Albert Hogeterp and Adelbert Denaux study Semitisms in the Greek of Luke's vocabulary and syntax in light of comparison with other Greek texts, and Hebrew and Aramaic evidence of the time, and show that Luke's Semitisms find their origin in different influences.

The Gospel of Luke has long been known for its variation between good, educated Greek and Semitic influences. In the last century, five theories have attempted to explain the Semitic influence: Semitic sources; imitation of the Greek Bible; the Greek of the ancient synagogue; literary code-switching between standard Greek and semitized Greek; and the social background of bilingualism. Albert Hogeterp and Adelbert Denaux revisit Luke's Greek and evaluate which alleged Semitisms of vocabulary and syntax are tenable in light of comparative investigation across corpora of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, literary as well as documentary, texts. They contend that Semitisms in Luke's Greek are only fully understood in light of a complementarity of linguistic backgrounds, and evaluate them in diachronic respect of Synoptic comparison and in synchronic respect of their place in Luke's narrative style and communicative strategy.

Autorentext
Born 1938; 1990-2003 professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium); since 2003 emeritus; dean emeritus of the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, The Netherlands.