LANGUAGE OP CHRIST

salem, when they came to worship or for temporary residence (see Ac 6'). But the language of the Pales-tinian home, of the Palestinian synagogue, of farmers, artisans, and labourers, as well as of educated Jews, who cultivated the ancient ways, was Hebrew, using that, term for the moment in a somewhat extended sense. Very significant is the reference to the vernacular in Ac 1", and the obvious inference is confirmed by the description of the title on the cross. Besides the official notice in L&tin, which probably few could read, the accusation was written in Greek and in Hebrew. If the majority of the passers by would understand the former, the latter was superfluous. Even if the Hebrew was added only to please the mob, this fact would prove that thelower classes were partial to their vernacular, and were at least bilinguists, and not in the habit of using Greek exclusively (cf. Ac 22?).

The story of Peter's denial incidentally adds another confirmation. He conversed in a language which was understood by the servants and others of the same class assembled round the Are, but he was recognized as a northerner by his accent. There is no evidence that the Gahljeans pronounced Greek differently from the JudEeans, but it is knovra that their pronunciation of some of the Hebrew letters differed from that of the southerners. Peter and the servants had a Semitic vernacular in common, though with dialectic differences of pronunciation, and possibly of vocabulary.

In the Syrian Church historical documents have been handed down which, whatever be the dates of the existing works, undoubtedly represent very ancient traditions, and depend on documents such as would have been preserved amongst the archives of Edessa. In the Doctrine of Addai this remarkable statement occurs: ' Him whose Gospel haa been spread abroad by the signs which his disciples do, who are Hebrews, and only know the tongue of the Hebrews, in which they were bom.' In the same Church there was a tradition that their national version of the NT waa rather asecond record than a translation, and dated from Apostolic times. Suchaview (whether true or false matters not now) depends on an assumption that some language related to Syriac, if not Syriac itself , was the vernacular of the Apostles.

The greater part of the N'T consists of writings intended for the benefit of Jews who resided outside Palestine, and of converts from heathenism. For such readera the ver-nacular of Palestine would have been unsuitable; and those of the writers who were not familiar with Greek could employ a translator. St. Peter is said to have been attended by Mark in this capacity. We have already referred to the tradition that Matthew, who wrote for the benefit of his countrymen, composed a Gospel in Hebrew. That some one should have undertaken a work of that nature is highly probable: but the circulation would be limited, for the native Jewish Church did not long retain the position of importance it possessed at first (Ac 212"), and the collection of sacred writmgs into a Canon was the work of Greek- speaking Christians. The Epistle of St. James is one of the earUest books of the NT, but though intended for Jewish Christians it was written in Greek, as a literary vehicle. An apparent, though not a real, difficulty is presented by the style of certain pieces included in the sacred narratives. The Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and Lord's Prayer, for example, which must be translations, in accordance with our view of the use of_ a Semitic ver-nacular, are thought to savour rather of original composition than of translation. But it should be remembered that the ancient idea of a version was different from ours. Literal rendering of ten (though not always) yielded to the demands of commentary. Perhaps (to take another, and, as some think, crucial instance), the angel could not have saluted Mary in the native dialect with the famous alUteration — Chaire kecharitomene ; and yet the Evangelist may have recorded the ' HaiU highly favoured^ in that form, influenced by the style of OT diction, in which play on words is a marked feature.

The majority of the quotations in the Gospels appear to be derived from some form of the Septuagint Greek text of the OT. It does not follow that the speakers habitually used Greek. All we can safely infer is that the Evangelists, when writing in Greek, emjfloyed a version which had acquired considerable authority by usage, to express the quotations they recorded.

It has been thought that the conversations between

LAODICEA

our Lord and the woman of Samaria and the Syro-phoenician woman must have been carried on in Greek as a common language. It is forgotten that Syriac, Samaritan, and the so-called Hebrew of Palestine, were nearly related. Many to whom one or other of these was the vernacular, would have some slight acquaint-ance with the others. However, the object of this article is not to deny that Christ knew, and sometimes spoke, Greek, but to reinforce the arguments by which we conclude that the vernacular of Palestine was Semitic, and that therefore Christ's teachings were, for the most part, delivered in a different tongue from that in which they have come to us in the Greek Gospels.

By far the greater number of personal and place names connected with Palestine in the NT are of Semitic derivation, but they afford no evidence in relation to our inquiry. The preservation and use of such names would be consistent with a change in the vernacular. Place names are practically permanent; personal names are often sentimentally borrowed from a dead ancestral tongue. Nor would we lay stress on the occurrence of Semitic words, as rabbi, korban, pascha ('passover'), in the Greek text. The men of our Lord's day, whatever dialect they spoke, were the heirs of a religious and social system which had its roots in Hebraism, and of which there were constant reminiscences in the daily use of words belonging to the ancient terminology. But other non-Greek expressions are recorded in connexions which lend them a much greater significance. In Ac 1" we are informed that the Semitic name Akeldama, which was given to a certain field, was in the 'proper tongue' of 'the dwellers at Jerusalem.' Our Lord's words on two occasions are given in Semitic, — TalUha kUmi (Mk 5"), and Ephphatha (7"). On the cross He uttered a cry which might have been a quotation from Ps 22'; but the form preserved in Mk 15^' varies dialectically from the Hebrew of the opening words of that psalm.

These and other Semitic remains preserved in the pages of the NT, even when account has been taken of all place and personal names and single words, as well as of the few phrases, afford but hmited evidence, and are only a few specimens of the Palestinian vernacular. Yet they suffice to show that the dialect was neither ancient Hebrew nor the classical Syriac. It had arisen through corruption of the ancestral tongue, under the influence of surrounding languages, especially Aramaic. Probably it varied considerably in different parts of the Holy Land, and there were ' dialects ' rather than ' a dialect ' of Palestine. But all the evidence tends to the conviction that Christ habitually employed some form of the vernacular in His discourses, and not the aUen language of Greece. G. H. Gwilliam.

LANTERN. — Only Jn 18=, where some form of ' torch' is more probably intended. 'The Greek is phanos, a word not found elsewhere in BibUcal Greek.

LAODICEA was situated in the valley of the Lycus, a tributary of the Maeander in Asia Minor. It was founded by Antiochus ii. about the middle of the 3rd cent. B.C. It was planted in the lower Lycus glen, Colossae being situated in the upper. The Lycus glen was the most frequented path of trade from the interior of the country to the west, and the great road passed right through Laodicea. 'The city was nearly square, and strongly fortified, but dependent for its water supply on an acqueduct 6 miles long. It played a compara-tively small part in the dissemination of Greek culture. Its prosperity advanced greatly under the Romans. It was an important manufacturing centre, for instance, for a soft glossy black wool, which was made into garments of various kinds (cf. Rev 3'*). In connexion with the temple of the Phrygian god Men Karou (13 miles W. of Laodicea) , there grew up a celebrated school of medicine. Its most famous medicines were an ointment made from spice nard, which strengthened the ears, and

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