As, in the end, we claim that Lk. i. 34 f. comes from the hand of St. Luke, we may perhaps be permitted to express a personal preference for the WH. punctuation. St. Luke’s admitted fondness for OT. phraseology points strongly in this direction, while the theory of an original Aramaic document gains no increased support, but rather the contrary, as time goes by. On the one hand, Harnack has convincingly shown how much the Greek of Lk. i, ii owes to St. Luke’s craftsmanship (cf. _Luke the Phys._, pp. 102 ff.), and, on the other hand, the argument from “Semiticisms” becomes less cogent the more we know of the papyri (cf. Moulton, _Proleg._, pp. 13‐18. See also Gr. ii. 12‐20). Aramaic oral tradition may underlie cc. i, ii, but the probability is that the Greek of these chapters owes its OT. flavour to the more or less deliberate attempt of St. Luke to create an appropriate archaic atmosphere. 52 The various computations are drawn from the _Concordance to the Greek Testament_ by Dr. W. F. Moulton and Dr. A. S. Geden. In the case of St. Luke’s Gospel words occurring in i. 34 f. are omitted. If these verses are Lukan, this underestimates the Lukan evidence. It would, however, be begging the question to include these verses in the present examination. Quotations and doubtful cases (except where mentioned) are also omitted. 53 But cf. Dalman, _Words of Jesus_, p. 24, quoted by Moulton, _Proleg._, p. 131. 54 Cf. _The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament_, by Moulton and Milligan, p. 65 a. See also the note at the foot of p. 131 in the _Prolegomena_: “This phrase ... occurs in the Semitic atmosphere alone....” 55 εἶπεν πρός and εἷπεν δέ (see later) are both strongly characteristic of St. Luke’s style, but εἶπεν with the dative is also very frequent. Taking the two works together, εἶπεν πρός and εἶπεν with the dat. are almost equally common (εἶπ. w. dat. having the greater number of instances). In the G. the proportion of εἶπεν with the dat. to εἶπεν πρίς is 5 : 4. In Acts it is 4 : 5. 56 The italics are his. 57 Cf. Moulton and Milligan, p. 127 a. 58 Cf. Harnack’s _Luke the Physician_, p. 104; Moulton, _Proleg._, p. 18. 59 So Thayer‐Grimm, p. 117, where it is pointed out that the same idiom appears in the Latin, in _cognoscere_, Ovid, _Met._ iv. 596. 60 _v._ Moulton and Milligan, op. cit., p. 127 a. 61 So L. T. WH. In both cases WH. give ἐπεί δέ in the margin. 62 There are “261 words which occur in the New Testament only in the gospel of St. Luke” (Harnack, _Date of Acts_, p. 2). Plummer (ICC., St. Lk., lii) speaks of 312 such words, but says that 52 are doubtful and 11 occur in quotations. Including Acts, according to Plummer, the number is 750 or (including doubtful cases) 851. 63 P. 59.