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.
41
Style and Stylistcs, with Special Reference to Luke
subject matter, that is, with Jewish settings and circumstances described
or implied within each and that they may well be the result of conscious
style- or code-switching of the final redactor of Lk-Acts41.
This interesting hypothesis does not contradict the general fact that
the personal style or expression of an author can nestle itself in all possible
aspects of a language system: phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax,
sentence and larger discourse, structure, semantics, etc. An overall study
of style, that is “stylisticsâ€, needs to examine all levels of language use
of an author to obtain an adequate impression of his/her style. Hence,
the study of the style of a particular NT writing cannot be limited to
the study of Semitisms and related grammatical pecularities, or to the
presence or absence of rhetorical figures of speech42.
3. Stylistics and Statistics
Sophie Antoniadis is to our knowledge the only person who wrote a
complete grammar of the Greek of Luke’s gospel, including a study of its
morphology, vocabulary and syntax. In the final chapter of her valuable
study full of interesting observations, she offers a quite substantial study
of Luke’s style43. However, she clearly doubts whether the stylistics of Luke
can arrive at the same scientific results as the grammar, because style
is something elusive, which cannot be grasped in objective categories.
It is rather a subjective enterprise, based on indications rather than
on patterns44. Here then arises the question how such a qualitative and
personal reality like “style†can be described in an objective and scientific
way45. In any case, the style or the characteristic idiom of an author
can only be described when it is distinguished from other comparable
texts. Therefore Luke’s characteristic usage of language (vocabulary,
syntax, stilistic figures, etc.) needs to be compared carefully with more
or less related writings (e.g. the other Gospels and writings of the New
J.M. Watt, Code-Switching, 93.
41
J.P. Louw, “On Johannine Styleâ€, 5.
42
S. Antoniadis, L’Evangile de Luc. Esquisse de grammaire et de style (Coll. de l’Institut
43
néo-hellénistique de l’université de Paris, 7; Paris 1930) 362-443.
S. Antoniadis, L’Evangile de Luc, 362: “Si la grammaire, qui est une science, conduit
44
ceux que en appliquent les principes à des résultats sensiblement pareils, il n’en est pas ainsi
de la stylistique qui est faite d’un ensemble d’indications plutôt que des règles. Ces indications
éclairent ceux qui aiment pénétrer les nuances de cet élément prèsque insaisissable qui
s’appelle ‘le style’. Or plus la mentalité de l’écrivain est complexe, plus la stylistique varie ses
moyens de recherche. Quant aux conclusions, elles changent avec l’observateurâ€.
J.E. Botha, “Style, Stylisticsâ€.
45
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