introduction to koine greek

7/27/2019 Introduction to Koine Greek

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The Greek Alphabet

This table gives the Greek letters, their names, equivalent English letters, and tips for pronouncing those letters which are

pronounced differently from the equivalent English letters.

Sigma ( ):There are two forms for the letter Sigma. When written at the end of a word, it is written like this: . If it occurs

anywhere else, it is written like this: .

Upsilon ():In the above table, we suggest that you pronounce this letter like "u" in "put". The preferred pronunciation is actually

more like the German "" as in "Brcke", or like the French "u" as in "tu". If you do not speak German or French, don't worry

about it, just pronounce it the way the table suggests.

Xi ():This is the same sound as "ch" in "Bach", which does not sound like "ch" in "chair". The same sound occurs in the

Scottish "Loch", as in "Loch Lomond", or the German "ach!".


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DipthongsWhen two vowels combine to make one sound, it is called a dipthong. There are seven dipthongs in Greek:

The "eu" combination is probably the hardest to learn for most people. It may help to take the "ow" sound and say it slowly: if

you notice, there are actually two sounds in "ow" - it starts out with "ah", then glides to an "oo" sound, "ah-oo". Try doing the

same with "e" (as in "edward") and "oo" - "e-oo". This is a little like the "e-w" in Edward, if you remove the "d".

Clip and save!You may want to print out this table and glue it to the inside cover of your Greek dictionary. If you are ever in

doubt about alphabetic order, this will help you look up words. If you have difficulty with pronunciation, you could also print it out

and glue it to the inside of your Greek New Testament.

Accents

Accents tell you which syllable is stressed when the word is pronounced. There are three different accents, but by the time of the

New Testament, they were all pronounced the same. Here are the three kinds of accents, with a Greek word to illustrate each:

Breathings

The rough breathing is pronounced like an "h", and looks like a backwards comma written over a vowel. The smooth breathing is

not pronounced at all, and looks like a regular comma written over a vowel. Note the difference between "en" and "hen":


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There are two marks over the epsilon in "hen"; the first is the rough breathing, the second is the accent.

Iota subscripts

A vowel at the end of a word will sometimes have an "iota subscript" underneath it; here is an alpha with an iota subscript:

The iota subscript is not pronounced, but it can be helpful for identifying certain grammatical forms that we will learn about later

(especially the dative case).

Punctuation

The period and comma are the same as in English. The semicolon is a raised dot, and is also used as a colon. The question

mark looks like an English semicolon:

Vocabulary for this lesson:


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Mnemonics for alphabetic order

Did you ever dream of working as a file clerk in ancient Greece? No? Well, did you ever dream of being able to look up words in

a Greek dictionary? In either case, you are going to have to learn the order of the Greek alphabet. I've made up a mnemonic

which may be helpful for some people:

All Bigots Get Diarrhea Eventually

Zorro Ate THe Ice Kap(pa)

Let's Munch Nuts EXcessively, Okay?

Pigs Really Stink Terribly

Under Five CHairs, PSychiatrists Wink

If you use this mnemonic, remember that "Chairs" is not really the way to pronounce , which sounds like "ch" in "Bach". Some

people prefer to learn the order based on differences from the order of the English alphabet:

Same as English, except for the gamma

means "live!" in Greek.

Same as English, except for xi.

Same as English, but no "q"

Memorize these, or use the mnemonic from the above table.

How to write Greek letters

The arrows show you where to start when you write Greek letters. Always remember to write theaccentsandbreathing marks,as

well as theiota subscripts!
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accents


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(back to text)

Footnote 1: Other pronunciation schemes

To be fair, we should mention that there are several different ways to pronounce Greek. We are teaching the Erasmian

pronunciation for now. At some point in the future, we may add pages to teach some of the other pronunciations. Here are the

main ways that Greek is pronounced:

Erasmian pronunciation.This is the pronunciation used here, and is probably based on the pronunciation used by a

Renaissance scholar named Erasmus, who was the main force behind the first pr inted copies of the Greek New

Testament. The Erasmian pronunciation is probably different from the way Greek was pronounced at the time of the

New Testament, but it is widespread among scholars, and it has the advantage that every letter is pronounced, which

makes it easy to grasp the spelling of words.

Modern Greek pronunciation. This is the way Greek is pronounced today in Greece. Some people prefer to teach this

pronunciation for New Testament Greek as well. I initially learned the modern Greek pronunciation, but had difficulty

learning to spell words, so I switched to the Erasmian. Modern Greek pronunciation is probably more similar to New

Testament Greek pronunciation than Erasmian is, but not identical. Reconstructed New Testament Greek pronunciation.There are some scholarly books which attempt to reconstruct

the original pronunciation of New Testament Greek, and they have reached the point that there seems to be fairly

widespread agreement on the original pronunciation. As far as I know, nobody ever teaches this pronunciation.

Incidentally, since there was a large variety of Greek dialects, there was no single way to pronounce Greek even in the

New Testament era.
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Fraternity, Physics, and Calculus pronunciation. This is the way your physics teacher spoke Greek, and he learned

this pronunciation in his fraternity. Next time you hear a physics teacher pronounce Greek, laugh and look superior.

Pronunciation practice: John 1

You can't read anything until you know the alphabet, so if you want to read Greek, the alphabet is a logical place to start. You

can learn the Greek alphabet in an hour or two, and if this is all you ever learn, it is enough to let you look up entries in a Greek

dictionary, pronounce Greek words, and feel a little less frightened by those weird looking squiggles.

We learn how to pronounce the letters by reading some verses from the Gospel of John. I have recorded these verses so that

you can read along with me and compare your pronunciation to mine. In the following table, the first row shows the capital

letters, the second shows the small letters, and the third shows their English equivalents:

Hint:You do not have to learn this table yet - the rest of this section will teach you how to pronounce these letters.

Hint:If you want to see tables with all the stuff we will be learning, look at the Tables and suchsection for this chapter.

In this exercise, you will learn to pronounce the first five verses of John 1. Below, you can see a phrase written in Greek letters,

and a transcription for the same phrase just below that. If you click on the Greek phrase, you will hear me read it out loud. Look

at the Greek letters and listen to me read; match it up with the transcription to make sure that you are hearing it correctly:

John 1:1a

En archn ho logos

Read the above phrase several times, until you can look at the letters and pronounce the words correctly. Note that "" is

pronounced like "ey" in "they".

Breathing marks:

In the above text, note that in every word that starts with a vowel, the initial vowel has a mark over it that looks like a comma. If

the comma is backwards, it is called a "rough breathing", and the vowel is pronounced as though there were an "h" before it. If
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the comma is not backwards, it is called a "smooth breathing"; a smooth breathing indicates that there is no "h" sound before the

vowel. Here are two real words that from the first five verses of John that differ only in the breathing:

Question:Which word in John 1:1a has a rough breathing? How does this affect the pronunciation of that word?

Accents

In the above text, accents are used to show which syllable is stressed. There are three accents in Greek, and they are all

pronounced exactly the same:

In the transcription shown in the bottom row, the accented syllables are shown in bold type.

Question:Which words in John 1:1a have accents? Read the phrase again carefully, and make sure that you stress the accented

syllables.

Now look at the words in the following table. The Greek words are shown on the left, the transcription in the middle, and an

English translation is given on the right. Read each Greek word out loud, then read the English translation. Repeat each word

pair three times out loud. Pay careful attention to the Greek letters as you read, and make sure you can identify the smooth

breathings, the rough breathings, and the accents:

Note:the word "the" does not occur in the Greek, but has to be added when translating to English. English and Greek think

differently.


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Exercise:Write out the phrase, writing the letters as shown in the section onhow to write Greek letters.Please write all the

accents and breathing marks. You will notice a l ittle squiggle under the last letter of ""; this is called an iota subscript. The

iota subscript is not pronounced, but it tel ls you something important about the grammar...and we won't tell you exactly what for a

few more lessons. Just write it, and don't ask any questions, OK?

John 1:1b

kai ho logos n pros ton theon

The "" sound in "" rhymes with "eye". This is a dipthong - a combination of two letters that is pronounced as one sound.

Continue as for the previous verse:

Look at the Greek letters, and pronounce what you can.

Play the recording several times, and read together with me.

Use the transcription below to help if you are not sure how something is pronounced.

Read each Greek word out loud, then read its translation out loud. Repeat each pair three times:

Note:here the Greek says "the" God, but we would translate this "God" in English. The Greek word for "the" acts very differently

from the English word "the".

Now write out the phrase, writing the letters as shown in the section on how to write Greek letters.

John 1:1c
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1c.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1c.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1c.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-1b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1.html#howToWrite


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You have already encountered all of these words in the first two parts of this verse. Listen to the recording and speak along with

me, then write out the phrase.

How to do the rest of this exercise...

For each verse, do the following:

1. Play the recording several times and read along with me.

2. Take each row in the table beneath the verse, and pronounce each Greek word and its English translation three times.

3. Write the verse on a sheet of paper, and read it out loud one more time.

4. Please do not look up the meaning of the verses until you have finished the exercise. It is perfectly OK if you do not

understand exactly what a phrase means at first, and if you look up the English translation right away, it will take longer

to learn how to think in Greek.

When you have done this for each verse, you should be able to pronounce the entire set of five verses.

John 1:2

contains a dipthong - the combination is pronounced "who". The "h" sound comes from the rough breathing - without a

rough breathing it would be pronounced "ooh". Note that the breathing mark and accent are placed on the secondletter of a

dipthong.

John 1:3a
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John 1:3b

There are two dipthongs here: "" is pronounced "ow"; "" occurs twice in this verse - do you remember how to pronounce

it? If not, look at John 1:3a again.

John 1:4a

The letter that looks like a "w" is an omega (), and is pronounced "o", as in "toad". In our transcription, we represent this with

"".

John 1:4b
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4a.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-3b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4a.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-3b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4a.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-3b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4a.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-3b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4b.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-4a.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/john1-3b.au


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John 1:5a

John 1:5b

Oops, missing a few!

The first five verses of John do not contain the letters or the dipthongs or . Here is a table with words to help

you learn these sounds.
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Can you pronounce it all?

Now try pronouncing the entire passage. If you are unsure about the pronunciation of any word, or if you are unsure about the

meaning of individual words, go back to the relevant section of this exercise. If you are unsure of the meaning of a phrase, but

understand the individual words, look it up in a Bible translation, preferably a fairly literal one like the King James, RSV, NASB,

or NRSV. Do not continue until you are very solid on this.

Remember these words!

In this course, each lesson builds on the vocabulary and syntax learned in earlier lessons, so make sure that you remember the

things mentioned in this section. First, make sure that you can distinguish these three words:

These are all extremely common words, which you should remember for future lessons. And here are some more common words

which you should remember:


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Now let's start talking about that pesky word "the". There are three ways to say "the", depending on whether you are referring to

something that is masculine, feminine, or neuter:

In Greek, every noun is either masculine, feminine, or neuter. You should learn these examples, which appeared in today's

lesson:

The gender of a noun: The gender of a noun has nothing to do with whether it is a boy or a girl. In English, we refer to a dog

as "he" if it is a boy, "she" if it is a girl, or "it" if we do not know its gender (or if it has just returned from an unpleasant visit to

the veterinarian). In New Testament Greek, there is no direct link between the gender of a noun and male or female traits; e.g.,

a mother-in-law is neuter, both boys and girls are neuter, words are masculine, parables are feminine, and both male and

female horses are masculine.

The meaning of the article:The article is like a finger pointing; it says, "this one", and should generally be translated "the". For

instance, in our passage, means "the word".

What does the lack of an article mean?Many beginning textbooks suggest that a noun without an article should be translated

with "a", e.g. that should be translated "a word" if the article does not appear. This is often a useful way to translate, and

a reasonable rule of thumb, but it is not always appropriate. Whereas the article has a clear meaning, the lack of an article has

no clear meaning. For instance, in John 1:1, clearly refers to "the beginning", not to "a beginning":

John 1:1c contains another interesting example of a noun without an article:

Grammatically, there are three possible ways to interpret in this verse:

definite


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"And the word was God" - the translation found in most traditional Bibles.

indefinite

"And the word was a god"

qualitative

"And the word was divine"

Since Greek grammar permits each of these meanings, you have to look at the context and the belief system of the writer in

order to understand which meaning is most likely. Given John's understandings of Jesus and of God, it is very unlikely that he

would have said that Jesus was "a god".

Verbs: present active indicative

The following tables summarize the information you should master in this lesson:

Conjugation of

Present active indicative endings applied to

Conjugation of verbs ending in :


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Vocabulary: verbs used in this lesson:

Verbs (present active indicative)

Verbs are the words that tell you what is happening. Here are some English verbs: see, smell, hit, walk, believe, grow, love,

hate, rub, die, snort, laugh. In the following examples, the verbs that mean "to see" are shown in bold type:

John 1:29

.

Matthew 22:16

Observe these verbs:Note that the Greek uses only one word, , to say "he sees", and only one word, , to say

"you see". The endings for these verbs tell you who is doing the seeing, so there is no need to add the words "he" or "you".

This is true to some extent for English as well; in the English translations: "he sees", but "you see". However, in English, many
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verb forms are the same: "I see", "you see", "we see", "they see", so the verb form "see" doesn't tell you whether "I", "you", or

"we" is doing the seeing. Greek verbs have a unique ending for each, so you know exactly who is doing the seeing.

Words like "I", "we", "you", and "they" are called pronouns. Greek tends to leave out pronouns, since you already know who it is

if you look at the verb. When a pronoun appears in Greek, the sentence is emphasizing who it is that is doing the action.

Here are the forms for the verb :

On the left hand, you see a Greek word, e.g. . In the middle column, you see the English translation; the translation

for is "I see". The third column gives grammatical terms like "first person singular".

Here are some things you should make sure you understand:

The Greek ending tells exactly who is seeing.

The same ending is used for he, she, or it.

The first person is the person (or people) who is talking: "I" or "we". The second person is the person who is being

addressed: "you" or "you all". The third person is someone they are talking about: "him", "her", "it", or "they".

Singular means one person: "I", "you", "him", "her", "it". Plural means more than one: "we", they", "you all".

Modern English does not have separate form for the second person plural. We are using "you all" when we say "you"

to address more than one person as a group. This is the way the phrase is used in some dialects of English. (An

aside: the Little Greek lives in North Carolina, where "y'all" can be used to address one person in some local dialects.

In these dialects, "all y'all" can be used to address a group. Language can be confusing...)

King James English used "thou" for the second person singular, and "you" for the second person plural. In general.

This distinction has been lost in modern English. Incidentally, "thou" was never a special form of address reserved for

God and for kings. The people who say that know neither Greek nor older forms of English.

Now I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is this: I've created a cute little flashcard toy which

will help you learn these endings. And the bad news? If you don't use this flashcard toy, but go on to the next section without

learning the endings, you'll be hopelessly lost. You won't know who is doing what. So please take the time to review these

endings until you know them perfectly.


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And now for a few more verbs...

At this point, I would like to drill you on some other verbs, but you don't know any other verbs yet. Never fear, the little Greek

still has his flashcard waiting, and he will use it to teach you some of the most common verbs in the Greek New

Testament:

Now we want to use these verbs together with the endings we saw with "blepw". For instance, compare the forms for "blepw"

with the forms for "legw", "I say":

You can apply these endings in the same way to any one of the verbs you have learned so far.

Real Bible texts

Up to now, this chapter has had only a few real texts from the Bible. In this section, we will present a Bible text that is missing

one word, along with an interlinear translation that will help you identify the word. For each text, do the following:

1. Write the textdown on a piece of paper, adding the missing word. Remember to write accents,breathing marks,

andiota subscripts!

2. Read the entire text out loud. This is important, if you want to learn to think in Greek!

3.

Think about what the text might mean. This may be difficult for several of these passages. That's OK, this is only yoursecond lesson.

4. Look up the passage in one or more Bible translations. Does the verse make sense now?

John 9:35
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWritehttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#iotaSubscripthttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#breathingshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#accentshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html#howToWrite


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Note that this is a question, and read it as such! Also, remember that the pronoun "you" emphasizes who it is who believes. The

meaning of the whole is, "do youbelieve in the son of man?" Frequently, if a verb means "you believe" in a statement, a

question with the same verb form will mean "do you believe?". Add the Greek word for "you believe", then read the sentence out

loud several times, remembering that it is a question.

John 12:44

Add the Greek word for "he believes" and read this out loud several times.

is one of the "little words" you learned in the first lesson.

Matthew 11:4

is one of the "little words" you learned in the first lesson.

Luke 8:13

is one of the "little words" you learned in the first lesson. is a form of , another one of your "little words". is a

form of , which is also on your "little words" list. And do you recognize the word ? It doesn't always mean "with"; in

this case, it means "for".

John 5:41
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke8-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/matt11-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Joh12-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John9-35.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke8-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/matt11-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Joh12-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John9-35.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke8-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/matt11-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Joh12-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John9-35.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke8-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/matt11-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Joh12-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John9-35.au


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The present tense can be used to describe something some one does habitually; for this example, we have used the gloss "I do

accept" to mean "I am in the habit of accepting", which conveys the verb's meaning in this verse.

little word alert: .

Matt 9:28

John 8:48

little word alert: , .

John 8:49

little word alert: is a form of .

Matt 26:65

1 John 3:22
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh3-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Mat26-65.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-49.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-48.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Matt9-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/john5-41.au


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little word alert: .

Verbs ending in

In this section, we will introduce some verbs which have slightly different endings from the ones we have discussed so far. Let's

look at the endings for , which means "to love" or "to like":

Except for the accents, which you can feel perfectly free to ignore at this point (as long as you stress accented syllables when

you pronounce them!), only two of these forms are different from the ones we have seen so far, the forms for "we" and "you all":

Let's get out our again and practice these endings:

Now let's learn some more of these verbs:

And now we'll do it again, translating from English into Greek:

Since the "we" and "you all" forms are the only forms that are new, let's practice those two endings for these new words. To help

remember the differences between these forms and the ones we learned earlier, the next flashcard exercise includes both kinds

of verbs.

Always remove the before adding the endings! For instance, to say "we do", take the verb , remove the to

produce , then add to get .


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Now let's practice these endings with some real scriptures. Supply the missing Greek words for these scriptures, then read them

aloud several times, trying to get a feel for what they might mean. Afterward, you may look them up in your English Bible to see

how they are translated

(but not beforehand!).

John 8:37

2 Cor 4:13

little word alert:can mean either "also" or "and".

James 2:8

1 John 1:6

Luke 6:46

Footnotes:

John 1:29
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke6-46.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh1-6.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Jame2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-37.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke6-46.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh1-6.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Jame2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-37.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke6-46.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh1-6.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Jame2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-37.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke6-46.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh1-6.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Jame2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-37.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Luke6-46.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/1joh1-6.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/Jame2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/verb-pai/John8-37.au


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The Greek literally says "he sees", but translations generally say "he saw". The translations are not wrong. The

grammatical form is similar to one used in informal oral English: someone telling a story might say,

"So yesterday a man walked into a store, and he goesup to the counter".

In writing, we would change that to say

"Yesterday, a man went into a store, and he went up to the counter."

In both English and Greek, the present tense ("sees", "goes up") is a vivid way to describe something that happened in

the past. This is quite common in Greek, and is called the "historical present". Much of the narrative in Mark is written

in the historical present, which gives the book a feeling of breathless urgency.

The first word of the sentence, , is another form of the word "the", and means "on the" in this particular sentence -

but the same form will be translated differently in other sentences. Are you beginning to think that there is a lot to the

word "the" in Greek? We will devote a large part of a chapter to this word.

The word means the same thing as the older English word "morrow", which is too obsolete to use in a

modern translation.

The words and grammatical forms of one language do not translate directly into the words and grammatical forms of

another. You have to learn to think the Greek before you can know how to translate it into English.

Matthew 22:16

Most English translations sound very different from the li teral meaning of these words. This is an idiom, and a very

interesting one: God looks at our heart, not at the surface or at appearances. The word , which means

"face", can also mean "mask". In Greek plays, actors held masks before their faces to take on a particular role, and

the mask was not the same as the person behind the mask. In Galatians 2:6, a similar idiom is used in the Greek:

Gal 2:6 "who they were makes no difference to me, God does not accept a person's face".


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In context, this "face" might refer to the roles these people played in the church, or to the image they put on. If I were

translating this verse idiomatically, I might render it,

Matt 22:16 "for you see beyond a person's face".

The standard English translations are not wrong; they are trying to convey the meaning for English speakers who are

not familiar with the Greek idiom.

Recently, there has been a lot of controversy about translating the word as "people". The King James and

other older translation translated it "men". The Greek refers to people, and can mean either groups

composed only of men or groups which also include women. The meaning of the Greek is clear; the real issue is

whether the English word "men" still communicates the concept of groups of people which may also include women.

Pronouns, subjects, objects, and owners

This chapter is about identifying who is doing what in a sentence. It is one of the longer chapters in this grammar, and there is a

lot to memorize, but it is an extremely important chapter for several reasons:

This chapter introduces the case system, which is essential if you want to know how to interpret nouns and pronouns

when they occur in a sentence. There are very few sentences that can be understood without understanding the case

system.

The pronouns introduced in this chapter make up about 8% of the text of the Greek New Testament; in other words, if

you took a New Testament and highlighted these pronouns, you would have highlighted 8% of the text.

The endings that you will learn here are also used for articles and nouns, so learning these forms gives you a basis for

learning other crucial things.

Nevertheless, this chapter may be too long to swallow in one gulp. You may want to work through one section at a time, and

make sure that you master each section before moving on to the next. Here are some basic concepts that we will be discussing:

Nounsare words that describe people, places, or things. Here are some English nouns: book, person, chewing-gum, country,

county, city, road, field, justice, peace, language, concept, man, woman, god, programmer, linguist. We will actually postpone

nouns until the next chapter, since it is easier to explain certain features of Greek pronouns first.

Pronounsare words that "substitute" for nouns, referring to people, places, or things that are known in the given context. Here

are some English pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, you all, they.

Casesare the forms that words like nouns and pronouns take to tell you, among other things, who is doing what to whom and for

whom, and who owns what. We will be talking about the nominative, genitive, dative, andaccusativecases.


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Personal pronouns (nominative)

Here are the Greek personal pronouns:

A few mnemonics may be helpful here:

is the word from which the English word "ego" is derived.

means "you" when talking to one person. One way to remember this is to imagine looking at one pig and saying

"sooey, sooey". This mnemonic apparently does not work for many who did not grow up in the rural United States (so

how do you call pigs in London?).

A lot of people have a hard time remembering which is which. Make sure that your pronunciation clearly

distinguishes the two, and never mumble the first syllable when reading exercises that contain these words. The word

that means "you all" also starts with a "u".

Pronouns and gender

In the above table, we translated and as "he", "she", and "it". This is a useful oversimplification, but the

gender of a pronoun does not necessarily mean that a male, a female, or an "i t" is intended. If you recall, in lesson one we

pointed out that every noun has a gender, and this gender is somewhat arbitrary:

In Greek, it would be quite normal to say something like, "the light shines in the darkness, and she has not overcome it";

because darkness is feminine and light is neuter, "she" would have to refer to the darkness, and "it" would have to refer to the

light. Naturally, we wouldn't want to use "she" and "it" in an English translation of this sentence! Whenever you see a pronoun,

you have to figure out what it is referring to before you can translate i t. Therefore, "he", "she", and "it" are somewhat misleading.

It is more accurate to call and the masculine, feminine, and neuterforms.


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However, in most cases, if we wanted to translate the English word "he" into Greek, we would use the word, and if we

wanted to translate the English word "she" into Greek, we would use the word , and many times these Greek pronouns do

mean "he" and "she".

In Greek, the pronoun "they" also has gender - and are really the plural forms of "he", "she", and "it". In

English, we use one word, "they", when we refer to a group of "hes", a bunch of "shes", or a bunch of "its", but Greek has

separate forms for each. Once again, the terms "he", "she", and "it" are misleading - in Greek, a girl or a mother-in-law are

neuter, not because they are not female, but because that happens to be the gender of the nouns used to describe them. It is

always worth remembering that "it" can often be the best translation of a masculine or feminine pronoun. When translating into

Greek, remember that you do not know the right form for "it" or "they" until you know the gender of the noun. The following table,

suggested by Tony Prete, may help you keep this in mind:

Subjects and objects

In Greek, both nouns and pronouns take different forms to tell you whether they are being used as subjects or objects. In many

cases, the form of the noun or pronoun is the only way that you can tell who is doing something, to whom it is being done, for

whom it is being done, etc., so it is extremely important to learn these forms!

Before we discuss the Greek forms, it is important to understand how subjects and objects work in general, and we will start by

using English examples. Make sure that you learn any term that appears in bold face. Here are afew everyday English

sentences:

1. He hit me.

2. I hit him.

3. HimI hit!

4. Me

he hit!5. He hit him.

The pronoun changes form to tell you who is hitting and who is being hit. In every case, "he" or "I" refers to someone who is

doing the hitting, and "him" or "me" refers to someone who is being hit. Sentences 3 and 4 may or may not strike you as weird

unless you grew up in a community where English usage was influenced by German, Yiddish, Norwegian, Swedish, etc., but the


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meaning is still clear. (Where I grew up, about half the population was Swedish, but my wife cringes when I say things like this.

Nevertheless, she understands what I mean!)

The point that I'm trying to make is that these pronouns change form to show what function they play. The verb in this sentence

is "hit". This verb has a subjectand an object:

Verb hit

Subject I

Object him

Not all verbs have objects. "Jesus wept" is a complete sentence without an object. A verb which has an object is called

a transitiveverb. A verb which does not have an object is called an intransitiveverb. Some verbs can be used with or without an

object:

transitive (with an object):I ran the marathon.

intransitive (without an object):I ran.

There are actually two kinds of objects, direct objectsand indirect objects. Let's illustrate this by analyzing a sentence:

I gave her the book

subject verb indirect object direct object

The subjectanswers the questions "who gave" or "what gave"; the answer is "I gave", so "I" is the subject. In general, for a verb

V, the subject answers the question "who V?" or "what V?".

The direct objectanswers the questions "whom did I give" or "what did I give"; the answer is "I gave the book", so "the book" is

the direct object. In general, for a verb V with subject S, the direct object answers the question "whom did S V?" or "what did S

V?".

The indirect objectanswers the questions "to whom did I give", "for whom did I give", "to what did I give", or "for what did I

give"; the answer is "I gave the book to her", so "her" is the indirect object. In general, for a verb V with subject S, the indirectobject answers the questions "to whom did S V?", "for whom did "S V?", "to what did S V?", or "for what did S V?".

The passive transformis a useful trick you can use to see whether an object of a transitive verb is direct or indirect. If you

change the verb to passive, the subject becomes a direct object, the direct object becomes the subject, and the indirect object

remains an object. Consider these sentences:


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Active:

I gave her the book


Passive:

the book was given to her by me


Because "her" remains an object when you change from active to passive, it is an indirect object. "The book" becomes the

subject when the verb is made passive, so it is a direct object.

Nominative, accusative, dative, genitive: subject, direct object, indirect object, owner

In Greek, the subject, direct object, and indirect object are identified by the case of the pronoun, and pronouns change their form

to tell you what case is being used. Let's explore this using a Greek sentence:

How do we know that this says "David called him Lord", and not "He called David Lord"? As a native English speaker, your first

instinct is probably to say that it is the word order, but we can change the word order around without changing the subject of the

sentence: would mean "him called David Lord", which is very questionable English but

perfectly legitimate Greek. By putting "him" at the front of the sentence, the emphasis would be switched to "him", but David is

still the person who calls "him" Lord.

The word order does not tell us who was called Lord; the form of the pronoun does. means "him", means "he". A

"him" can't be the person who is doing the calling, only a "he" can. Here are the forms thattakes as subject, direct object,

and indirect object:
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Why doesn't our sentence mean "David said tohim, Lord"? Because "said to" would require an indirect object, which would

be . David didn't say "to him" Lord, he "said him" Lord (direct object). In English, we would say that David "called him"

Lord.

There is one more case. The genitivetells us who owns what. If I say "his house", the word "his" is genitive, and tells me that

the pronoun is being used to tell me who owns the house.

Here are the Greek personal pronouns in all possible cases - there are too many to memorize all at once, so we will learn them

one step at a time:

Now let's explore these cases one at a time.

Pronouns as subjects: nominative

The forms of the pronoun that we learned at the beginning of this lesson are all nominative, which is the form that a pronoun

takes when it serves as the subject of a verb. For instance, here is a verse we have already encountered, John 9:35:

As we have mentioned before, the verb already states that the subject is "you", and does not really need the pronoun; when a

pronoun appears, it emphasizes the subject: "doyoubelieve in the son of man?"

Agreement:The subject of a verb must always "agree" with the verb. A pronoun and a verb are said to "agree" if they have the

same personand number. In other words, if both the pronoun and the verb are talking about "I", they agree; if they are both

talking about "we" they agree; if they are both talking about "you all" they agree; if they are both talking about "she" they agree,
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etc. These tables, which we have already seen, show the person and number for the nominative pronouns and for the forms of

the verb :

If a pronoun and a verb agree in both number and person, then they are said to agree; if they agree, they may betalking about

the same person or thing. If the pronoun is first person and the verb is first person, then they agree in person. If the pronoun is

singular and the verb is singular, then they agree in number.

Can you answer these questions?

Which form of the pronoun agrees with ?




Which form of agrees with ?




Using the forms we have learned, supply the missing pronoun in these examples:

Acts 2:8

"How is it that we each hear in our own dialect?"
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/acts2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/acts2-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/acts2-8.au


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1 Cor 7:12

"Say I, not the Lord". Note that the pronoun can occur before or after the verb. In English, word order is a very important clue to

finding the subject of a verb, but in Greek you can not rely on word order. If a pronoun located near a verb is nominative, and it

agrees with the verb, then it is likely to be the subject of that verb.

But also remember that the pronoun is often not stated. means "I say" even without adding ; the

phrase uses the pronoun for emphasis: "Isay".

Col 4:1

Now let's up the ante a little. In the following examples, both the verb and the pronoun are omitted; your job is to supply both:

kaican mean "also" as well as "and".

2 Cor 4:13

James 2:19

Mark 11:33

Note:Translate "do I say" the same way you would translate "I say". I added the word "the" to bring out the nuance of meaning

that it takes in this passage: "neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." Note that even though the Greek says "in

what authority", we say "by what authority" in English.
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mar11-33.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/jame2-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/1cor7-12.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mar11-33.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/jame2-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/1cor7-12.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mar11-33.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/jame2-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/1cor7-12.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mar11-33.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/jame2-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/1cor7-12.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mar11-33.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/jame2-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/2cor4-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/1cor7-12.au


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John 4:20

Luke 10:24

Matt 27:11

Note: in the New Testament, Jesus is usually called "the Jesus". When we translate into English, we omit "the". We will discuss

this in more depth in a later chapter. For now, ignore that "the".

Pronouns continue in the next lesson...

Pronouns: accusative, dative, genitive

In the last section, we discussed the Greek cases, the use of pronouns, and nominative pronouns. This lesson continues our

discussion of pronouns, focusing on accusative, dative, and genitive.

Pronouns as direct objects: accusative

When pronouns are used as direct objects, they appear in the accusative form. Write the accusative forms from this table on apiece of paper:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat27-11.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/luk10-24.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john4-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat27-11.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/luk10-24.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john4-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat27-11.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/luk10-24.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john4-20.au


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Now let's look at how accusative pronouns are used in var ious scriptures:

Mark 4:16

Before you translate this, you need to know whether "it" refers to a masculine, feminine, or neuter noun. In this case, they

receive "the word" ( ), so it is masculine.

Notes:

We would not translate this "they received him", because in English this would imply receiving a person, and in this

particular text, does not refer to a person.

Note that a pronoun used as an object does notneed to agree with the verb. is singular and the

verb is plural, but that is no problem because the verb agrees with the subject, not with any of the

objects. In this case, the subject is "they", and is part of the verb.

John 15:15

When you translate the following, use for the verb "to call":

John 5:43
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh15-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mark4-16.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh15-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mark4-16.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh15-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mark4-16.au


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John 16:27

John 21:15

John 21:17

Pronouns as indirect objects: dative

When pronouns are used as indirect objects, they appear in the dative form. Write the dative forms from this table on a piece of

paper:

Now let's look at how dative pronouns are used in various scriptures:

Matt 5:18
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-17.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh16-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john5-43.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-17.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh16-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john5-43.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-17.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh16-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john5-43.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-17.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh16-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john5-43.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-17.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh21-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/joh16-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/john5-43.au


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Matt 5:26

Matt 13:10

Matt 13:51

Matt 21:19

In this passage, Jesus is talking to a fig tree, which just happens to be a feminine noun. In the English, I have used the word

"her" to remind you to use a feminine pronoun; naturally, a real English translation would call a fig tree "it":

Possessive pronouns: genitive

The other cases all involve the relationship between a pronoun and a verb. The genitive involves the relationship between a

pronoun and a noun or another pronoun - the genitive pronoun indicates the owner of something else. When I want to say that a

book is "her" book, I use the genitive case.

Write the genitive forms from this table on a piece of paper:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat21-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-51.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat21-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-51.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat21-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-51.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat21-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-51.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat21-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-51.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/mat13-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt5-18.au


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Now let's look at how genitive pronouns are used in various scriptures:

Matt 1:18

I use the word "of him" in this word-for-word translation, but a real translation would say "his mother" - "His mother Mary was

engaged to Joseph".

Matt 1:19

Again, "her husband" is a better translation than "the husband of her".

Matt 1:20

Matt 1:21
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-20.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-19.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt1-18.au


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Matt 2:15

Matt 2:18

Articles and Nouns

We have already defined nouns in a previous lesson, but let's repeat the definition here:

Nounsare words that describe people, places, or things. Here are some English nouns: book, person, chewing-gum, country,

county, city, road, field, justice, peace, language, concept, man, woman, god, programmer, linguist. In the first lesson, we

learned a few Greek nouns:

Articlesare those little words in front of the noun. In English, there are two articles: "the" is the definite article, and "a" is the

indefinite article. Greek has only one article - since there are 24 forms for it, they couldn't afford a second one. The Greek article

is definite, and it is often translated "the", but it functions very differently from the English "the". We will learn how the article

functions and learn how to recognize 8 of the 24 forms in this lesson.

Positionmeans just what the word implies, and refers to the position with respect to the article and a noun. In Greek, the position

of a word can drastically change its meaning, e.g. the word , which we have translated "he" in our earlier chapters, can

also mean "even" if it appears in the right position, so it is important to understand how position functions when you translate

some words!

Nouns

A full understanding of Greek nouns requires us to know some Greek nouns. Let's start by learning two sets of very common

Greek nouns. Here is the first set:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-15.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-18.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pro-noun/matt2-15.au


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When you learn nouns, always learn the form of the article that goes along with it. Nouns may be masculine, feminine, or neuter,

and if you do not know the gender of a noun, you will not know what grammatical forms it will take. These nouns are all

masculine, because they take the masculine article.

Now let's learn a second set of nouns:

rticles and nouns are declined

Articles and nouns both take different forms to show the function that they play in a sentence. We are now going to discuss the

declension of nouns; we introduced essential concepts in the chapter on pronouns, and you will find it di fficult to understand this

section if you have not mastered the concepts in that chapter. Make sure that you understand aboutsubjects, direct objects, and

indirect objectsand that you remember how theGreek casesfunction with pronouns before you continue this section.

One of the big differences between Greek and English is that Greek articles and nouns take different forms depending on the

case. In English, we use word order to determine who is doing what to whom, and the form of an article or a noun does not

change when it is used as an object:

The Lord sees the son

Subject verb direct object

There is no way that I can think of to place "the son" first in this sentence without making "the son" the subject. In Greek, the

form of the article and the noun tells whether it is used as a subject, direct object, or indirect object, and word order is less

significant. Take a look at these sentences:

Subject first:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjectshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjectshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjectshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjectshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#greekCaseshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#greekCaseshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#greekCaseshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#greekCaseshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjectshttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/pronoun.html#subjectsAndObjects


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In each of these sentences, the subject is before the verb, and the object is after the verb. Note the following:

In the English translation, the pronoun is "he" when used as a subject, but "him" when used as an object.

English nouns do notchange form when they are used as object, only the pronouns do.

Greek nouns, like Greek pronouns, change form to show whether they are used as subjects or as objects..

For these nouns, the Greek subjects all have the nominative ending, just like the masculine pronoun does.

For these nouns, the Greek direct objects all have the accusative ending, just like the masculine pronoun does.

Even the article takes the when used as part of the direct object.

Now let's look at some sentences that have the object first:

Object first:

Note that the word order does not determine which noun is used as the subject. There is no way to translate the last two

sentences into English without changing the word order around, which is unfortunate, because when the object is placed first in a

Greek sentence, it places emphasis on the object, and it is often difficult to convey this emphasis in an English translation.

Declension of the article

Except for four forms, the article is declined exactly like , which you learned to decline in the chapter on pronouns. For

comparison, here is the declension of :


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And here is the declension of the article:

Except for the nominative singular and nominative plural forms, if you remove the from any form of , you have the

corresponding form of the article. In fact, this trick works for the neuter nominatives, too. Another thing that will help you

remember these is that the dative forms all have iota or iota subscripts in the endings.

Note that some of the forms of the article are ambiguous. When you run into one of these, make sure that you consider all the

possibilities!

Ambiguous forms of the article

nominative singular neuter (nsn)


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accusative singular neuter (asn)

nominative plural neuter (npn)

accusative plural neuter (apn)

genitive singular masculine (gsm)

genitive singular neuter (gsn)

dative singular masculine (dsm)

dative singular neuter (dsn)

genitive plural masculine (gpm)

genitive plural feminine (gpf)

genitive plural neuter (gpn)

dative plural masculine (dpm)

dative plural neuter (dpn)

The second declension

You have already encountered the Greek word , which means "word". Let's look at the forms it takes for the different

cases:

These forms are very similar to the forms that the masculine pronoun takes for these same cases. In fact, the masculine

article also takes similar forms:


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Except for the nominative forms of the article, these all have the same endings, differing only in accent. Pay careful attention to

the breathing marks for the forms of the article - it will help you pronounce the forms correctly, and in some cases, these

breathing marks are the only thing that will distinguish the article from other common words.

Whenever a noun has an article, the article agrees with the noun in number, gender, and case:

number: if the noun is singular, the article for that noun will be singular;

gender: if the noun is masculine, the article for that noun will be masculine;

case: if the noun is nominative, the article for that noun will be nominative.

When a noun is a subject, it appears in the nominative, and agrees with the verb in number, just as pronouns do:

number: if the noun is the subject of a verb and the noun is singular, the verb will also be singular.

In the lesson on pronouns, we pointed out that, pronoun subjects also agree with their verbs in person, as in the English example

"we are". Nouns do not have person, so this is not relevant.

Let's practice by filling in the nouns in some verses:

Nominative nouns

Mark 12:9

In this verse, "the Lord" is the subject of the sentence. Add the Greek words for "the Lord" to this sentence and say it out loud.

Remember to use the nominative:


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Remember that the subject agrees with the verb. What verb does "the lord" agree with?

Matt 4:4

In the following verse, "the man" stands for people in general. Add in the nominative form for "the man" or "the person":

Even though you do not know the word for "bread" or "alone", you should recognize the case that is being used for these two

words if you look at the ending. Which case is it?

What verb does "the man" agree with?

Matt 4:10

"Jesus" is the subject of this phrase; remember to add "the" as well as "Jesus" to this sentence:

Do you recognize the case of ? In this sentence, is in the present tense, but is used as a historical present. See

the discussion ofJohn 1:29ifyou have forgotten about the historical present.

1 John 2:14

"The word" is the subject of this sentence. Add the Greek. Where is the verb that agrees with "the word"?

Accusative nouns

Matt 10:21

In the following verse, the word "brother" occurs twice, once as a subject, and once as a direct object:
http://e/little%20greek/Lessons/verbs%20pai.html%23john1:29explainedhttp://e/little%20greek/Lessons/verbs%20pai.html%23john1:29explainedhttp://e/little%20greek/Lessons/verbs%20pai.html%23john1:29explainedhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1jn2-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mark12-9.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1jn2-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mark12-9.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1jn2-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mark12-9.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1jn2-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt4-4.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mark12-9.auhttp://e/little%20greek/Lessons/verbs%20pai.html%23john1:29explained


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In English, there is no way to distinguish "brother" used as a subject from "brother" used as a direct object, but in Greek, the

forms of the nouns make it clear that

is the subject, the one who is betraying, and

is the direct object, the

one being betrayed. If you do not understand the function of the nominative and accusative cases for these two nouns, the

sentence would be completely unintelligible.

Matt 5:8

Use the accusative case for the following. Will God see them, or will they see God?

Matt 7:28

Remember to use the plural in this one:

Acts 2:32

Col 4:1

Gal 4:22

Dative

In the following examples, fill in the missing nouns, which are dative:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/gal4-22.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/colo4-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/acts2-32.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-28.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-8.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat10-21.au


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1 Thess 5:27

The gloss "have read" in this verse means that the recipients should have the letter read to the brothers, not that the brothers

have all read the letter. What case would be used for "the brothers" if the verse said that they have all read the letter? (Note: the

form of the verb would also have to change, but you don't know that yet...)

Matt 12:13

Matt 22:44

John 5:26

Genitive

Eph 1:1

In this verse, "Christ", "Jesus", and "God" are all genitive:

John 6:53

Matt 5:10
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john6-53.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/eph1-1.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/john5-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat22-44.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/mat12-13.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/1the5-27.au


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In this verse, note that the plural is used - "heavens", not "heaven". The article will also need to be plural:

Matt 5:14

Matt 6:26

Matt 7:3

, use of the article

This chapter is all about little words like "the", "is", and "this". You might think that this chapter is less important than the others,

but the material presented here is fairly crucial to understanding how Greek thinks. You will learn that the article in Greek

functions quite differently from the article in English, and that the verb "to be" is also used somewhat differently. A precise

understanding of these little words, which occur quite frequently, will help dramatically in your reading skills.

The Greek verb means "to be", and like the English word "to be", it is one of the most common words in the language. In

an earlier chapter, we showed that both English and Greek words can take different forms depending on who we are talking

about, e.g."he is", "you are", "I am". In the chapter on verbs, we also introduced terms like "first person singular", which means

"I", and "first person plural", which means "we".

Subjects and predicates

In previous chapters on verbs, we have discussed subjects and objects. The verb does not have an object, it has a

predicate. Compare these sentences:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-3.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt6-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-3.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt6-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-3.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt6-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-10.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt7-3.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt6-26.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-14.auhttp://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/nouns/matt5-10.au


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1. The boy hit a clown.

2. The boy is a clown.

The verb "hit" takes an object; it tells you who the boy hit. The verb "is", like the Greek , has a predicate, which tells you

something that is "predicated" about the boy. The predicate makes statements about the boy himself.

Predicates are nominative, just like subjects. Case does not distinguish the subject from the predicate. In general, the article is

used to distinguish them: the subject has the article, and the predicate does not. This is discussed in more depth later in this

chapter, in the section on the use of the article.

Conjugation of

The following table shows the present tense forms of eimi, the English equivalents, and the grammatical terms used to describe

them:

Note:in this course, we have not yet said much about accents, but the accent on is very important, because it is the only thing

that distinguishes it from the word that means "if". Consider the following sentence:

These are two different words, and both are quite common. The word that means "if" does not take an accent.

Now let's practice these forms using some examples. Supply the missing Greek word:

Matt 4:3

Translation: "if you are the son of God". In English, it is unusual to say "the son you are" rather than "you are the son", but this

is quite common in Greek. Word order frequently needs to be changed when translating.


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Matt 8:8

Translation: "Lord, I am not worthy".

Matt 14:27

Romans 6:16

John 8:31

Rev 3:1

Mark 14:69

Matt 28:6

John 9:28


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John 9:40

Luke 8:14

John 8:10

Matthew 18:20

Romans 6:15

Romans 8:9

Luke 20:36

Implied

To English speakers, the verb often seems to be missing. Consider the following phrase:


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This is translated "That Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". However, there is no word in Greek that

corresponds to the English word "is". The verb is often implied in Greek. In general, if a phrase seems to be missing a verb,

try inserting a form of .

Use of the Article

In the last chapter, we learned how to decline the Greek article:

Since learning the declension of articles and nouns is a lot of work, I decided not to go into detail on the meaning of the article in

that chapter. However, since the article accounts for 14% of the words in the Greek New Testament, and conveys a great deal of

meaning, it is worth spending some time now learning precisely how it is used and how it is to be interpreted - especially since

the Greek article is quite different from the English articles. Careful attention to the material in this chapter is important for a good

understanding of the Greek language.

As you work your way through this section, you may be surprised that a little word like the article commands so much attention.

The Greek article is very subtle, and difficult to grasp. As a matter of fact, the Little Greek still hasn't grasped some uses of the

article. However, a good understanding of the basic uses of the article will dramatically improve your ability to read Greek.

the meaning of the article

The Greek article corresponds roughly to the English word "the". A better way to understand the use of the Greek article, though,

is to think of it as equivalent to the gesture of pointing to something. Pointing to something distinguishes it from anything else; in

grammatical terms, it makes the thing you point to "definite". In English, "the" is called the "definite article" because it also makes

the thing it points to "definite", and the Greek article is often best translated with "the", as in these examples:


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Oops, one of these examples doesn't work that way. In English, we do not say "the God", we say God, but Greek often uses the

article when referring to God, Jesus, or particular people. If you think of a finger pointing to God when you see the

phrase , that will help you appreciate a shade of meaning that can not easily be translated into English. For instance,

consider this example from John 1:1b, which we saw in the first lesson:

In English, "God" is already definite without the definite article, and we would not say "and the word was with the God". If we

did, we would be implying that there is more than one God, which the Greek does not imply. The original Greek can best be

appreciated by imagining a few gestures:

"and (finger points to) the word was with (finger points to) God".

We have already mentioned that the English word "the" is the definite article. English also has an indefinite article, "a", but Greek

does not have an indefinite article. The Greek article is always definite, and it should not be translated with the indefinite article

"a". In the above example, it would be quite wrong to translate "a word was with God" or "the word was with a God".

nouns without the article

If a noun with an article is always definite, you might think that a noun without an article is always indefinite. This is not true.

Some beginners try to write "a" in front of any noun that does not have the article, and this probably works in the majority of

cases, but is drastically wrong in others. Here are some guidelines you should learn:

1. If a noun is clearly definite in the given context, Greek often omits the article, and in these cases the translation will

generally use the word "the". We saw one example of this in John 1:1:

John 1:1a

This does not mean "in abeginning was the Word", it means "in the beginning was the Word". The writer did not feel

the need to use the article, because he felt i t was sufficiently clear that there was only one beginning. Of course, if we


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knew that a particular writer believed that there were many beginnings, then we would be justified in translating this as

"a" beginning. The grammar does not clear up every possible misunderstanding unambiguously; if there were doubt

about John's beliefs here, it might be necessary to read more of John's writings to learn his views.

2. The article may be present or absent for abstract nouns like "love", "joy", "peace", etc., but the absence of the article

for these nouns does not cause difficulty for the English speaker, because English behaves the same way. However,

when Greek uses the article with abstract nouns, the English speaker may stumble. Consider this example from

Revelation:

Rev 5:13

In English, we would say "blessing and honor and glory and power", not "the blessing and the honor and the glory and

the power".

3. In Greek, the article is often absent in order to distinguish the subject of a sentence from the predicate. This deserves

a full explanation, and is discussed in the next section.

Articles and predicates

At the start of this course, we read John 1:1, which contains the following phrase:

introduction to koine greek

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