Expert: Maria - 4/19/2009

Question
Hello,

Can you please articulate on how the original New Testament written in Koine Greek would translate to Latin. Was there lots lost? How does the Greek-Latin translation compare to Latin-English translation?

Thank you very much,

Joe

Answer
Hello,

the New Testament (1st.century AD ) written in Koiné Greek - i.e. the so-called “Koiné dialektos”( literally “common language”), based chiefly on the Attic dialect and spoken by speakers of different languages in the eastern Mediterranean area from the time of Alexander's conquest as from 334 BC when he led his forces into Asia - was later translated into Latin by St. Jerome, the most learned of the Latin Fathers ( 4th.century AD).

The Latin language used by Jerome was obviously  Late Latin, i.e. the form of Latin used from the third century AD onwards, when Late Latin  had just superseded Classical Latin we read e.g. in Caesar or Cicero.

I have however to point out that the Gospel according to  Matthew seems to have been  originally written in Hebrew or the Aramaic vernacular of Palestine, and afterwards translated into Koiné  Greek, either by Matthew himself or by some person unknown, though  there is little ground for adopting such a theory.

As for “how the original New Testament written in Koiné Greek would translate to Latin. Was there lots lost? How does the Greek-Latin translation compare to Latin-English translation?” please note that:

1-To state that Latin translation is a faithful accurate translation where nothing has been lost,it would need to compare all the  27 books of the New Testament (from the Four Gospels to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's epistles and the Book of Revelation, also known as The Apocalypse) with the Latin  translation.
It’s obvious that this would take too much time!!

2-Likewise, if I had to compare  the Greek-Latin translation to Latin-English translation, this really should take too much time: which is not the purpose of this 100% free site where nobody  receives any fee.


In short, your question is too broad, indeed, and it would need too much time to do an accurate analysis of each Greek/Latin word, as you certainly know!!

Regards,
Maria