The Case for Modern Pronunciation for Biblical Greek (Neohellenic vs Erasmian vs Reconstructed) 

Great Presentation!!! Finally, someone who makes sense out of a chaos! As a Greek native speaker who fights over 40 years with professors about the Erasmian vs Modern Greek approach, allow me please to add few points to your excellent presentation. Erasmian pronunciation is useful only to foreign speakers in learning the spelling of the words. My first point is that although tape and digital recorders didn't exist during Homeric, Classical or Hellenistic times up to last century, it's not true that recorders didn't exist. This is an invention which didn't need external inventor. It's called Generational Tradition. And simply is how a language is "recorded" and transferred from parents to kids in their brains through out history. The Greek Language is probably the only language in the world (along with the Chinese) that is alive and continually spoken and written for at least 4,000 and 2,800 years respectively. Maybe for a foreign speaking person the Homeric dialect of Odyssey and Iliad or the Attic dialect of Socrates, Plato, Aristotele, or our Tragic Writers to be considered by many as a dead language. WRONG!!!! In our language today we used 85% of the Homeric language with the additions and simplifications that take place in a living language. To your point that there are over 17 million Greeks today that speak the same language as St Paul in Athens and have the Bible written in their language, really don't know what is the proper pronunciation ? !!!! A third point; maybe we don't talk in our everyday life as Socrates or Demosthenes but if someone could read the text we are writing for our Saints for the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church will see that Greeks through out the centuries and the 2024 years of the NT have produced works linguistically equal or higher than that of Homer, Pindar and Demosthenes in Attic dialect. Mr. Hackett your reasoning is perfect and thank you for helping people approach this important issue finally with realism and common sense. Keep up your excellent work!

The Greek Orthodox Church has been speaking it non-stop, they would know best.

I met a Christian about two months ago who is fluent in modern Greek. He convinced me to change to modern pronunciation.

As a self-taught learner, I've been using modern-ish pronunciation because there are online tools where I can copy and paste individual words into the box and get the pronunciation. Also, I use Duolingo to learn modern Greek, and that obviously uses a modern translation. But as a self-taught student, I don't have to answer to anyone. I learned Hebrew first, and learned that trick for Hebrew.

Thank you. I lived in Cyprus for over 6 years and was often told by brothers there that the Cypriot Greek is closer to the ancient.

I'm Eastern Orthodox and engage regularly with Greeks who use Greek daily. I've observed that among those who read the Bible, the consensus is to first grasp Modern Greek and then integrate the specific Biblical vocabulary and grammar on that foundation. The distinctions between the two are so minute that adopting a specialized pronunciation with limited applications seems like it could be more practical. Since most Biblical terms are still prevalent in Modern Greek, focusing on mastering the contemporary language seems more beneficial.

It's interesting how the different forms of Greek resemble the different forms of English, isn't it? For contemporary Greek people, reading the Greek New Testament would be like reading Reformation-era English translations - some words may not be familiar at first, but their meaning can be easily found through their surrounding context. Also, on another note, I find that a Spanish accent comes naturally to me when I speak passages of the Greek New Testament with modern pronunciation - it's fascinating to hear how similar the two accents are.

A. Haire Forster's Paper "The Pronunciation of Greek in New Testament Times" almost a hundred years ago already highlighted that the Modern pronunciation is likely close to Koine.

I’m on a camping trip and don’t have my laptop, so I’m forced to reply using just my thumbs! 🤨 I wholeheartedly agree, brother. My introduction to NT Greek was using Machen”s text, and so I was taught Erasmian and used it for years. But then I dialogued online with a Greek soaker from Cyprus, and he made the case for Modern (Historical), so I familiarized myself with Modern. Some time after that, I encountered 3 Greeks at a coffee shop. (I think I may have told you that story before.) After chatting with them, I made the switch to Modern. Like you said, it just makes sense.

I experimented with modern pronunciation years ago but quickly switched back to Erasmian (w/stress accent) when I discovered that Modern Greek made it much harder to master the written spellings. This was impressed on my mind when I learned Spanish at the age of 34 in 1981. I was shocked to learn that I was able to spell better in Spanish than my native English. I can instantly pronounce correctly every word in Spanish, but still have to make frequent use of a dictonary for the pronunciation of unfamiliar English words. I recommend W. Sidney Allen's VOX GRAECA 3rd ed, which offers historical data and practical advice.

I’m only in 1st year biblical Greek, but I actually bought a modern Greek Bible and was thinking the same thing and now you’ve got me even more interested. Thank you!

The Orthodox Church has letters and prayers (not all of which are in the Bible) written in Koine back to the time of the Patristic Fathers. They've been saying and chanting them NON STOP this whole time, and the Greek priests were the language teachers who kept the language alive during the Ottoman occupation. This is a no-brainer.

I was convinced of your conclusion reading Constantine Campbell's Advances in the study of Greek. Chapter 9 it's a good concise case for this argument.

I think the main “practical” point that I would add is that you can learn Greek through the same means people learn other languages. Using modern Greek pronunciation allows me to watch movies and videos in Greek in the same pronunciation system as when I study the New Testament. Watching Aladdin or an animated Star Wars film in your target language is not possible in reconstructed or Erasmian pronunciation.

Greetings from Athens Greece!!Thank you for the detailed presentation!!!Very accurate, indeed!!

Ευχαριστώ! Εκτιμώ πολύ το βίντεό σας. Καλή δουλειά!!

Thank you for your studious endeavors toward a plain argument that seamlessly combines historical evidence and common sense!

Currently facing this very question myself - really glad I cam across this, ever so timely! Thank you for your hard work and service.

Great video, sir! I am in total agreement with you on the use of the Modern Greek/Neohellenic pronunciation, and not just because I'm Greek myself. While I respect the meticulous work behind all the various reconstructed pronunciations of Ancient Greek, to me at least, they come across as artificial and forced when put into practice. Language relies on actually hearing sounds and repeating them, the human brain is wired to do so. To extrapolate the sounds of human speech, exactly, with all the subtle nuances and inflections and tones, from written texts alone is next to impossible. So, one can never know exactly how accurate he/she is being to the original pronunciation when trying to use one of these reconstructed phonologies. One must constantly look over one's shoulder, so to speak, doubting whether or not that eta was too long, that acute accent was too high. How can you be sure without a native speaker or voice recording to correct you? I understand we have evidences from various ancient texts outlining, for example, the difference between long vowels and short vowels, the nature of voiced/unvoiced plosives and aspirates, pitch accent and meter. However, these only paint a rough picture, like disconnected pieces of a puzzle, they are simply not enough to complete said puzzle and fully restore the voices of people like Homer, Socrates, Plato and Plutarch. In my humble opinion, I think it is wiser to leave the data where they lie - in written print or carved stone etchings - appreciate them, consider them, but take them no further than that. Instead, we can use the one phonology of Greek that we have available, the one used consistently amongst all native Greek speakers, the one we have countless audio recordings of, the only verifiably correct system of pronunciation at least for one period of time in the language's long history: Modern Greek. God bless you, brother, and the whole world over. 🌎 ❤

My Greek professor would pound the podium when he taught us and yell, "Erasmus is dead! He's dead I say!" He would always start with those two sentences. I've used the modern pronunciation since I first started learning. However, I use Kantor's with my children, or something similar to it (modern with /y/ for υ/οι and something like his η; I don't have a keymap for the IPA). The reasons are fairly simple. Modern pronunciation, while very close and grammar very close, breaks ancient grammar by making key parts of grammar indistinguishable. Modern Greek has changed those features as it evolved. To put modern Greek into the Koine era, the argument has to use a bad method of finding those dialects of ancient Greek that showed modern features, select those. Then ignore where they blatantly contradict it and pick another dialect and select those places it agrees and ignore where it doesn't. You can get modern Greek with that, but the resulting pronunciation wouldn't be intelligible. I believe that languages should be taught as a spoken language and that people who don't learn it as a spoken language end up not understanding it as well as they could with lower retention. Look at the number of seminarians who took Greek and cannot read Greek and make terrible mistakes from the pulpit, not on pronunciation but on the language itself (e.g. the sermons on the words for love in Jesus' reinstatement of Peter). I want my children to learn it, and I don't want to them to learn it as badly as pastors. That, incidentally, is Dr. Kantor's chief plug for a reconstructed pronunciation. If you have that conviction, and I do, then you must either use a reconstructed pronunciation or use modern Greek pronunciation with the demotic language and work your way back (probably through Katharevousa). If we only learn the language as a written language, then we should use modern. However, if we adopt Dr. Kantor's belief about how people best learn languages, then we should use a reconstructed pronunciation. So I use Dr. Kantor's pronunciation with them. I read the NT aloud when praying with modern pronunciation. We sing with modern pronunciation, but I teach them to speak with Kantor's, knowing full well they will eventually switch entirely to modern.

100% agreement here! And the modern pronunciation has a nice flow to it. Thanks!😊👍🙏📖

I have no idea why the algorithm decided to place several videos on this topic into my feed today, but I'm so grateful that it did, and that your video was included. I've heard many arguments for the use of various pronunciations for koine Greek but your case for using the historical/modern pronunciation being centered around the fact that the modern pronunciation as we know it today was largely already coming into use in the time of the writing of the New Testament scriptures has convinced me. The only exception to this is that I think that there may be some value to knowing the historical facts of ancient pronunciation, even as knowing the facts of "original pronunciation" for early modern English language does inform us as to various word plays employed by such authors as Shakespeare, given that some of the clever rhyme-based juxtapositions that he used brings forward subtle nuances that are lost in our late modern pronunciation. In reading the scriptures in the original tongues, I've never considered how pronunciation might affect interpretative nuances and use of word play, particularly in Paul's highly educated form, and now I'll be looking out for this. Χριστός Ανέστη!

The Shakespeare analogy is an interesting one. Although there are some points where the analogy falls down. When one gets used to the "reconstructed" pronunciation, an interesting thing happens when you are trying to read the ancient Greek manuscripts and participate in textual criticism. I have personally noticed, having internalised the reconstructed pronunciation, that it really does create this internal question about "how do you spell that word again" and the places where spelling becomes confusing, are the same places where the scribes would tend to make scribal spelling errors. So although the spelling issue is a minor frustration, I seem to have internalised an ability to more easily "gloss over" and/or "detect" the spelling related variants. Again on the Shakespeare analogy, I do wonder if using the reconstructed pronunciation might from time to time improve our ability to better pick up where rhyme and meter appears in the biblical text, and conversely I wonder if using Erasmian might obscure our ability to pick up where ryme and meter appears in the bible. So yes, a good analogy for sure!

To anyone who comments that κοινή ελληνική as you name it, is a dead language, is used from the Greek Orthodox Church every day, most high hierarchs use also to speak and write on that form even now. Practically it's been used again during the Greek dictatorship, we call it Καθαρεύουσα, it's not 100% the same as κοινή ελληνική των αλεξανδρινων χρόνων, but very similar.

Nice! I’m glad i started studying modern Greek instead of biblical. Greeks today can somewhat read the Koine New Testament, im just gonna work backwards

Nice vid & looking sharp 👍👍

loved top hear this I've recently started using Duolingo to learn greek in modern pronunciation.

Okay, Stephen, the jury is back... I'm going with modern pronunciation from here on out. Thanks for building a great case. The only problem I had with modern pronunciation (apart from the historical correctness question) was all the EE sounds and the difficulty of remembering when to use omicron and when to use omega. But if you are saying that this pronunciation dates back that far, then I'm in.

One argument for Erasmian is that the vowel lettera have a one to one correspondence with their sounds, making it easier to learn spelling. Today, however, I heard the word φανηροω pronounced and sounded like it could be spelled φανηραω. So the correspondence is not as tight as we may be led to believe. Homonyms may be unavoidable.

Εὖγε ἀδελφέ, χαίρω ὅτι εὐδοκεῖς χρῆσθαι τῇ νεοελληνικῇ λαλιᾷ.

Thank you for the link to Zachariou’s book. Please read Prometheus’ longish review. I should be interested in your view.

Superb presentation

You make a very good case. The value of having millions of living, native speakers of Modern Greek shouldn't be dismissed.

Ha! I've been using modern pronunciation ever since my Greek pastor made fun of my for Erasmian.

Why don't people simply ask the Greeks?????? They have thousands of years of philology, and an unbroken tradition. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, or build your own bicycle.

Thank you for this. I’m glad I made the choice to learn modern pronunciation even if it’s less popular for theology. Do you recommend any channels that teach Biblical Greek with a modern pronunciation?

Thanks for the video, you made some great points! As an Eastern Christian, who lives daily in the Greek world I use Κοινή Ελληνική as well as Νέα Ελληνικά. A little-known fact is the fact that a few of our very old Monasteries never ceased using Κοινή Ελληνική. We know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yes, there may be a couple of minor nuance pronunciations, but the language is basically the same. Not long ago, I was reading a book that belonged to a Bishop 150 years ago it was written in Κοινή! The language of Κοινή never died, over the years some words meant the same and others took on a slightly different meaning. "Αἷμα Κοινή " is the same as "Αίμα Νέα ελληνικά", translation blood. I hope your videos make a difference in the Western World. By the way, I am impressed with your pronunciation of Κοινή. Ο Θεός να σ' ευλογεί

The only reasonable and vise decision!

I could imagine the use of Greek in church has helped to slow language changes in Greek. Interesting that English more or less stabilized after the Reformation, when the vernacular started to be used in church.

Thank you

How can you say what is the exact pronunciation anyway. How is English pronounced today? Like in America or England or Australia or South Africa or Ireland or Jamaica, all over people pronounce it differently.

Cool video, One question did they take into account regional differences in pronouncing words? The gospels note that within a one or two days walk affects one’s way of speaking. Example Peter’s dialog in the court yard during Jesus’s trial. Note words today in English like tomato got to the south in the states hear it said one way then go to London, ( perhaps 100 years ago);and compare the western side of town then to the eastern cockney accent. Just curious.

👏👏👏 Thank you! ευχαριστώ!

I was screwed at seminary learning erasmian. How should I go about learning Modern/Neohellenic? What books and websites and RU-vid videos do you recommend to learn modern greek pronunciation? Did Steven Anderson's going back to the Greek documentary help you reach this conclusion, Stephen?

I just noticed a typo: Recontructed should be Reconstructed. Have you seen "NT Greek Pronunciation: Why I'm switching from Erasmian" by Biblical Mastery Academy? Dr. Darryl Burling is switching to Modern Greek pronunciation.

Good case if you want to speak Biblical Greek. But who does? I tried to learn modern pronunciation and was confused and distracted by multiple letters having the same sound, and other issues. To the person in the pew, Erasmian pronunciation is preferred because (1) easier to learn, (2) most easily available Greek resources use Erasmean pronunciation, (3) easier pronunciation scheme, and (4) easier to learn English words derived from Greek. I want to read the Bible in Greek, and for that, Erasmian is the best option.

There are two issues at hand: 1) historical truth 2) practical choices Zachariou's thesis is absurd: he mixes up timelines and gives partial information to support the absurd thesis that Classical Greek is pronounced as Modern Greek. While many of the sounds of Modern Greek appear at different time periods and regions of Greek, claiming that the whole system of Greek (that is, that every day pronunciation for most Greeks in the 5th and 4th centuries BC) was virtually identical to that of modern Greek is simply false, and a lot of serious scholarship (Cantor's included) proves that with ample documentation. Zachariou's work isn't half as serious. However, none of that means that people shouldn't use the modern pronunciation, which has the advantage of being based on an actual spoken version of Greek, and thus sounds recognizably as a living language. The problem with most restored pronunciations is that they are based off theoretical principles and are applied by people with little talent for accents, foreign pronunciations, and so on... and end up just sounding artificial. There are many advantages to using either the restored or the modern pronunciation. Ultimately the choice is an aesthetical, ideological or political one. And also a practical one, since it's easier and less problematic to choose MG pronunciation and be done with it. Indeed it is also "close enough" to Palestinian koine that one might not see why it would be useful to make a few of those other distinctions. And yet, my quarrel is with Zachariou's main claims, which don't deserve this kind of publicity. I think I misunderstood your point that "the modern pronunciation was being used in other parts of the Mediterranean". But it's not really correct; While some vowels and consonants in some parts of the Mediterranean were being pronunced more or less the same way as they are in Modern Greek, this isn't true of the system. That is to say that, in some parts iota and eta where the same, but in those same parts ypsilon was similar to οι but not to ι, aspirates hadn't become fricative, and in other parts other statements were true. But not the whole system. This data manipulation is the basis for Zachariou's attempt at a historical refutation, but the information he gives is partial and therefore misleading. One example: saying that οι and υ are being confused (in a specific region within a specific timeframe) then stating that υ and ι are confused by speakers a century later in a different region, then concluding that υ and ι were pronounced the same. I don't know whether it's bad scholarship or just plain deceit. It's more or less like saying that 16th century English pronunciation of -ear is the same in Shakespeare's time as in modern times because somewhere in Ireland it might have been 200 years later, then claiming the same for another distinct sound in an entirely different context. It's simply nonsense. But the way we look at ancient historical data makes it seem that, because it's so ancient, 200 years or 2000 km isn't that big of a deal. Not to mention the complete disregard for contextual phonological changes. If one is to pronounce Greek with the modern pronunciation, it's easier to accept that one is using the current pronunciation to pronounce something that was necessarily different. There's no need to sugarcoat it and pretend it is actual historical fact. As I said, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with using the modern Greek pronunciation (I say this as a MG speaker who loves MG culture and literature and considers the whole of Greek culture from antiquity to the present as a continuum). But choosing to do so has no base in historical data, unless manipulated.

Hmm. I agree with you regarding biblical greek pronunciation as I completely despise the Erasmian pronunciation. However, I do have to mention one issue with you assertion about Shakespeare. It is difficult to say that someone should only learn modern english version of shakespeare, because much is lost in terms of the poetry. Considering the fact that Shakespeares purpose was art, rather than transmitting a spiritual truth, there is certainly value in learning Shakespeare in the original pronunciation. The same is even more true for middle english, such as Chaucer. The modern english versions simply don't do it justice. It's an interesting topic though.

Totally agree

Christophe Rico, from the Polis Institute in Jerusalem, advocates a living language approach with early high koine pronunciation. Early high koine is close to erasmian except for 3 consonants. Early high koine is a historical pronunciation at the beginning of the koine era when the pronunciation matched the spelling. In modern pronunciation the word for you plural (ὑμεῖς) is pronounced the same as we (ἡμεῖς). In modern Greek, they invented a different word for you (εσείς) to solve this ambiguity. Choosing a pronunciation has benefits and drawbacks. It seemed to me that early high koine had the most advantages.

Chaucer would be a better example than Shakespeare, as his work was written before the Great Vowel Shift in English, unlike Shakespeare, who lived at the tail end of that Shift. Understanding how the shift happened makes it easier to reconstruct intuitively, and it brings Chaucer's poetry to life. Likewise Greek has undergone several significant vowel shifts and the spelling differences between Greek vowels reflects real historical differences in pronunciation, differences elided by the vowel mergers of Modern Greek. I am for reform of the inaccuracies of "Erasmian" pronunciation, but been with its flaws, it's a better pedagogical tool to learners who are not already familiar with modern Greek and it better allows use of lost features of the Greek language, like pitch accent, than a Modern (falsely called historical) pronunciation can give. I personally try to use a reconstructed pronunciation after learning from an instructor trying to teach from a modern pronunciation, and I find the modern pronunciation more a hindrance than a help.

Erasmian pronunciation sounds like an English speaker learning Spanish for the first time. It does not roll off the tongue naturally. The words should flow together like modern pronunciation.

Are you talking about Dr Daniel Zacharias? Thanks for reading my comment.

When I traveled to Greece I tried to use my Koine Greek and it didn't work for me. When I was in Israel my biblical Hebrew was an asset. I could talk and read some. Just some personal observations; not conclusive.

Luke Ranieri demonstrates errors in Dr. Zachariou's thinking in this video discussing the pre-Koine Boeotian dialect: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n1BS70EonLA.htmlsi=_Cb0jbIx6k6-5MRz I'd recommend you check out more of his Greek pronunciation videos, since it gives a filter sense of how the language developed over time and across space.

Still stuck on choosing a pronunciation. It seems like erasmian would be the choice if I were to go to seminary. I know you don’t look down on erasmian pronunciation but man when you read the comments on this the modern pronunciation crowd are very territorial in some case rude.

modern pronunciation (whatever that means), or more accurately "the phonetic system of Modern Greek" is stable, or has been stabilised in various ways IN the modern Greek state, however it is not stable in the sense that it continues to evolve. and will continue to evolve. if the phonetic system of Modern Greek is used for Ancient Greek, the present phonetic system of Modern Greek will not be the same as the phonetic system of Modern Greek in 200 years. Modern Greek is unlike Ancient Greek, they are different languages. the use of Modern Greek pronunciation for Ancient Greek is really a matter of convenience and style.

Modern is the way to go. I switched to modern after 15 years of Erasmian and it was hard at first but it now seems foolish to use Erasmian.

14:56 a critical failure to understand the scope and scale of the phonetic changes - specifically iaticism - within the Greek speaking world. as even a cursory look at the data available (even on Wikipedia) will show that there were various pronunciations in use throughout the empire and that the pronunciation which predominated in one area would not (and evidentially could not without the help of modern broadcast media) would not be the same as that in another area, for each area of the empire was subject to differing linguistic influences, coptic in egypt or illarian in the Balkans (neighbouring greece proper), kartvelian languages in the pontus region, etruscan and latin influence on Greek speakers in today's Italy, and Scythian influence on Greek speakers in today's Crimea. Eta was pronounced as i(:), but also as e:, e̝ and ε:, all the way till the 2nd C AD in learned pronunciation. e̝ used in Egypt, and in most popular pronunciation systems until 3rd C AD, while eː with phonemic length was used in Schooling and educated speech, with i only appearing in the 4th century AD, and ε: being used in remote dialects.

Ο ψαλμός 67 στα ελληνικά: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bo8mkuuWsKs.htmlsi=3Wn47Dk3d6W7dExe

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Here's what I recommend, find a Greek. That is a modern Greek in Athens, New York or Sydney and study how they pronounce things!!!! YASSAS 🇬🇷 🇬🇷 🇬🇷

American Erasmian = pronounce vowels like American English. Australian Erasmian = pronounce vowels like Australians English. The term "Historical Pronunciation" is unhelpful, because it does not make it clear which point in History it references. The Kantor/Buth pronunciation is also "Historical." The problem with Modern is, it really doesn't work in a class setting when you are reading text out loud and speaking sentences to one another. There are just too many words that are ambiguous when read out loud using the Modern pronunciation. I don't just mean the υμις ημις problem. Koine Era pronunciation is extremely beneficial for those who wish to engage in textual criticism and analysis of first century writing style. If you internalize the historical first century pronunciation, then it is possible to completely understand when spelling mistakes occur and why they occur. Finally, duolingo is good, but at the start you are taken straight into a whole lot of modern vocabulary which is not helpful (initially) for reading the Bible. Using alternate apps such as "Scripturial" then you are taken straight into vocabulary from the Greek New Testament.

I use reconstructed pronunciation. There is literally no credibility for Erasmian lol. I’m not sure why it’s still the standard

So many times you have repeatedly say: "The pronunciation of Neoellenic Greek,.people are using in Athens" ! So we Greeks not living in Athens but in the countryside and provinces of Greece, apparently we understand each other in Suahili ? Wide open your academic eyes enclosed in those tons of books behind you. Greece is not only Athens, and Athens is not the center of Greece.

Erasmian, only. Thank you.

I totally reject your assertion that a "historically reconstructed pronunciation" approach (whatever that means, if anything) to koine over Erasmian is preferable. That argument is void of substance and logic. How many thousand page books pushing your position that exist is entirely irrelevant. Sorry.

You: Dr. Ζακάριους said this and that Me: Dr. Ζαχαρίου (son of Zechariah), said this and that. Notice the difference between Ζακάριους and Ζαχαρίου and the incompetence of greek pronunciation by Celtic and Germanic tribes, the Erasmians try to overcome ? They invented a whole new language just because their incompetence to pronounce greek sounds. Imagine me pronounce Varak Ovama, or Yon Vaiδen, or Yon Keneδi, your Presidents. Just because you see a greek name written in barbaric letters, doesn't mean you are eligible to bucher it with same pronunciation. Make a small effort and pronounce it the correct way, like I say Τζωρτζ Ουάσινγκτον and not Γιώργος Γουάσικτονης. Hilarious.

Erasmus spearheaded reconstructed pronunciation. So confused. Modern Greek is very different from ancient. It’d be like saying Latin grammar is the same as Spanish grammar. Language change in Greek was very different. This is so wrong! Modern is just as made up if not more! Polybius wrote Koine: Koine is Attic. Stop misleading! (I was harsh here. But, as they say ‘quot magistri tot sententiae. I rather err on the skeptical side, because any theory will eventually be superseded.) Blessings.

You’re obviously NOT a linguist and you’re making very broad and unscientific assumptions.