Common Greek

In yesterday's post I mentioned the Koine or "common"Greek in which the New Testament was written.  The Koine dialect was the one commonly in use in the known world during the Hellenistic and Roman historical periods.  The word is a feminine form of the Greek word "koinos (κοινώς)," translated as "common."  It was the language of the common people and the lingua franca, the language used in common by the entire Mediterranean area, the language everyone understood and spoke even if their primary language was something else, similar to the status of Hindi in modern India.


Classical Greek had several dialects.  The dialect spoken in Athens was called Attic.  The Ionic dialect was spoken in the Greek city states across the Aegean Sea from Athens.  Koine Greek developed from the Attic and Ionic dialects.  Because it was the dialect spoken by Alexander the Great, Koine was spread throughout the known world.  Many Christians believe that this was in preparation for God's presentation of the Gospel to the world.