A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

in addition a variety of subsidiary arguments. These, in my
opinion, are quite unconvincing, and in no way provide an answer
to the objections we have been considering. We cannot go into
all of Turner's points in detail, but one or two call for
special mention.
One of Turner's arguments is as follows. Having stated
his opinion that the language of the οτ translators and the NT
writers was 'a living dialect of Jewish Greek' (p.45), he goes
on to observe some of the distinctive features of Biblical Greek.
He notes the specialized Christian meanings of words like 'bro­
ther', 'fellowship 1
, 'worship', 'truth', etc. The change in use
in many words is due (he remarks) to the Greek or. 'Thus,
Christians and Jews made "opinion" mean splendour, "to bind"
mean to forbid, "languages" mean nations, "to confess" mean to
praise, ... "to regret" mean to repent (religiously)' (p.47).
He then goes on: 'All such words are important. By contrast,
the light shed by the papyrus finds is negligible, almost re­
stricted to words such as milk and ideas such as accountancy,
wills, receipts, deposits, and beggars' collecting-bags.'
Now no one would dispute that there are many Biblical terms
upon which the papyri shed little light, and that these are in
many instances terms which one would call 'important'. It is
quite true that the papyri are concerned with everyday matters
such as accountancy and with comparatively humble objects like
beggars' collecting-bags. But to conclude from this that the
language of the Biblical writings is a separate dialect is false
logic, depending on the deceptive use of the word 'important'.
Of course 'worship', 'truth', 'splendour', and the like are
important words, but in what way? Clearly, they are important
from the religious and ethical point of view. But for the lin­
guistic question we are dealing with their importance in that
respect is irrelevant. For determining the relationship between
the 'secular' Koine and the Greek of the LXX and NT no word is
intrinsically more important than any other. It is as if one
were to say that for the purpose of establishing the affinities
between British and American English it is useless to point to
42. ET LXXVI (1964-5) 44-8.
42