The Prestige Language of Christianity in the Book of Acts

Historical Sociolinguistic Approaches to Multilingualism

Series: 

Author:
Sung Min Park
Researching ancient languages is notoriously difficult in sociolinguistics, due to the scarcity of data. This challenge is addressed by utilizing recent sociolinguistic theories and models to investigate the prestige languages used by early Christians in Acts. Drawing on historical documents, archaeology, and inscriptions, this study reconstructs the complex multilingual settings of the time. It reveals how Greek, despite the diverse linguistic landscape, became the dominant language in nearly all official contexts of early Christianity. This work breaks new ground in understanding early Christian communities and their linguistic practices, offering historical sociolinguistic approaches to the study of ancient languages and societies.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-72711-3
Publication:
07 Apr 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-72708-3
Publication:
17 Apr 2025
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Sung Min Park serves as a Research Fellow at McMaster Divinity College, specializing in the interdisciplinary intersection of biblical studies and historical sociolinguistics. His research explores ancient languages and societies, regularly contributing through publications and presentations across both fields.
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Prestige Language of First-Century Christianity
 1 Defining the Issue and Problem
 2 Outline and Contribution of the Study

1 The Multilingualism of First-Century Christianity
 1 Introduction
 2 The Multilingual Environment of the New Testament World
 3 The Prestige Language of First-Century Christianity
 4 Conclusion

2 Historical Sociolinguistic Approaches to the Prestige Language of First-Century Christianity
 1 Introduction
 2 Historical Sociolinguistic Approaches to the Multilingualism of First-Century Christianity
 3 The New Proposal of the Historical Sociolinguistic Approach to the Inquiry of the Codes of Peter and Paul
 4 Conclusion

3 Macro Sociolinguistics: Linguistic Ideologies of the Roman Empire
 1 Introduction
 2 The Macro Context of the Roman State
 3 The Linguistic Ideologies of the Institutional Communities
 4 Conclusion

4 Meso Sociolinguistics: Linguistic Ideologies of the Communities of Practice in the Greco-Roman World
 1 Introduction
 2 The Meso Contexts of the Greco-Roman World
 3 The Sociolinguistic Landscape of the Regional Communities
 4 Conclusion

5 Micro Sociolinguistics: Peter and Paul’s Code Choices and the Prestige Religious Language of First-Century Christianity in the Book of Acts
 1 Introduction
 2 The Plurilingualism of Peter, Paul and Other Church Leaders
 3 The Prestige Language of First-Century Christianity
 4 Conclusion

6 Conclusion

Appendix1: The Geographical and Functional Distributions of Languages
Appendix2: Historical Figures’ Social Networks and Plurilingualism
Appendix3: The Density of Peter’s Social Networks with Other Historical Figures
Appendix4: The Density of Paul’s Social Networks with Other Historical Figures
Appendix5: The Code Choices of the Historical Figures in the Book of Acts
Bibliography
Index of Modern Authors
Index of Ancient Sources
The target audiences include the scholars who specialized in biblical studies (New Testament), ancient history (early Christianity and Greco-Roman world), ancient language (Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin), and sociolinguistics.
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