GREEK

GREEK. As the language of the Septuagint (q.v.), New Testament, and the majority of the Church Fathers (q.v.), Greek enjoys a privileged place among the languages of the Orthodox oikoumene (q.v.). It is the linguistic medium shaped by the long struggle with pagan Hellenism (q.v.), both ancient and modern, and possesses a unique prestige and authority, along with a technically defined theological vocabulary. It was, however, never the unique language of the Church in the East, since Aramaic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Arabic were all languages in use by the 6th c. and earlier. In later centuries, Church Slavic, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, together with the languages of the Orient and the Americas would be added to the list. Greek has, therefore, a kind of “presidency” among the tongues of the Orthodox Church, a primus inter pares (“first among equals”). It provides the rule by which the translations of Scripture and patristic writings (qq.v.) are measured.