35 Style and Stylistcs, with Special Reference to Luke 2. A Definition of Style The stylistics of NT writings is still in its infancy, J.E. Botha stated at the beginning of the nineties16. At the beginning of the 21st Century, the situation does not seem to be much better. A scientific description of “style” is not easy, because most descriptions of style and even the concept of style are notoriously vague17. D. Crystal and D. Davy distinguish four uses of the notion of style in the literature on stylistics: 1. in reference ‘to some or all of the language habits of one person’, 2. in reference ‘to some or all of the language habits of a group of people at one time’, 3. with an ‘evaluative sense’ (e.g. ‘She has a very refined style in her writing’) and 4. applied only to literary language”18. J.P. Louw can describe style simply as “the manner in which something is said”19. By this he limits style to the domain of spoken language (“is said”), and situates it within the dichotomy of form (“the manner”) and content (“something”). Putting style on the ‘form’ side is very common in literary criticism and has an age long history, although an ‘organic’ view of style will insist upon the inseparable unity of content (or meaning) and surface form. The dichotomy form/content finally derives from the distinction between res et verba in classical rhetoric and even persists in modern linguistics which treats texts in terms of signifié and signifiant20. Style, however, has not only to do with spoken language, but also with written texts. It even transcends the domain of (spoken or written) language and comprises all vital expressions of human beings, activities or art (architecture, sculpture, film, television, graphic arts, fashion, literature). Moreover, style is not a property of individuals, but also of groups (youngster Cf. J.E. Botha, “Style, stylistics and the study of the New Testament”, Neotestamentica 16 24 (1990) 173-84; “Style in the New Testament. The Need for Serious Reconsideration”, JStNT 43 (1991) 71-87. S. Chatman (ed.), Literary Style: A Symposium (Oxford 1971) xi: “As everyone 17 knows, ‘style’ is an ambiguous term. Among other things, it has been used to refer to the idiosyncratic manner of an individual or group; or to a small-scale formal property of texts (in the language alone, or additionally in other attendant systems like meter); or to a kind of extra or heightened expressiveness, present in non-literary language as well; or to a decorum based on social or cultural contexts; or to any one a number of other concepts”. D. Crystal & D. Davy, Investigating English Style (London 1969) 9-10. 18 J.P. Louw, “On Johannine Style”, Neotestamentica 20 (1986) 5-12, at 5. 19 R. Barthes, Style and Its Image, in S. Chatman (ed.), Literary Style: A Symposium 20 (Oxford 1971) 3: “Res (or the demonstrative materials of the discourse) depends on Inventio, or research into what one can say about a subject (Quaestio); on Verba depends Elocutio (or the transformation of these materials into a verbal form). This Elocutio is, roughly, our ‘style’ ”.