‎Contents

‎Preface

‎Acknowledgments

‎Abbreviations

‎Biblical Abbreviations Used

‎Bibliographical Abbreviations Used

‎Introduction

‎1. State of the Art

‎2. Corpus, Method, and Structure

‎3. The ‘Classical’ School Tradition and the Rise of Christianity

‎4. Global Linguistic Situation and Individual Linguistic Competences

‎5. Intellectual Networks—‘Central’ and ‘Peripheral’ Authors—Life Dates

‎6. Text Types, Literary Conventions, Pseudonymity and Anonymity

‎Part 1. Language History

‎Chapter 1. The Origin and Nature of Language

‎1. Views on Language Origin

‎2. God’s Providence and the Distinctly Human Capacity of Speech

‎3. The Anatomy of Speech as a ‘Musical Instrument’ or a ‘Building’

‎4. The Transitory and Narrow Character of Human Language

‎Summary

‎Chapter 2. The Primeval Situation

‎1. The ‘Minimal View’

‎2. The Relation between the Primeval Language and Post-Babelic Hebrew

‎3. The ‘Language of Adam’ and the ‘Language of God’

‎Summary

‎Chapter 3. The Origin of Linguistic Diversity

‎1. The Discrepancy between Gen. 10 and 11

‎2. Evaluations of God’s Intervention

‎3. The Degree of Differentiation and the Number of Post-Babelic Languages

‎Summary

‎Part 2. Language Diversity

‎Chapter 4. Appraisals and Uses of Linguistic Diversity

‎1. Language Diversity as a Futility

‎2. Language Diversity as an Impediment

‎3. Language Diversity as an Analogy to Religious Heterodoxy

‎4. The Surmounting of Language Diversity as an Indicator of the Universal Spread of Christian Faith

‎5. Language Diversity as an Adornment to the Human Mind

‎Summary

‎Chapter 5. Appraisals and Uses of Multilingual Competence

‎1. Process and Problems of Foreign Language Learning

‎2. Biblical, Religious and Scientific Translation

‎3. Theology and Biblical Exegesis

‎Interlude: The Impact of Jerome’s Rhetoric of uir trilinguis and Hebraica ueritas

‎4. Preaching and the Propagation of Faith

‎5. Government and Negotiation

‎6. Laudatory Contexts

‎7. Women’s Multilingual Competence

‎Summary

‎Chapter 6. Interpretations and Uses of ‘Unnatural’ Multilingual Competence

‎1. The Unnatural Character of the Apostles’ Xenolalia

‎2. Pentecost Connected to Babel

‎3. The Apostles’ Xenolalia and the Uni(versali)ty of Christianity

‎4. Unnatural Multilingual Competence in Hagiography, and the ‘Language of Angels’

‎Summary

‎Part 3. Language Description

‎Chapter 7. The Language Level

‎1. Language Classifications

‎2. Language Selections

‎3. Language Affinity

‎4. Language Comparison and Linguistic Value Judgments

‎Summary

‎Chapter 8. The Sentence Level

‎1. Syntactic Reflection in Terms of ‘Joining Words to Form Sentences’

‎2. Syntactic Reflection in Terms of ‘Complete Utterances’

‎3. Word Order

‎4. Conjunctions

‎5. Solecism

‎Summary

‎Chapter 9. The Word Level

‎1. Linguistic Change

‎2. ‘Lexicographical Exoticism’

‎3. Contrastive Observations

‎Summary

‎Chapter 10. The Letter Level

‎1. Nature and Function of Writing

‎2. Origin and History of Writing and Writing Systems

‎3. The Alphabet as an Organizing Principle for Literary Works

‎4. Specific Comments and Contrastive Observations

‎Summary

‎Overview and Conclusion

‎Bibliography

‎Editions and Translations Used

‎Primary Sources

‎Secondary Literature

‎Biblical Index

‎Index of Ancient Sources

‎Index of Subjects and Names

‎Index of Modern Authors