The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
[137] The provinces of Asia Minor all retained their ancient
languages at the time of St. Paul. Latin and Greek were the
language of society, but the mass of the people all spoke the
original language of the country. In the time of St. Jerome, four
centuries after St. Paul, Celtic was still spoken in Galatia as
well as in Gaul. St. Paul must then have heard a language
identical with that of Wales and the western districts of Ireland
and Scotland, as is shown by Bishop Lightfoot in his _Galatians_,
pp. 240-44, by his analysis of the remains of the Galatian
language which ancient writers have handed down to us. Texier, a
modern French traveller, thought that he could even trace Celtic
features in the present inhabitants of the district. Cf.
Lightfoot's _Galatians_, p. 12. It is very probable that a careful
study of the existing language of Galatia, when treated according
to the methods of modern scientific philology, would disclose
Celtic elements. When Celtic elements survived in England and
France, it is not likely they died out in Galatia. We know at any
rate that the other original languages of Asia Minor have not
perished without leaving some traces behind. There is a learned
Review published at Smyrna from time to time. It is called the
_Museum of the Evangelical School of Smyrna_. In the volume
published for 1880-84 there is an article of more than 200 pages
treating of the ancient Cappadocian and Lycaonian dialects, and
the traces of them which remain. On p. 71 there is a notice of the
accuracy with which Acts xiv. 11 mentions the speech or dialect of
the men of Lystra, which Mr. Hogarth, in the article in the
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, April 1890, p. 157, to which we
have already referred, identifies with the Phrygian dialect spoken
till the sixth century of our era. Mr. Hogarth copied several
inscriptions in this ancient Lycaonian or Phrygian speech. See
also an English article by Professor W. M. Ramsay in Kühn's
_Journal of Comparative Philology_ for 1887, where he treats of
this Lycaonian speech, and avows his belief (p. 382) that
Græco-Roman civilisation and language did not begin to affect the
rural parts of Northern and Eastern Phrygia till A.D. 100, long
after St. Paul's day. The mass of the people spoke nothing but the
original Phrygian. The reader who wishes to investigate what I
consider the bearing of this subject on the gift of tongues should
consult another article in English by Professor Ramsay, styled
_Laodicea Combusta_, in the Transactions of the German
Archæological Institute, vol. xiii., p. 248 (Athens, 1888).
[138] See Lightfoot's _Galatians_, pp. 22 and 172.
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