Alpha Bêta
A1: Koine Greek
The earliest form of the Greek language was written in the 13th century B.C. and is called “Linear B” by scholars. From the 4th to the 8th centuries B.C., from Homer to Plato, Classical Greek was used; a form noted for its exacting and nuanced expression. There were three major dialectical families of Classical Greek: Doric, Aeolic and Ionic. Attic Greek, the language of ancient Athens, was a branch of the Ionic family.
Alexander the Great, son of King Philip of Macedonia, and student of the venerable Greek philosopher Aristotle, rapidly conquered the known world in the 4th century B.C. and spread the Greek culture and language throughout his empire. As he had been schooled in Attic Greek, it was this form in which Alexander ushered in the Hellenistic Age.
Eventually, as happens with any language of empire, the Classical Attic Greek of Alexander and Aristotle was homogenized by all the cultures it succeeded in assimilating; thus was the Koine dialect born. Koine (κοινη) means common; and this common Greek became the everyday language of such disparate nations as Ethiopia, Israel and Spain. It was the language of shop-keepers and shepherds, politicians and paupers, bureaucrats and brigands. And it was this humble, work-a-day tongue in which God Himself chose to record and disseminate the details of the miraculous life, death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, thereby bequeathing the Gospel, not to a self-selected class of elite priests and scribes, but to all people, regardless of nationality, status or education.
A2: The Koine Greek Alphabet
The Greek alphabet, like the Hebrew, developed from the Phoenician alphabet. There are 24 letters in the Koine Greek Alphabet. There were more in Classical Greek, but by the time the books of the NT were written, there were only 24. The uncial letters, or capitals, were developed first, but sometime in the tenth century A.D. the cursive letters, or handwriting form, were perfected. Nowadays the uncial letters are only used as capitals and to denote the beginning of quotes, so it is essential that students become more familiar with the cursives. Therefore we will learn the lowercase letters first and cover the uncials later, in Lesson Two.
A3: The Cursives
Refer to student handout L1_fig1_alpha (email me, if you would like another handout)
A4: Practical Exercise
Commit the alphabet to memory by reciting it, in order, over and over again.
A5: Sounding the Letters
The 24 letters are made up of 7 vowels (top) and 17 consonants (bottom):
α ε η ι ο υ ω
β γ δ ζ θ κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ/ς τ φ χ ψ
α ε η ι ο υ ω
β γ δ ζ θ κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ/ς τ φ χ ψ
α, the vowel Alpha is equivalent to the English short-a and is pronounced like the second a in the word “alphabet”.
β, the consonant Bêta [BAY-tah] is equivalent to the English letter b and is read just like an English b.
γ, the consonant Gamma is equivalent to the English letter g. It’s always sounded like a hard-g as in “gamma rays got me green”. Double gamma, γγ is sounded like hard-ng, so ἀγγελος (angel) is pronounced like the ang in angle. (This also happens when γ comes before κ, χ, ξ, but these words are comparatively rare.)
δ, the consonant Delta is equivalent to the English letter d and pronounced exactly the same.
ε, the vowel Epsilon is equivalent to the English short-e, as in the word “met”.
ζ, the consonant Zêta [ZAY-tah] is equivalent to the English letter z and is pronounced like dz, like the ds in “lads”. At the beginning of a word, it is often pronounced like English z, as in “zip”.
η, the vowel Êta [AY-tah] has no English equivalent. Although it is pronounced like the English long-a in the word “ate”, it is actually the Greek long-e.
θ, the consonant Thêta [THAY-tah] also has no English equivalent. It is pronounced like the English th, as in the word “this” (not as in thin!).
ι, the vowel Iota [ee-YOH-tah], is equivalent to the English short-i (without the dot!) and is sounded the same as in “nit”. Iota is sometimes used as a consonant—usually in proper names like Ἰησους (Jesus) or Ἰουδαιος (Jew)—when it's pronounced like y in “yes”.
κ, the consonant Kappa is equivalent to English k and is pronounced the same.
λ, the consonant Lambda is equivalent to the English letter l and pronounced the same.
μ, the consonant Mu [Mü—rhymes with the sound of “feud”] is equivalent to the English letter m and read the same way.
ν, the consonant Nu [Nü—sounds like the eu in “feud”] is equivalent to the English letter n and read the same way.
ξ, the consonant Xi [Ksee] has no English equivalent. It is pronounced “ks”, like x in “hex”.
ο, the vowel Omicron [o-micron is Greek for “little o”] is equivalent to the English short-o. It is pronounced like the o in “not”.
π, the consonant Pi [Pea] is equivalent to the English letter p and is pronounced the same.
ρ, the consonant Rho [Roh] is equivalent to English rolling r and is pronounced the same way.
σ / ς , the consonant Sigma is equivalent to the English s in “house”. There are two symbols used in Greek for the cursive sigma: σ is used at the beginning or middle of a word; ς is used at the end of a word.
τ, the consonant Tau [Tow like the beginning of the word towel], is equivalent to English t.
υ, the vowel Upsilon is equivalent to English u, but pronounced like oo in “book”.
φ, the consonant Phi [Fee] has no English equivalent, it is pronounced like the English ph or f, as in physically fit.
χ, the consonant Chi [Khee] is not equivalent to the English letter x, despite its resemblance. It is pronounced like ch in Scottish loch or German doch.
ψ, the consonant Psi [Psee] has no English equivalent. It is transliterated with the letters ps and sounded as in the word sips.
ω, the vowel Omega [o-mega is Greek for “big o”] is equivalent to the English long-o, and pronounced like o in “lone”.
A6: Unusual Features
The following letters are the most unusual in appearance or sound when compared to those of the Latin alphabet used in English:
η θ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ φ ψ ω
Watch out for these common pitfalls:
γ is “g” not English y
ζ is “z”, not English s
η is “ā”, not English n
μ is “m”, not English u
ν is “n”, not English v
ρ is “r”, not English p
σ is “s”, not English o
χ is “ch”, not English x
ω is “ō”, not English w
A7: Practical Exercise
Practice writing out the Greek alphabet by hand until you can make each letter neatly and consistently. To help your memory, say them as you write them!
Use student handout L1_fig2_lines (email me, if you would like another handout)
Lesson Two
How to Read Koine Greek
B1: Lesson One Review
Review the Greek alphabet and the sounds the letters make as covered in Lesson One. Refer to L2_quizA_reviewl1
B2: The Uncial or Capital Letters
Here are the Greek capital letters. You’ll notice that half of them are either like their English counterparts or simply larger versions of their lowercase forms:
Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ
Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π
Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω
These are the exceptions:
Γ Δ Η Λ Ξ Ρ Σ Υ Ω
Helpful Hints:
Γ is capital [γ] and can be remembered if you think of the gallows in a game of Hangman.
Δ is capital delta [δ], and can be remembered if you think of a river delta, so named because its shape suggests the capital letter.
Η is capital êta [η], not English H
Λ is capital lambda [λ], not misprinted A
Ξ is capital ksi [ξ]. Do not confuse with Θ
Ρ is capital rho [ρ], not English P
Σ is capital sigma [σ], not misprinted Ε
Υ is capital upsilon [υ], not capital gamma [γ], or English Y
Ω is capital omega [ω]—Christians will be familiar with this symbol.
B3: Diphthongs
Whenever two vowels combine to make a single sound, the combination is called a diphthong. Here are the seven main Greek diphthongs and the sounds they make:
αι like ai in aisle αυ like ow in cow
ει like ei in height οι like oi in oil
ευ like eu in feud ου like ou in soup
υι like ue in queen
B4: Practical Exercise
Biblical Proper Name recognition. (See form: L2_praxA_names)
B5: Iota Subscripts
An iota subscript is a small iota often written under the letters α, η, ω, at the end of a word. It is a relic of an ancient diphthong and, although it does not affect pronunciation, it is essential for translation, and therefore must always be written.
ᾳ ῃ ῳ
As it does not affect pronunciation, the iota subscript is categorised as an “improper diphthong”.
B6: Diacritical Marks
The iota subscript is what linguists call a diacritical mark; which is a small symbol attached above or below a letter indicating some change of state or function—typically it denotes a difference in pronunciation or stress. There are three other types of diacritical mark used in Koine Greek:
1. Diaeresis
2. Breathings
3. Accents
4. Elision
B7: Diaeresis
A diaeresis is a symbol made up of two small dots ( ¨ ) that is placed above the second of two vowels in a diphthong that indicate each vowel should be pronounced separately. The word naïve in English has a diaeresis which prevents it being pronounced “nive”.
B8: Breathing Marks
In Greek, there is no letter corresponding to the letter h in English. However the aspirated “huh” sound of the letter h is made all the time in Greek. This function of the letter h is performed by special diacritical marks called breathings. Every vowel or diphthong that starts a word supports one of the following two breathing marks:
1. rough ‘
2. smooth ’
The rough breathing looks like a single quotation mark ( ‘ ). When placed over a vowel or diphthong, it produces a preceding h-sound:
η is pronounced “ay”
ἡ is pronounced “hay”
The smooth breathing looks like an apostrophe ( ’ ) and, when placed over a vowel or diphthong, indicates that the h-sound should not be pronounced.
When over a diphthong, the breathing is placed above the second vowel:
Wrong: ὑιος
Right: υἱος (son)
When the vowel starting a word is a capital, the breathing is placed in front of the letter:
Ἑλλην (Greek) Ἰησους (Jesus)
Curiously, whenever a rho (r) begins a word, it always supports a rough breathing:
ῥημα (word) Ῥομη (Rome)
However, do not attempt to pronounce this ρ rough breathing!
B9: Accents
The three accents in Greek are:
1. acute ´
2. grave `
3. circumflex ῀ or ˆ
At least one of these accents will be found on the majority of words in most printed texts today. They are used to denote stress and, in rare cases, to distinguish differences in meaning. There are two schools of thought concerning the teaching of accents to beginners. One school says it is essential; the other says it is an unnecessary complication with little or no relevant benefit. I subscribe to the latter school; therefore we will not be learning the rules of use for accents in this course. We will, however, use accents for those rare cases where they are the only means to distinguish between words that are otherwise identical in form.
B10: Elision
An apostrophe ( ’ the same sign as the smooth breathing) is used to show that a vowel has been dropped (elided) before a vowel or diphthong at the beginning of the next word. The two main words elided are:
δι’ written instead of δια
ἀλλ’ written instead of ἀλλα
This is similar to the apostrophe use in English contractions to indicate a missing letter:
In the contraction “I’m”, the apostrophe indicates the missing a in “I am”.
In the contraction “it’s”, the apostrophe indicates the missing i in “it is”.
B11: Punctuation
There are four punctuation marks used in Greek:
1. comma , (same as Eng)
2. full-stop . (same as Eng)
3. semicolon • (above the line)
4. question mark ; (same as Eng semicolon)
The comma and full-stop are the same as ours; the semicolon is the top half of our colon; the question mark is the same sign as our semicolon. Extra care must be taken to note the question mark in Greek, because questions and statements are identical in form; the only difference is the question mark at the end.
B12: Practical Exercise
Add punctuation, breathings, and iota subscripts to Greek text. (See form: L2_praxB_translit1)
The Usual Subjects
C1: Lesson Two Review
Review completed Practical Exercise B (L2_praxB_translit1) from Lesson Two. After marking, read the lines of Greek text out loud from the exercise.
C2: The Need for Grammar
Very early on in his studies, the beginning Greek student is made aware of just how comfortable or uncomfortable he is with grammar and grammatical terminology. There is no way to avoid the need to develop an easy competency with basic grammar and its concepts. To illustrate this idea, consider the following words:
Steering wheel
Gear shift
Accelerator
Indicator
Clutch
Speed limit
Seat
Break pedal
Mirror
Seat
Road sign
Windshield
Seatbelt
Hand break
Now, imagine trying to learn how to drive a car if you weren’t sure what these words referred to or meant. Try imagining teaching someone how to drive a car if they didn’t know what these words referred to or meant! Both could be done, eventually, but it is obvious that the quality of instruction would be poorer, the time needed would be greater, and the caliber of driving less certain.
And so it is with grammar and learning Greek—it could be done without knowing what the relative grammatical terms refer to and mean, but it would take a great deal longer to learn and the quality of the result would be highly inconsistent from student to student.
C3: Nouns
Simply put, a noun is a person, place or thing. Here are some nouns:
Jesus, disciple, talent, forgiveness, Jerusalem, son, angel.
Pronouns are just nouns used in place of other nouns. Here are some pronouns:
I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
C4: Inflection
The inflection of nouns is given a special name: declension. There are three different patterns of noun declension in Greek. However, regardless of which of these declension patterns a noun is in, it will decline in relation to the following three conditions:
2. Gender
3. Case
Let’s examine these conditions individually.
C6: Number
Number refers to how many things are named by the noun. In English and Greek, there are only two grammatical numbers: singular (one thing); and plural (two or more things).
There are two other patterns of regular plural formation:
• the majority of words just add a final s to the noun (e.g. one car and two cars)
• nouns that end with s, x, ch or sh: -es is added (i.e. one bus, two buses; one box, two boxes;
one bach, two baches, one bush, two bushes)
one bach, two baches, one bush, two bushes)
• nouns that end with consonant + y: the y changes to i and -es is added (e.g., one enemy,
two enemies)
There are seven irregular patterns:
• nouns that end with -o, where you add -es (e.g., one potato, two potatoes)
• nouns ending with -is, where you change -is to -es (e.g., one crisis, two crises)
• nouns ending with -f, where you change -f to -v and add -es (e.g., one wolf, two wolves)
• nouns ending with -fe, where you change -f to -v and add -s (e.g., one life, two lives)
• nouns that contain -oo, change -oo to -ee (e.g., one foot, two feet)
• nouns with foreign endings with -us and-on, where you change -us to -i (e.g., one fungus, two fungi)
and -on with -a (e.g., phenomenon, phenomena)
• nouns that don’t change form (e.g., sheep, offspring, series)
Now, just imagine being an adult English student and having to learn all of those!
C7: Gender
GENDER refers both to natural gender—male, female and neuter; and grammatical gender—masculine, feminine, neuter.
Only natural gender occurs in English. As well, there are only a relatively few nouns with different forms depending on natural gender, or the sex, of the person or animal named (and the ones referring to occupations are falling quickly into disuse); word pairs like man/woman, uncle/aunt, lion/lioness, tiger/tigress, actor/actress, and executor/executrix.
In Greek, pronouns will reflect natural gender (i.e. ἀυτος/ἀυτη for him and her respectively), but nouns decline according to grammatical gender.
All nouns in Greek are masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender of a noun never changes, but which gender a noun has is unpredictable.
For example, in Greek κοσμος (world) is masculine; κεφαλη (head) is feminine; and προβατον (sheep) is neuter.
For the Greek student, this means that as well as learning the meaning of a Greek noun, they have to learn what grammatical gender it has, too. Helpfully enough, for most nouns, the gender of a word is indicated by the ending of the lexical form. For example, the –ος ending nearly always indicates a masculine noun, as in the word ἀποστολος (apostle). In any event, the lexicon will always list the gender of the word along with its meaning.
C8: Case
CASE refers to the function a noun has in the sentence—function rather than meaning. There are five Greek cases to note: nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive.
In this lesson, we will discuss the nominative and accusative cases.
C9: The Nominative and Accusative Cases
The nominative case is the subject case.
The accusative is the direct object case.
The subject is the person or thing doing the action of the verb.
The direct object is the thing immediately affected by the action of the verb.
Let’s examine how this relates to Greek and the New Testament.
In the genealogy of Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, we find the following:
᾿Ιακωβ δε ἐγεννησε τον ᾿Ιουδαν, ᾿Ιουδας δε ἐγεννησε τον Φαρες.
And Jacob begat Judah, and Judah begat Pharez.
᾿Αμων δε ἐγεννησε τον ᾿Ιωσιαν, ᾿Ιωσιας δε ἐγεννησε τον ᾿Ιεχονιαν,
Amon begat Josiah, and Josiah begat Jechoniah,
᾿Ιεχονιας ἐγεννησε τον Σαλαθιηλ.
And Jechoniah begat Shealtiel.
Notice the different spellings for the same names: ᾿Ιουδαν/᾿Ιουδας, ᾿Ιωσιαν/᾿Ιωσιας and ᾿Ιεχονιαν/᾿Ιεχονιας. Why do you think there are two spellings?
To reveal the differences in the names in English, we need to substitute the proper name Judah with masculine pronouns:
So the first sentence: And Jacob begat Judah, and Judah begat Pharez.
becomes: And Jacob begat him, and he begat Jacob.
Notice that now we have to use different word forms for the same person too! Why? Because the different cases force us to use a different word. When the man is doing the begetting, we use “he”. When the man is the one being begotten, “him” is used.
The doer case—the “he” case—is the subjective case or, more correctly, the nominative case. The “being done to” case—the “him” case—is the objective case or, more correctly, the accusative case.
So, given that, we can see that ᾿Ιουδας is the nominative case form and ᾿Ιουδαν is the accusative case form. As are ᾿Ιωσιας, ᾿Ιωσιαν and ᾿Ιεχονιας, ᾿Ιεχονιαν.
In English, these case differences only occur with pronouns; in Greek, they occur with every noun except certain non-Greek proper names (if you look at the whole genealogy in Greek, you’ll see most of the names there don’t change).
C10: Declension Pattern
Greek nouns are made up of two parts: the stem and the ending. The stem carries the meaning of the word and doesn’t decline. The ending is where all of the declension takes place. This declension is regular within each pattern.
In the word ἀποστολος:
ἀποστολ is the stem and carries the meaning
ος is the ending and indicates the case, number and the declension pattern
ἀποστολος is the nominative singular form
ἀποστολον is the accusative singular form
ἀποστολοι is the nominative plural form
ἀποστολους is the accusative plural form
The nominative singular form is always the lexical form of nouns.
C11: Vocabulary
From this lesson on, there will be a list of vocabulary words given at the end of each lesson. It will be your responsibility to learn the vocabulary. For nouns, this means learning not only the word and its meaning, but also its gender and declension pattern. Each word will be given along with the number of times it occurs in the Greek NT. The most common, general definition will also be given, but you should bear in mind that the full meaning of a word in one language is rarely translated by a single word in another language (For example, the word και can mean “and”, “also” and “even” depending on the context.) As your vocabulary and Greek knowledge grow, you’ll have to use your own judgement as to which meaning of a given word is the most appropriate for the context.
The nouns below are all masculine and, because they end in ος, they all follow the same declension pattern as ἀποστολος. This declension pattern is called the Second Declension in ος.
Masculine Nouns—ος
ἀγγελος 175 angel, messenger
ἀδελφος 343 brother
ἀνθρωπος 548 man
ἀποστολος 79 apostle
διδασκαλος 59 teacher
θανατος 120 death
Ἰουδαιος 194 Jew
κοσμος 185 world
κυριος 718 lord
λεπρος 9 leper
λογος 331 word
ὀφθαλμος 100 eye
Φαρισαιος 97 Pharisee
φοβος 47 fear
Χριστος 529 Christ
Other Words
και 8947 and, even, also
Ισραηλ 68 Israel (masc—doesn’t decline)
βλεπει 132 he sees/is seeing
C12: Practical Exercise: Translation
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek.
1. ἀποστολος, ἀδελφοι, διδασκαλος, Χριστος και φοβος.
2. Φαρισαιος βλεπει λεπρον.
3. διδασκαλος και Μαρκος
4. διδασκαλος βλεπει κυριοι;
5. Ἰακωβος, Ἰησους, ανθρωποι και Ιωαννης.
6. Ἰησους βλεπει Ισραηλ και κοσμος
7. An eye, an apostle, and death.
8. Christ sees Pharisees and lepers.
9. Does a Jew see fear?
10. An angel sees a lord.
11. And God was the Word.
D1: Lesson Three Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L3_praxA_trans) from Lesson Three.
D2: The Direct and Indirect Objects
We learned in Lesson 3 that the nominative case is the subject case and that the accusative case is the object case. Whereas the subject is found by putting the question who or what before the verb; the direct object can be found by putting the question whom or what after the verb. Consider this sentence:
He gave a stone.
If we ask, “Who gave?” The answer is “he”. Therefore he is the subject and is in the nominative case.
If we ask, “He gave what?” The answer is a stone. Therefore a stone is the object and is in the accusative case. Relative to the verb, a stone is said to be the direct object—the object directly affected by the verb.
Now consider this sentence:
He gave Jacob a stone.
In this sentence, Jacob is also an object, but not in the same way that a stone is. As an object, Jacob neither answers “Who gave?” nor “He gave what?” The question it answers is “To whom did he give a stone?” Relative to the verb, Jacob is said to be the indirect object—the object indirectly affected by the verb.
In English, the indirect object noun is in the same case—accusative—as the direct object. But in Greek, the indirect object is in a different case altogether: the dative case.
D3: The Dative Case
The most common use of the dative case is as the indirect object case—the to or for whom case. In Greek, nouns decline in the dative case. For example:
διδασκαλος γραφει λογους. (A teacher writes words.)
We know that the direct object is λογους and is in the accusative case. Look at the following sentence:
διδασκαλος γραφει λογους ἀποστολῳ. (A teacher writes words to an apostle.)
Here ἀποστολῳ is the indirect object and is in the dative case. This sentence could also mean for an apostle; the context will usually determine whether to or for is the best translation.
The plural form of the noun in the dative case is ἀποστολοις:
διδασκαλος γραφει λογους ἀποστολοις (A teacher writes words to apostles.)
D4: The Genitive Case
The genitive case is the possessive case. Consider these sentences:
A teacher writes an apostle’s words.
A teacher writes the words of an apostle.
Here, both an apostle’s and of an apostle show possession. Unlike English, Greek can only show possession one way; by declining the possessing noun in the genitive case:
διδασκαλος γραφει λογους ἀποστολου.
The plural form of the noun in the genitive case is ἀποστολων:
διδασκαλος γραφει λογους ἀποστολων.
A teacher writes apostles’ words.
A teacher writes the words of apostles.
D5: The Vocative Case
The vocative case is the case of address. As in English, it may be preceded by ὠ (O!). Whether ὠ is used or not is a matter of the writer’s taste.
ὠ Κυριε, ἀποστολος λαλει. (O Lord, an apostle speaks.)
Κυριε, ἀποστολος λαλει. (Lord, an apostle speaks.)
D6: Declension Table
Here is the full pattern of nouns ending in -ος in the 2nd declension:
Here’s a rule: The iota-subscript is always found under the final vowel of the dative singular form in the 2nd declension (…and the 1st)
D7: Declension of Ἰησους
The name Ἰησους declines differently than other 2nd declension nouns (because of the -ους ending). Both the vocative and dative take the genitive form:
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L4 Practical A Translation (L4_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L4 Vocabulary (L4_vocab).
