Adelbert Denaux, «Style and Stylistcs, with Special Reference to Luke.», Vol. 19 (2006) 31-51
Taking Saussure’s distinction between language (langue) and speech
(parole) as a starting point, the present article describes a concept of ‘style’
with special reference to the use of a given language system by the author of
Luke-Acts. After discussing several style definitions, the question is raised
whether statistics are helpful for the study of style. Important in the case of
Luke is determining whether his use of Semitisms is a matter of style or of
language, and to what extent he was influenced by ancient rhetoric. Luke’s
stylistics should focus on his preferences (repetitions, omissions, innovations)
from the range of possibilities of his language system (“Hellenistic Greek”),
on different levels (words, clauses, sentences, rhetorical-narrative level and
socio-rhetorical level), within the limits of the given grammar, language
development and literary genre.
40 Adelbert Denaux
mentation) approach to style, on the other, is broadly a difference between
interactive and determinist theories respectively. […] … to define style as a
series of socially or topically irrelevant redactional changesâ€36.
Hence, according to Henderson, one can distinguish between
three methodological approaches to style definition: on the one hand
a classical, rhetorical and sociolinguistic approach, on the other hand
a redaction-critical and neo-rhetorical approach (that looks for the
argumentation of the text). Methodologically, Henderson’s view on style
implies an adapted vocabulary. Concerning the Didache, he starts from
a multilingual context and introduces the concepts of Code-switching,
i.e. “alternations of linguistic varieties within the same conversationâ€37
and “style-switchingâ€, i.e. “which goes beyond the style-switching of
monolinguals and allow[s] individuals a flexibility of expression that could
not be obtained in a single systemâ€38. As is well known, Luke’s Greek is
characterised by a remarkable adaptability or versatility: his preface (Lk
1,1-4) is modelled on classical patterns; the infancy story (Lk 1,5-2,52) is
written in de highly semitizised Greek; the subsequent chapter (Lk 3) he
seems to use a good literary Koine Greek39. Jonathan W. Watt has used the
model of code-switching, developed in modern socio-linguistic studies, to
explain this phenomenon in Luke-Acts. He states that: “Semitic style, or
register, does not appear consistently throughout Lk and Ac, and it has
been impossible to ascertain with certainty which Semitic features Luke
produced, created, borrowed from other speakers, or retained from his
sources. Yet their presence in Lk and Ac gives the overall effect of vividly
creating a Jewish orientation for many of the accounts. The Semitisms in
this ancient document function quite like the code- switching observed
in modern bilingual situationsâ€40. He thinks that the increased frequency
of Semitisms in many sections of Luke-Acts may well correlate with
I.H. Henderson, Style-Switching, 196.
36
I.H. Henderson, Style-Switching, 199.
37
I.H. Henderson, Style-Switching, 199. More particularly, he points to two categories of
38
“style-switching†in Did: Greek/Aramaic (Hebrew) CS, and quotation and “non-quotationâ€.
Moreover, he refers to the variation between “passages-tu†and “passages-vousâ€, that J.-P.
Audet, La Didachè (Paris 1958) has distinguished and interpreted from a redaction-critical
point of view.
This has already been remarked by A. Plummer, The Gospel According to St. Luke
39
(ICC; Edinburgh 1896; 1922 [= 1964]) xlix: “The author of the Third Gospel and of the
Acts is the most versatile of all N.T. writers. He can be as Hebraistic as the LXX, and
as free from Hebraisms as Plutarch. And, in the main, whether intentionally or not, he is
Hebraistic in describing Hebrew society, and Greek in describing Greek societyâ€.
J.M. Watt, Code-Switching in Luke and Acts (Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and
40
Semiotics, 31; New York etc. 1997) 92.