The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

which were reinforced by Jewish bilingualism in Palestine, or accidental correspondences
between Coptic and Hebrew/Aramaic” (Horrocks 1977: 92). As such, the position of
Semitisms in Christian Greek can be surmised by the following: “semitismos en sentido
estricto son muy pocos los que existen en esa sintaxis. Lo normal, en cambio, es que las
raíces, muchas veces exiguas, de una construcción, adquieron desarrollo como resultado de la
influencia semita” (Lasso de la Vega 1968: 151-52). In other words, rather than being novel
linguistic features in Greek, many supposed Semitisms appear in the language beforehand,
but are perhaps encouraged or reinforced by Semitic influence.
However, despite this usage increasing in Christian literature, the tumor is still able to
be found in other, earlier, Greek writings, as well as other ancient Indo-European languages.
Lasso de la Vega (1968: 441-455) gives a useful list of examples, labelling it the genitive of
identity. It is also true that similar grammatical tropes are found in Latin writers long before
the coming of Christianity. Therefore, the tumor cannot be seen as either a Christian novelty
or a specifically Semitic borrowing: “pleonasm consists in the repetition of an idea which has
already been expressed in the sentence, not for any rhetorical purpose [...] nor because of
carelessness, but as a consequence of certain habits of speech” (Blass & Debrumer 1961:
256). However, the increase in usage evidently had its source somewhere, and it is not
improbable that Semitic influence encouraged its use, rather than initiated it.
Discussion of the tumor has implications for the understanding of monastic rules on
two levels. First, it is important because it is demonstrative of the processes of later literary
continuity, and the influences exerting themselves on a writer such as Isidore. Since the
tumor is a stylistic trope indicative of Asianist influence, then its appearance in a seventh-
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