After Alexander The Great and his armies conquered the Persian Empire (334-327 BC), numerous Greek colonies were established (including Alexandria in 331 BC) throughout the Near East to spread Greek culture and fuse the two traditions. As a result of this forced syncretism, Attic Greek, or Classical Greek, was transformed into Kione or common Greek, the language of the New Testament writings. Kione Greek became the universal language of late antiquity, dominating until the sixth century AD. 

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament began in the third century BC in Alexandria, Egypt. The name Septuagint comes from the Greek word for “seventy” (hence the symbol “LXX”, seventy in Roman Numerals) and refers to the seventy-two Jewish translators brought to Egypt by Ptolemy II Pendelphus (285-246 BC) to translate the Pentateuch, according to the legendary account in the Letters of Aristeas. Because the language of the New Testament is Kione Greek, the Septuagint is very helpful in the interpretation of New Testament texts. 

 In John 20:22, Jesus "breathes on" (emphusao - only occurrence in the NT) the disciples. The same word is used in Genesis 2:7 in the Septuagint. God breathes the breath of life into the nostrils of the man and he becomes a living being. In the Septuagint, emphusao is used in Ezekial 37:9 to describe the breath that breaths on the dry bones, so that they may live. In the Wisdom of Solomon 15:11c (an Apocryphal book of the Inter-Testamental period) emphusao is used where God "breathed a living spirit into them."  When Jesus “breathes on” the disciples, they are transformed from fearful men locked behind closed doors, to fearless witnesses in the world. Jesus breathes into these lifeless men and they become alive in the Spirit.

 During the long, green season of Pentecost, may we be reminded that Jesus “breathed on” us in the waters of baptism. Over and over again we are refilled with the Holy Spirit when we receive Jesus again in the hearing of the word, in the sharing of the sacrament, and through the fellowship of the community of faith. Nourished in this way, we are “breathed upon” to become Christ’s witnesses in the world.

Father Thomas Frizzell