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The Historical Greek Pronunciation: It’s Time to Switch by Benji Overcash

July 8th, 2009 by DannyNelson

Here’s Benji’s latest post from his blog, Gegraptai:

I am. In fact, I’ve been working on switching from the (wrong) Erasmian pronunciation that I was taught in college and seminary to the HGP for quite a few months now. Erasmian is not an easy habit to break. I’ve experimented with Randall Buth’s reconstruction, as well as the modern Greek pronunciation and that set forth by Chrys Caragounis (which is, for all intents and purposes, the modern pronunciation). I’ve settled on Caragounis’ reconstruction for several reasons, not the least of which is that his is a bit less convoluted (and a bit easier for an English-speaking American to pronounce, oddly enough) than Buth’s. Also, Dr. Caragounis has created a CD entitled “How to Pronounce New Testament Greek in the Historical Greek Pronunciation” that he will send to you at a low cost if you email him and request it. (See here and click the “CD for Pronunciation” link for more info.) I’ve found it to be very helpful, since it is understandably far easier to learn how to pronounce certain sounds after hearing them than it is by reading descriptions and IPA equivalents.

Why does it matter how we pronounce Greek? For one, Erasmian sounds silly. As it turns out, Greeks have never pronounced Greek in the way in which most Westerners pronounce κοινὴ Greek today and, moreover, even Westerners didn’t pronounce Greek in this way until the mid-sixteenth century.

But there are other reasons, too—reasons which are, I think, highly important for proper and informed biblical exegesis and interpretation. Reading a text in the HGP, for example, provides additional perspective on an author’s word choice and rhetorical style (e.g. alliteration, rhyme, and assonance are more easily heard). Further, and perhaps even more importantly, I have become convinced that the HGP is indispensable for textual criticism. Indeed, many of the errors in NT manuscripts can easily be explained by the HGP, making complex explanations regarding theological agendas or scribal corrections in many cases unnecessary if not incredible. For instance, are the frequent exchanges between ἡμῖν and ὑμῖν or ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς the result of scribal corrections or clarifications, or worse, a scribal conspiracy to include or exclude persons or peoples in certain biblical exhortations—or might these simply be mistakes of hearing resulting from their identical (or, at least, virtually identical) pronunciation? The latter seems like a far better explanation to me in many, if not most, cases.

So, I’ve switched. And you should too. For some resources to get started, see the “History of the Greek Language and the Historical Greek Pronunciation” section on my resources page.

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