Greek economy

[Alkibiádēs]

tokilamockingbrd said:

Alkibiádēs said:

Esiar said:
I know barely anything about Greece. It just reminds me of Greek, which I know is the language most of the New Testament was written in. And I want to learn the languages because it interests me. That's it.

The New Testament is written in very poor koinè, most likely because it was their second language. A lot of the sentences come across as semitic which suggests that they spoke Aramaic in their daily life.

From a literary point of view the New Testament is garbage and not worth reading. Read the Illiad instead, it's in classical Attic with a dactylic hexameter.

The NT was written in the most common form at the time. It was not intended to be a literarry classic, but rather something as many people as possible could understand.

Also, at the time the NT was written the "Classic" greek was pretty much dead and only used in academic circles. It would be like comparing Pilgrims Progress with Harry Potter (similar time gap).   Or comparing Dante with modern Italian literatue.

It was written by mostly untalented people, that's all there's to it. You can make all the excuses you want. During antiquity pretty much EVERY Greek knew the stories of the Illiad and Oddysey (they had a long oral tradition before these stories were written down by "Homeros"). There were people that could recite these entire works from memory. Despite being literary masterpieces they were easily accesible. The ancient Greeks knew the content of the Illiad and Oddysey better than modern people know the New Testament. Because these stories stem from a long oral tradition they were easy to remember: after all people create tricks to remember things more easily (rhyming for example). The New Testament isn't easy or fun to read, it's a confusing mess really. The Illiad reads like a charm in its original form. With translations you have to be careful, but there are good ones out there.

Also, I used the Illiad and Oddysey as an example, there are also a lot of great works written in koinè Greek as well. Oh and the Illiad and Oddysey were still the most famous literary works during the first and second century AD (when the New Testament was written down). So there goes your time gap...

As for Dante, you do realize modern Italian is based on the Florentine dialect in part thanks to his great work? I still know the opening sentence by heart: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura che la diritta via era smarrita.

"In the middle of my life I found myself in a dark forest, for I had lost the right path."