How about the Greek language (part 1)?
Introduction. I am going to understand our question in the sense of the Greek of the New Testament (the original language). Allow me to preface my answer by saying that I am not, in the technical sense, a Greek scholar. However, I have profited from studying Greek and I have enjoyed teaching Greek through the years.
It is estimated that from 20 to 40 percent of English is derived from Greek. Actually, many "English" words (ex. Anthropology). Greek is an ancient language which began about 1500 B.C. Greek is considered the most literary of all the ancient languages. Greek has also been proclaimed, "the most expressive and beautiful of all earthly languages" (Light From the Greek New Testament, by B.W. Blackwelder, pg. 15). The most perfect vehicle of human speech thus far devised by man is the Greek," wrote A.T. Robertson (The Minister and His Greek New Testament, pg. 28). It is this language (Koine Greek) that the Holy Spirit used to convey God's final revelation to man (2Tim. 3:16,17).
The Koine Greek or cosmopolitan Greek evolved from the Ionic. The Koine Greek is different, in some ways, from the Classical or Attic Greek (see A Manual Grammar of the Greek new Testament, by Dana and Mantey, pgs. 5-10). Of course, one thing which makes the Greek of the New Testament so amazing and different is the fact that the Holy Spirit inerrantly guided the writers in their selection of the very words they used (1 Cor. 2:11-13). New Testament Greek is not the language of the uneducated, as some have taught. Robertson wrote of the Koine: "...which was the language of the common people as well as the cultured in the first century A.D." Others have observed, "The New Testament uses the language of the people, but with a dignity, restraint, and pathos far beyond the trivial nonentities in much of the papyri remains" (Moulton and Milligan, A Grammer of the Greek New Testament, pgs. 83,84,88). (continued in part 2)
It is estimated that from 20 to 40 percent of English is derived from Greek. Actually, many "English" words (ex. Anthropology). Greek is an ancient language which began about 1500 B.C. Greek is considered the most literary of all the ancient languages. Greek has also been proclaimed, "the most expressive and beautiful of all earthly languages" (Light From the Greek New Testament, by B.W. Blackwelder, pg. 15). The most perfect vehicle of human speech thus far devised by man is the Greek," wrote A.T. Robertson (The Minister and His Greek New Testament, pg. 28). It is this language (Koine Greek) that the Holy Spirit used to convey God's final revelation to man (2Tim. 3:16,17).
The Koine Greek or cosmopolitan Greek evolved from the Ionic. The Koine Greek is different, in some ways, from the Classical or Attic Greek (see A Manual Grammar of the Greek new Testament, by Dana and Mantey, pgs. 5-10). Of course, one thing which makes the Greek of the New Testament so amazing and different is the fact that the Holy Spirit inerrantly guided the writers in their selection of the very words they used (1 Cor. 2:11-13). New Testament Greek is not the language of the uneducated, as some have taught. Robertson wrote of the Koine: "...which was the language of the common people as well as the cultured in the first century A.D." Others have observed, "The New Testament uses the language of the people, but with a dignity, restraint, and pathos far beyond the trivial nonentities in much of the papyri remains" (Moulton and Milligan, A Grammer of the Greek New Testament, pgs. 83,84,88). (continued in part 2)