A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

CHAPTER VII
INNOVATION AND OBSOLESCENCE
In the three preceding chapters we have been considering
innovations in the Koine vocabulary. It is however a well-known
characteristic of language that the intrusion of new words and
uses does not take place in isolation from other words in the
vocabulary.''" It is frequently the case that the intrusion of
one word is related to the obsolescence of another. As a
certain word for an idea comes into use the existing word for
the idea drops out; or, put the other way, as one word becomes
obsolete another appears and takes its place. The two
processes, the intrusion of one word and the obsolescence of
another, are complementary to each other.
There were many such changes in the Koine vocabulary.
For a variety of reasons, many earlier words and uses had
become obsolete and been replaced by new ones. In this chapter
three examples of this phenomenon will be examined in detail.
We shall consider what changes had taken place in the manner
of expressing certain ideas in the Greek of the third century
B.C., and a comparison will be made with the usage of the
Pentateuch. It will be seen that the translators' vocabulary
is in agreement with contemporary developments in these areas.
'Give a drink to';
'Irrigate'
In Classical Greek αρδω, which is first attested early
(Homeric Hymns, Pi., etc.; cf. άρδμός in Homer), was the normal
word for 'give a drink of water to', 'water' (an animal), and
'water', 'irrigate' (plants, land). It is common in these
senses in Attic up till Arist., and in Hdt. It would appear,
however, that it was not normally used of giving a drink to a
1. See e.g. L. Bloomfield, Language, London, 1935, 430ff.