The Language of the New Testament

by William Henry Simcox

Publisher:

Hodder and Stoughton

, 1889

Overview

While not a complete grammar, The Language of the New Testament has much to commend to it. Simcox’s goal in this volume was to examine where the Greek of the New Testament falls in its relationship to both classical and post-classical Greek usage and then also to classify those differences based on their origin, whether it be the common Greek of the masses, the result of linguistic interference with Hebrew and Aramaic, or even a result of the influence of the Septuagint. The book is laid out with a brief introduction to the Greek people and their language following Alexander the Great and then proceeds to survey the inflection of various parts-of-speech, discussions of syntactic and semantic issues, and concluding with a look at conjunctions, particles and other miscellaneous features of New Testament Greek.

Overall, the book is incredibly helpful, not only for interpreting the New Testament text, but also for gaining a grasp of how the Greek of the New Testament compares with that which preceded and followed it. The ability to put into historical context the state of the Greek language in the first century cannot be undervalued. And for that reason, The Language of the New Testament has retained its importance even to this day.

Praise for the Print Edition

All that Mr. Simcox wrote was original and ingenious. . . .

—The Expositor

Product Details

• Title: The Language of the New Testament
• Author: William Henry Simcox
• Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
• Publication Date: 1889
• Pages: 226

About William Henry Simcox

William Henry Simcox (1842–1889) was a Biblical and Classical scholar of the highest caliber. Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford and Rector of Harlaxton, Simcox was active in the study of the book of Revelation, early Christian history, textual criticism, and Greek grammar. He contributed to the translation of John Chrysostom’s Homilies on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans for Philip Schaff’s Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. XI. Outside of the realms of Biblical studies, he wrote the first major biography of William Shakespeare’s patron Barnabe Barnes. His family was also close friends with novelist George Eliot. At the age of forty-seven, he was involved in a variety of projects including the collation of Greek manuscripts of Revelation, the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Cambridge Greek Testament volumes on Revelation, and an extensive study of the style of the New Testament authors. His brother and fellow scholar, George Simcox, edited and saw to publication his two Revelation commentaries, as well as The Writers of the New Testament.