Mark 9:29 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Luke 8:45 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν ο Ιησους – kai eipen o Iesous)
This pattern doesn't just occur a handful of times; there are 61 instances of this specific word pattern (kai eipen) in the New Testament Greek.
Matt 8:13, 32; 9:15; 14:2; 18:3; 19:5; Mark 1:17; 2:19; 3:9; 4:40; 6:31; 7:29; 9:29; 12:32; 14:24; 16:15; Luke 1:18, 30, 46; 2:10, 49; 4:3, 6, 23; 8:45; 9:3, 9, 48, 50, 58; 11:5; 12:18; 13:32; 14:22–23; 15:12; 16:15; 17:19; 19:17; 21:3, 29; 22:15, 35, 46; 23:43; 24:19, 38, 46; John 1:46; 8:23; 9:7, 39; 11:34; Acts 7:3, 56; 9:34; 22:21; Rev 17:7; 21:5–6; 22:6
The general and-verb pattern is very common in the New Testament Greek; it occurs 1052 times. In the following graph, we see the distribution of this pattern through the books of the New Testament. Notice that the pattern is less common in the Epistles.
The specific Hebrew situation that this pattern is associated with in the Old Testament is an initial verb that is vav-consecutive (or waw-consecutive) form. The details of this grammatical construct are beyond the scope of this post, but the important thing to note about it is that it is used in narrative contexts— the telling of a story. That is why it is less common in non-narrative books such as the Psalms. Notice that it is also uncommon in the non-narrative books of the New Testament. (The epistles are also less Hebraic in their language in other ways as well, so that may completely account for the low frequency of this pattern there.)
The high frequency of this Hebraic pattern in New Testament narrative books can not be accounted for in the Greek language alone. It is either "Hebrew translation Greek" or an intentional or cultural imitation of the Septuagint. In any case, it is evidence for a Hebraic cultural background for the New Testament. This pattern is just one of many Hebraic features of the New Testmanent Greek texts.
The Hebraic (Old Testament) context of the New Testament is a subject that this blog will be discussing repeatedly. The New Testament cannot be correctly understood except through the lens of the Old Testament.
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