SEMITIC INFLUENCE IN THE USE OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK PREPOSITIONS: THE CASE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Laurențiu Florentin Moț
Adventist Theological Institute, Cernica, Romania
Abstract: Semitic influence on New Testament Greek prepositional use has been proposed by various scholars. At times, it turns out that the examples these scholars emphasize are quite unconvincing, many times because their methodologies seem unclear. This article proposes the use of the Second Language Acquisition approach in assessing the degree of Semitic influence on the New Testament Greek prepositions uses and applies it in the case of the prepositional irregularities found in the book of Revelation. Error Analysis is a method whereby the source of a linguistic irregularity is identified and the irregularity is explained. The question of this research is, what is the source of Revelation’s prepositional irregularities? The paper discusses the usage of prepositions such as εἰς, ἐν, ἐκ, µετά, ἀπό, and ἐπί in the book of Revelation, the New Testament, and the Greek language at large. Unclear terminology and inaccurate methodology are two factors that led to the conclusion that the source of the irregular prepositional use in Revelation is mainly Semitic. This paper uses the terminology of Second Language Acquisition and its findings drawn from empirical studies about linguistic transfer and facilitation from the mother tongue into the second language. In light of Second Language Acquisition, there seem to be strong arguments that confirm the Greek hypothesis and inform the Semitic explanation for virtually all of John’s peculiar prepositions. (Article)
