The Semitisms of Acts I.-XV. : a critical and linguistic study

Abstract

The general aim of the present study Is to assess the nature, significance, and probable origin of the elements in Acts 1-15, which have been, or may be, styled 'Semitisms'. It does not seek to prove that Acts 1-15 either in whole or in part is a translation of an Aramaic (or perhaps, Hebrew) source, nor does it claim that all the phenomena in question may be explained in terms of the influence upon the style of the author of Acts of the diction of the Septuagint. Rather, it is an attempt to reconcile the plain fact of the presence in Acts 1-15 of what have been called 'septuagintalisms', with the other fact--hardly less clear—of the existence in those same chapters of what we might term 'hard-core' or 'residual' Semitisms.