Atticism, classicism, and Luke-Acts: discussions with Albert Wifstrand and Loveday Alexander

There have been number of scholars who have attempted to determine the type of language used by Luke in the writing of his Gospel and Acts, with a number suggesting that there might be parallels with the Atticism movement. This article begins with an in-depth analysis of the nature of Atticism and its affect on the literary world particularly in the second century AD. Following this, the perspectives of Albert Wifstrand and Loveday Alexander will be evaluated which confirm that the label of “Atticism” and attempting to find its literary features within Luke-Acts is anachronistic and should be discussed in terms of “classicisms”. In light of this, Alexander has attempted to view Luke-Acts through the concepts of dialect and register, which is a positive step for understanding the motivations for language choice. This article pushes Alexander’s linguistic understanding and attempts to refine it by further developing the linguistic idea of register and including the concept of genre as a cultural construct that influences the choice of register, which in turn dictates the selection of dialect within a piece of writing