Revised June 3, 2010

Notes

for

the

Study

of

hJ kainh;

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diaqhvk hTerry CookTable of ContentsParts of Speech. Nouns... Case. Nominative...P. 9 P. 11 P. 15 P. 15

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Genitive.... Dative... Accusative Prepositions Adjectives... Pronouns. Article... Verbs.... Linking Verbs Eimi. Contract Verbs. Voice Active.... Middle Passive. Mood Indicative.. Subjunctive.. Optative Imperative. Tense... Present.. Imperfect... Future Aorist. Perfect... Pluperfect. Infinitives. Participles Adverbs Conjunctions.. Principal Parts Sentences and Clauses... Glossary..

P. 19 P. 33 P. 47 P. 55 P. 80 P. 97 P. 119 P. 126 P. 129 P. 131 P. 135 P. 142 P. 143 P. 144 P. 150 P. 156 P. 158 P. 161 P. 161 P. 169 P. 173 P. 185 P. 193 P. 197 P. 199 P. 208 P. 214 P. 216 P. 235 P. 268 P. 274 P. 284 P. 292 P. 314

mi Verbs... P. 133

I have firmly decided to study Greek; nobody except God can prevent it. It is not a matter of personal ambition but one of understanding the most Sacred Writings -Ulrich Zwingli

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The common equivalencies used in transliteration of Greek letters are as follows:1

a- A alpha b- B beta g- G gamma d- D delta e- E epsilon z- Z zeta h-H eta q-Q theta i-I iota k-K kappa l-L Lambda m-M mu n-N nu x-X kasee (xi) o-O omicron p-P pi or pee r-R rho s,~-S sigma t-T tau u-U upsilon f-F phi (fee) c-C chi (key) y-Y psi (pcee) w-W omega

= A* = B (pronounced bayta) =G =D =E = Z or dz (pronounced zayta) = E (pronounced ayta) = TH (pronounced thayta) =I =K =L = M (pronounced moo) = N (pronounced noo) = X (pronounced ksee) =O = P (pronounced pee) = R (pronounced roe) =S = T (rhymes with cow) = U or Y (pronounced oop-si-lahn) = PH (pronounced fee) = Ch (pronounced khee or chee) = PS (pronounced psee) = W (long over it)

"Language was originally spoken so that letters are but arbitrary symbols invented to represent sounds."2 * Respelling the Greek letters with our own letters is called transliterating them. The Greek alphabet contains 24 letters, including 7 vowels: , , , , , , . And 17 consonants:1

The first written manuscripts of the New Testament were "uncial" texts, which were written in capital letters without spaces or punctuation as in Philippians 2:8: ETAPEINWSENEAUTONGENOMENOSUPHKOOSMECRIQANATOU = "he humbled himself and became obedient to death." 2 Dana and Mantey, P. 20.

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Liquids: , Sibilants: , Mutes: Gutturals Labials , Dentals ,

, , , , , , , ,

The only consonants that may stand at the end of a Greek word3 are , , and (, ). The longest word in the Greek NT is in Acts 10:41 with 20 letters: . Including the article , it means, "the ones chosen."

As will become immediately clear, what follows is built on foundational work done by many others4 and as we go along, the importance of these foundational contributions will become clear5. The purpose of this presentation is to help explain Greek grammar and syntax with an approach that is different from the usual Greek textbooks or supplements. The goal of this supplement is to clarify and reinforce the material presented in the textbooks given in the bibliography, after the students' initial reading. Very important to the use of this guide is understanding the layout so that the user will be able to make the most of the material. The design includes hundreds of "notes" from these textbooks on all the features of New Testament Koine that I felt might be important to a 2nd-3rd year Greek student whose primary interest is the Koine Greek New Testament. I have provided information on syntax and grammar, definitions6 (which appear at the end), explanations, and examples from both English and Greek- citing examples from the Greek New Testament when appropriate. It is my hope that when used as intended this guide will help students to gain a solid foundation upon which to understand the New Testament in its original language and that this3 4

A Word is a written or spoken unit of language. A representative listing occurs in the bibliography at the end. 5 I am a student of New Testament Greek and in no sense am I an expert. I am aware there are deficiencies in this guide. I wrote this paper over a period of time when I was a 2nd and 3rd year Greek student in an effort to assist my own study of NT Greek. This guide is not intended to be a student's one and only resource. Used as intended this guide will be helpful as a supplement to many of the textbooks listed in the bibliography. However, this guide is best used in concert with the Dana & Mantey textbook. 6 I have found that all grammarians and users do not employ some of the terms consistently.

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guide might lead the student to pursue subsequent study and gain a thorough mastery of the language. Again, this guide is not intended for use as a stand-alone study guide but aims to provide the interested person a supplement to one or more of the many fine textbooks available. It is thought that this essay might be profitable for use in self-study,7 for use in the classroom, and as an independent reference tool. I have only to add that this work has afforded me great pleasure and profit and has granted me a deeper and truer acquaintance with the words of Truth and Life.Remembering Man's Chief End Terry Cook Soli Deo Gloria

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It is the rare individual who can acquire competence in ancient Greek through self-study and a textbook(s). Most people acquire proficiency with the right mix of teacher, textbook, patience and hard work. Whatever method one uses towards learning Greek, this tool may prove useful.

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Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other

-the LORDAccording to the Bible, foreign languages were born when God destroyed the Tower of Babel. When it collapsed, 72 languages appeared: this many because Noahs three sons had 72 descendants: Shem had 26, Ham had 32, and Japheth had 14. The exact number of spoken languages today cant be known precisely but a German weekly (1994) estimated the inhabitants of our globe communicate with each other in 6,000 languages. In expressing our ideas and thoughts we use two kinds of words- spoken words and written words. Writing is a comparatively late development in the progress of mankind from caveman to the present day. No one knows when or where writing originated8 but apparently mankind has been making understandable sounds for quite some time. From those first utterances, language developed as a fundamental means of social interaction and information sharing.9 Not until people wished to communicate with those at a distance, or thought they had something worth handing down to future generations, did they feel the need to commit their words to a more permanent form - the written form. So, from simple oral communication the need arose for written forms of communication. Mesopotamian writing systems have been traced to the end of the 4th millennium BC and some historians believe Chinese writing systems may predate those of the Mesopotamians by a thousand years or more. As long ago as this sounds, writing is a relatively new means of communication in the history of humankind. "Ancient" Greek covers a broad range of language. The Proto-Greek10 language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenaean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek.

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Historians draw a distinction between prehistory and history, with history defined by the advent of writing. The cave paintings and petroglyphs of prehistoric peoples can be considered precursors of writing, but are not considered writing. 9 With the advent of writing, formal rules about language usage tend to appear. 10 Proto-Greek dates from the late 3rd millennium BC.

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The Greek of Plato (427 - 347 B.C)., the epitome of classical Attic11 writing style, is very different than that used by Homer (8th century B.C). The Koine12 Greek of the New Testament is very different to that of Plato and Homer; indeed the transition to Koine is one of the most radical periods of change in the language.13 Many people whose native tongue was not Greek attempted to express themselves through the medium of the classical Attic dialect resulting in an erosion and simplification of the language.14 This resulting form of Greek is known as the "common language" or Koine15 and is the language that the New Testament was originally written.16 "Koine is not simply Classical Greek on the decline"17 but was, "the vehicle of expression of all who spoke Greek in the postclassical period."18< < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <