Semitic Loan Words in the Gospel of John: Elements of Antilanguage or Points of Contact?

Authors

  • Yevgeny USTINOVICH He works as a free-lance translator/editor and teaches at both the Crimean-American College and the Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Simferopol., Ukraine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29357/issn.2521-179X.2014.15.9

Keywords:

Semitic LoanWords in the Gospel of John, Antilanguage, Article analyzes sociolinguistic as pects of three Semitic words used in the Gospel of John

Abstract

This article analyzes sociolinguistic as pects of three Semitic words used in the
Gospel of John. Since all these words had wellestablished Hellenistic equivalents in the time of John's writing, their use may be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to establish additional points of contact with nonbelieving Jewish readers. In that case, the use of the convergent forms [~abbi,], [Messi,aj], and [~Wsanna,] in the Fourth Gos pel does not support the hypothesis of “antilanguage” in John and makes one reconsider the results of the research based on that concept.

Author Biography

Yevgeny USTINOVICH, He works as a free-lance translator/editor and teaches at both the Crimean-American College and the Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Simferopol.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and German from the Crimean American College and a Master’s degree in Practical Theology from Cincinnati Bible University. He is a Candidate in Germanic Languages and since 2009 has been working on his doctoral dissertation on “Semitisms in the Greek Language of the Gospel of John” through the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit in Leuven, Belgium.

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USTINOVICH, Yevgeny. 2014. “Semitic Loan Words in the Gospel of John: Elements of Antilanguage or Points of Contact?”. Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology, no. 15 (May):9-43. https://doi.org/10.29357/issn.2521-179X.2014.15.9.

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No. 15 (2014): Theological Reflections: Euro-Asian Journal of Theology

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