Introduction

Summary

The justification for this study is found in the fact that it puts forward a number of explanations for the peculiar language associated with the verb and with clauses in the Apc. which have for centuries been a source of perplexity and misunderstanding to students and especially to translators of the book.

At least since the time of Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria (died A.D. 265), questions have been expressed about the un-Greek nature of the language of the Apc. Dionysius drew attention to the fact (see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 7, 25, 7ff) that the Greek of the Apc. contained a number of unusual constructions which cannot be explained in terms of Greek grammar and syntax. This peculiar disregard has perplexed modern scholars as well. In the words of R.H. Charles, who studied the book for many years while preparing his commentary, the Apc. possesses a distinctive character of its own which makes it ‘absolutely unique’ linguistically. More recently Matthew Black observed that ‘there is one New Testament book, Revelation, whose crude Greek is particularly stained by “Semitisms”’.

While one could not pretend at this stage to be able to explain all linguistic oddities in the book, yet this introductory survey demonstrates that the major part of the peculiarity attached to the un-Greek use of the verb in the Apc. can be ascribed to the influence of Semitic syntax, primarily biblical Hebrew (and Aramaic). Nigel Turner supports this view: ‘some of the sources [of Revelation] may have been Aramaic originally.