Greek Primacy
Encyclopedia
Greek primacy is a scholarly term in general use for the dominance of Hellenism
Hellenism
Hellenism may refer to:*Hellenic studies*Hellenistic civilization*Hellenistic period, in Greek antiquity*Hellenistic Greece*Hellenization, the spread of Greek culture over foreign peoples*Hellenistic philosophy in the Hellenistic period and late antiquity...

 at certain periods of history. In the context of the language of the New Testament
Language of the New Testament
The mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Conquests of Alexander the Great till the evolution of Byzantine Greek The mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a...

, "Greek primacy" is a Wikipedia neologism
Wikipedia neologism
A Wikipedia neologism is a neologism evidenced in its introduction to a language by edits on Wikipedia.This usage is to be distinguished from the observation that words beginning with the stem "wiki-" are themselves neologisms following the model of software developer Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb,...

 (Wikipedia 2006, print 2007) for the majority view that the New Testament or its sources were originally written in Koine Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

. It is generally accepted by most scholars today that the New Testament of the Bible was written primarily, if not completely, in Koine or common Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. A small number of scholars argue instead for "Aramaic primacy
Aramaic primacy
The hypothesis of Aramaic primacy holds that the original text of the New Testament was not written in Greek, as held by the majority of scholars, but in the Aramaic language, which was the primary language of Jesus and his Twelve Apostles....

" (also a neologism) or "Hebrew primacy" (another neologism) for some books, typically Matthew.

Use in socio-historical studies

Greek primacy is a term found originally in socio-historical studies, for the cultural dominance of Hellenism
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...

.

Use by Aramaic primacy advocates

The recent use of the term "Greek primacy" to relate to the consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...

 of scholars that the original language of the New Testament is Greek is largely found in sources advocating the minority view (Aramaic primacy) such as Bauscher (2007) and Lataster (2009). The first use in Wikipedia (2006, creation of this article http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greek_primacy&oldid=44336282) goes back before the first confirmed use in print (2007). As such, the term may be an example of a Wikipedia neologism.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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