Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament
The inflection of personal names in the New Testament (NT) is argued to be the product of a complex interaction of several factors operating at various linguistic levels including phonology, socio-linguistics and discourse. Phonologically, Hebrew/Aramaic names terminating in vowels or guttural conso...
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| Format: | Book section |
| Język: | English |
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Brill
2024
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| _version_ | 1826315248481599488 |
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| author | Crellin, R |
| author2 | Monaco, C |
| author_facet | Monaco, C Crellin, R |
| author_sort | Crellin, R |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The inflection of personal names in the New Testament (NT) is argued to be the product of a complex interaction of several factors operating at various linguistic levels including phonology, socio-linguistics and discourse. Phonologically, Hebrew/Aramaic names terminating in vowels or guttural consonants are for the most part inflected in the NT, although not always according to recognised patterns for Greek nouns. By contrast, names terminating in a non-guttural consonant with historical or Biblical (i.e. Old Greek, OG) status are not inflected in the NT. I take this as evidence: a) of allegiance to the Old Greek naming tradition on the part of the writers of the NT, with the implication of anchoring the discourse in the Biblical Greek world; and b) as an indication of the identity of the primary audience of the NT books as a whole, viz. i) they spoke Greek, ii) they were familiar with historical/Biblical figures from the OG, and iii) they were expecting these figures to be referred to by their OG names. Names of contemporaries ending in a non-guttural consonant may either be inflected or not. This is argued to suggest cultural alignment on a more personal and individual basis, viz. an anchoring of their identity either in the Greco-Roman world, or the Biblical world of their ancestors. Finally, I argue that variation in inflection for a given name can be used as a literary device to anchor the identities of the participants in the narrative/discourse. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:21:15Z |
| format | Book section |
| id | oxford-uuid:83a8a364-ef31-49b8-88e3-824f900ef798 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:21:15Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Brill |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:83a8a364-ef31-49b8-88e3-824f900ef7982024-11-13T16:39:14ZNegotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New TestamentBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843uuid:83a8a364-ef31-49b8-88e3-824f900ef798EnglishSymplectic ElementsBrill2024Crellin, RMonaco, CMachado, RBozia, EThe inflection of personal names in the New Testament (NT) is argued to be the product of a complex interaction of several factors operating at various linguistic levels including phonology, socio-linguistics and discourse. Phonologically, Hebrew/Aramaic names terminating in vowels or guttural consonants are for the most part inflected in the NT, although not always according to recognised patterns for Greek nouns. By contrast, names terminating in a non-guttural consonant with historical or Biblical (i.e. Old Greek, OG) status are not inflected in the NT. I take this as evidence: a) of allegiance to the Old Greek naming tradition on the part of the writers of the NT, with the implication of anchoring the discourse in the Biblical Greek world; and b) as an indication of the identity of the primary audience of the NT books as a whole, viz. i) they spoke Greek, ii) they were familiar with historical/Biblical figures from the OG, and iii) they were expecting these figures to be referred to by their OG names. Names of contemporaries ending in a non-guttural consonant may either be inflected or not. This is argued to suggest cultural alignment on a more personal and individual basis, viz. an anchoring of their identity either in the Greco-Roman world, or the Biblical world of their ancestors. Finally, I argue that variation in inflection for a given name can be used as a literary device to anchor the identities of the participants in the narrative/discourse. |
| spellingShingle | Crellin, R Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title | Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title_full | Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title_fullStr | Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title_full_unstemmed | Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title_short | Negotiating Jewish identity through the (non-)inflection of personal names: evidence from the Greek of the New Testament |
| title_sort | negotiating jewish identity through the non inflection of personal names evidence from the greek of the new testament |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT crellinr negotiatingjewishidentitythroughthenoninflectionofpersonalnamesevidencefromthegreekofthenewtestament |