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Greek Lessons
- “What to Us and to You?”: Demonic Recognition and Eschatological Grammar in Matthew 8:29
- Whispers of Identity: From Prophets to Pronouns in Mark 8:28
- The Field of Blood: Passive Voice and Temporal Clauses in Matthew 27:8
- Declensions in the Storm: Case Usage in Matthew 8:26
- Testimony on the Road: Aorist Participles and Mission Grammar in Acts 8:25
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Category
Category Archives: Grammar
The Cases (Πτοσεις)
There are five cases in New Testament Greek that you should remember by heart: (1) nominative (case of the subject) (2) genitive (or possessive) (3) dative (conjunctive) (4) accusative (case of the object) (5) vocative (used in direct address).
Τhe nominative is the case of the subject. “A verb must agree with nominative case in number and person” (The first Concord). Nouns are of the third person.
When the subject is a personal pronoun, it is implied in the form of the verb, and is not separately expressed unless emphatic. In the third person singular, the omitted subject will be he, she, or it, and is to be learned from the connexion.… Learn Koine Greek
Nouns
Nouns in Greek have three genders: (i) masculine (ii) feminine (iii) neuter… Learn Koine Greek
Greek Vowel
Vowels
There are seven vowels in Greek: (1) α (2) ε (3) η (4) ι (5) ο (6) υ (7) ω
Of these ε and ο are always short, and take about half the time to pronounce as η and ω, which are always long.
A diphthong combines two vowels in one syllable. The second vowel is or ι or υ. The diphthongs are αι, ει, αυ, ευ, ου, ηυ, and, υι. ι written below the line of α, η, and ω is called iota subscript. These are improper diphthongs.… Learn Koine Greek
Use of the Interrogative Pronoun τις
The pronoun τις is sometimes put for the relative; as in Latin qui and quis, and in English, who is both relative and interrogative. Examples, (1) Where τις retains its interrogative meaning, and still must be rendered in Latin by quis or quod. E.g. Mat 20:22
Matthew 20:22 αποκριθεις δε ο ιησους ειπεν ουκ οιδατε τι αιτεισθε δυνασθε πιειν το ποτηριον ο εγω μελλω πινειν και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθηναι λεγουσιν αυτω δυναμεθα
But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”… Learn Koine Greek
Aramaic Style of the Greek New Testament
The national Aramaic or Hebrew element influenced Greek-writing Jewish authors of the Greek New Testament in a threefold manner: (1) It is proable that the speaker or writer quite involuntarily and unconciously rendered a phrase by his mother tounge by an accurately corresponding phrase; (2) The reading and hearing of the Old Testament in the Greek version of the Septuagint coloured the writer’s style, especially if he desired to write in a solemn and dignified manner (just as profane writers borrowed phrases from the Attic writers for a similar objects); (3) A great part of the New Testament writings (the three first Gospels and the first half of the Acts) is in all probability a direct working over of Aramaic or Hebrew materials.… Learn Koine Greek
Indefinite Article
Greeks have no indefinite article. When they wish to designate an individual in a manner undefined, they make use of τις. This usage is fully adopted in the New Testament.… Learn Koine Greek
Introduction To The New Testament Greek
The character of New Testament diction, although it is pretty definitely marked, was for a long mistaken, or was imperfectly and partially understood by biblical philologists. The reason for this was, the want of acquantaince with the character of the Greek language in its later periods, joined with polemical considerations, which always render men of clear understanding in respect to other things, slow to discern what is correct in respect to a controverted subject.
From the time of Henry Stephens (1576) down to the middle of the past century, two parties existed among the interpreters of the New Testament; the one of which laboured to shew, that the diction of the New Testament is in all respects conformed to the style of the Greek (Attic) writers; while the other maintained, on the contrary, and supposed themselves able to prove from every verse, that the style was altogether mixed with Hebraisms, and came very far short of the ancient classic Greek, in respect to purity.… Learn Koine Greek
