New Testament Greek Online

Lesson Text

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Grammar

1 The alphabet and sound system.

1.1 The alphabet.

The alphabet is the same for New Testament Greek as for Classical Greek. The names are generally well known, such as the first two from our word alphabet, the third from gamma rays, the fourth from the delta of a river, and so on.

The same pronunciation is used for the language, in spite of the difference in time. As a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323), Greek came to be used throughout the world adjoining the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, extending farther east and also in the south to Egypt and in the west to Italy. It was the common (κοινη) language much as English is today. In such a wide expanse, there were differences of pronunciation and usage, just as there are in English today. These may be of interest for scholarly purposes, but they do not affect the reading and understanding of the Biblical texts.

The letters in small and capital forms, with their names and guides to pronunciation, are as follows:

Alpha		α, Α		father
Beta		β, Β		bother
Gamma		γ, Γ		gather
Delta		δ, Δ		delta
Epsilon		ε, Ε		debt
Zeta		ζ, Ζ		zen
Eta		η, Η		rate (rat)
Theta		θ, Θ		thin (tin) i.e. with aspiration
Iota		ι, Ι		sin
Kappa		κ, Κ		cope (scope) i.e. no aspiration
Lamba		λ, Λ		lap
Mu		μ, Μ		map
Nu		ν, Ν		nap
Ksi		ξ, Ξ		tax
Omikron		ο, Ο		rope
Pi		π, Π		poke (spoke) i.e., no aspiration
Rho		ρ, Ρ		rope
Sigma		σς, Σ		soap (note: lower-case form has 2 variants)
Tau		τ, Τ		top (stop) i.e. no aspiration
Upsilon		υ, Υ		soon (German Suehne) i.e. front rounded
Phi		φ, Φ		four (pour) i.e. with aspiration
Chi		χ, Χ		core (German ich or ach) i.e. velar fricative
Psi		ψ, Ψ		tops
Omega		ω, Ω		boat (bought)

In addition, words beginning with vowels may have an initial h sound. This is called a breathing. If beginning with h, the breathing is called rough, represented by the diacritic ῾ immediately preceding or over the vowel (e.g., ὁ); if without an h sound, the breathing is smooth, represented by the diacritic ᾿ immediately preceding or over the vowel (e.g., ὀ).

Moreover, vowels may have an iota subscript, that is, an [i] sound after the vowel, written as a diacritic beneath the vowel (e.g., ῳ); while indicated in texts, this is generally left without pronunciation.

1.2 The sound system.

The system is as follows:

		Labials		Dentals		Palato-velars
Voiceless:		π		τ		κ
Voiced:		β		δ		γ
Aspirated, voiceless:		φ		θ		χ
Fricative:				ς
Nasals:		μ		ν		γ (spelled γ before γ or κ)
Vowels:		ι				υ
		ε			ο
				α
		ῑ				ῡ
		η			ω
				ᾱ
Diphthongs:		ει αι οι υι			ευ αυ ηυ ου

Classical Greek had a musical accent. There are three such accents. Vowels marked with oxia (e.g., ά) had high pitch; those with varia (e.g., ὰ) had a low or falling pitch; those marked with perispomeni (e.g., ᾶ) had rising and falling pitch.

The accent had changed, however, from one of pitch to one of stress. Yet the stress fell on the same syllables as in Classical Greek. The different type of stress is assumed to have had an effect on the quality of vowels. We may disregard such effects, and pronounce the words as in Classical Greek.

2 The basis word order of sentences in New Testament Greek.

In contrast with Classical Greek, in which the verb often stood at the end of the clause, verbs are placed initially in many sentences of New Testament Greek, or after the subject. In almost all of the sentences in this text, they stand initially. Their position may be due to influence from Aramaic, which is the other language of probably all authors of the New Testament as well as of Jesus. Like Hebrew, it is a verb-initial language. The first words of our text may provide an example:

Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείνοις
"And it happened in those days..."

Another syntactic influence from Aramaic is the frequent use of an initial word for 'and' in the sentence, as in 2.8:

Καὶ ποιμένες ἦσαν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ
"And shepherds were in that area"

Languages in which the verb is initial in the clause often place a connective before it. The Hebrew Bible does so, with an equivalent to Greek καί; this practice not only influenced New Testament Greek, but also later translations like the King James version for English and the translations in other languages.

3 Modifications of the basic sentence pattern.

The sentences in the New Testament are relatively short and transparent, as in this text. There are few subordinate clauses; phrases with participles and infinitives may replace them. One such construction is the genitive absolute, in which a participle and a noun in the genitive correspond to a subordinate clause, as in 2:2 --

ἡγεμενεύοντος τῆς Συριάς Κυρηνίου
governing                   Syria     Cyrenius
"when Cyrenius was governing Syria"

Another such construction is the use of an infinitive with a noun in the accusative as subject, as in 2.4:

διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν ἐξ οἶκου καὶ πατριᾶς Δαυίδ
through the be(ing) him from house and lineage David
"because he was from the house and lineage of David"

But in general, many examples of the use of participles and infinitives are comparable to that in English.

4 Nominal inflection.

Nouns, adjective and the article are inflected for three genders, four cases, and two numbers. The dual is no longer used. The three genders are the masculine, feminine and neuter. The four cases are the nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. The principal uses of the cases are readily noted. The nominative is the case of the subject and of nouns after the copula in the predicative nominative. The genitive is the case of possession. The dative is the case of the indirect object, but is used less than in Classical Greek; nouns with prepositions may replace it. The accusative is the case of the direct object.

Because of the common use of the article, its forms might well be memorized.

		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
Nom sg		ὁ		ἡ		τό
Gen sg		τοῦ		τῆς		τοῦ
Dat sg		τῷ		τῇ		τῷ
Acc sg		τόν		τήν		τό
Nom pl		οἱ		αἱ		τά
Gen pl		τῶν		τῶν		τῶν
Dat pl		τοῖς		ταῖς		τοῖς
Acc pl		τούς		τάς		τά

Examples of the ο-declension, masculine and neuter, and the α-declension, feminine, are given here.

		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
Nom sg		ὁ λόγος 'word'		ἡ ἡμέρα 'day'		τὸ δῶρον 'gift'
Gen sg		τοῦ λόγου		τῆς ἡμέρας		τοῦ δώρον
Dat sg		τῷ λόγῳ		τῇ ἡμέρᾳ		τῷ δώρῳ
Acc sg		τόν λόγον		τὴν ἡμέραν		τὸ δῶρου
Nom pl		οἱ λόγοι		αἱ ἡμέραι		τὰ δῶρα
Gen pl		τῶν λόγων		τῶν ἡμερῶν		τῶν δώρων
Dat pl		τοῖς λόγοις		ταῖς ἡμέραις		τοῖς δώροις
Acc pl		τοὺς λόγους		τὰς ἡμέρας		τὰ δῶρα

5 Verb inflection.

Greek verbs are inflected for three voices, active, middle and passive, for four moods, indicative, subjunctive, optative and imperative, three systems or tenses, present, aorist and perfect, three numbers, singular, dual, plural. The augment 'ε' (epsilon) is used with past tense forms, imperfect, aorist, and pluperfect, but only in the indicative. The perfect stem is often reduplicated. In addition there are infinitives and participles.

In view of its regularity, the verb πιστεύω 'believe' may be used to illustrate the various forms. Here the present and the imperfect indicative active are given. Before vowels, 'ν' (nu) is added to some forms ending in a vowel.

		Present		Imperfect
1 sg		πιστεύω		ἐπίστευον
2 sg		πιστεύεις		ἐπίστευες
3 sg		πιστεύει		ἐπίστευε(ν)
1 pl		πιστεύομεν		ἐπιστεύομεν
2 pl		πιστεύετε		ἐπιστεύετε
3 pl		πιστεύουσι(ν)		ἐπίστευον

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