The truth is that behind these writings there lies an intractable Hebraic, Aramaic, Palestinian material. It is this foreign matter that complicates New Testament Greek. Each writer is to a greater or lesser degree struggling to interpret into Greek a non-Greek method of thoughts and a non-Greek terminology. There is, moreover, not merely a problem of language, but a problem also of literary background. No single New Testament author for one moment imagines that he can interpret his material apart from a knowledge of the Jewish sacred scriptures. The tension between the Jewish heritage and the Greek world vitally affects the language of the New Testament.
- from pages 19-20, The Riddle of the New Testament