Evgw, eivmi to; A[lfa
Beginning Greek for
Bible Study
Class #1
kai; to; w=
An example
For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God; - Ephesians 2:8
What is the gift?
Th/: ga;r cavritiv evste sesw/smevnoi dia; pivstewV kai; tou:to
ouvk evx uJmw:n qeou: to; dw:ron
The Dangers of Learning a Little
Greek (pp. xviii-xx)
A little knowledge can be dangerous!
Remember you are learning how to use the tools
of Greek. You will not be a Greek expert by
taking this class.
After this class, you will sound authoritative to
others. Be careful!
Guard your heart from pride (James 4:6).
Humbly rely on those who ARE Greek scholars.
Remember Prov. 1:7.
The Greek Language
Koine Greek (koinhv)
Koine, or biblical Greek, is the type of Greek we
will be learning.
Koine means “common,” as it was the common
language of the people.
Because Koine was a universal language, it was
very easy for the New Testament to spread
during the first century.
It is also significant that God used a common,
universal language to communicate the gospel
of Jesus Christ to people.
The Greek Alphabet
Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Zeta
Eta
Theta
Iota
Kappa
Lambda
Mu
a
b
g
d
e
z
h
q
i
k
l
m
a
b
g
d
e
z
e
th
i
k
L
m
Father
Bible
gone
dog
met
daze
obey
thing
intrigue
kitchen
law
mother
Nu
Xi
Omicron
Pi
Rho
Sigma
Tau
Upsilon
Phi
Chi
Psi
Omega
n
x
o
p
r
s-V
t
u
f
c
y
w
n
x
o
p
r
s
t
u
ph
ch
ps
o
new
axiom
not
peach
rod
study
talk
oops
phone
loch
lips
tone
Alphabet helps
If you can say the name of the letter, you know
the sound of the letter.
Though you don’t need to know the capital
letters right away, you’ll need to learn them in
order to read in the Greek NT.
g normally has a “g” sound, but when it is
followed by g, k, c, or x, it is pronounced as a n
which has a “n” sound. Hence, a[ggeloV is
pronounced, “angelos.”
Sometimes an iota occurs underneath an a, h, or
w. This is called an iota subscript. This type of
iota is not pronounced, but it is significant for
meaning.
Dipthongs
ai – as in aisle
ei – as in eight
oi – as in oil
au – as in Sauerkraut
ou – as in soup
ui – as in suite
eu & hu– as in feud
Breathing Marks
Every word beginning with a vowel or r has a
breathing mark
Smooth – not pronounced



j
ajpostoloV
jIsrahl
Rough – pronounced as an “h” sound



J
Juper
Jrabbi
Breathing Marks
Every word beginning with a dipthong
takes a breathing mark over the second
vowel

Aijtew – “I ask”
Pronunciation
Accents
Greek has three accent marks:
Acute
v
aijtevw
Grave
;
qeo;V
Circumflex
:
jIhsou:V
Punctuation
There are four punctuation marks found in
the Greek New Testament:
Comma
,
qeo;V,
Comma
Period
.
qeo;V.
Period
Period
above
Semicolon
`
qeo;V`
Semicolon
;
qeo;V~
Question mark
Pronunciation
Ejn ajrch: h\n oJ lovgoV kai; oJ lovgoV h\n pro;V to;n qeovn
kai; qeo;V h\n oJ lovgoV.
Ou[twj ga.r hvga,phsen o` qeo.j to.n ko,smon( w[ste
to.n ui`o.n to.n monogenh/ e;dwken( i[na pa/j o`
pisteu,wn eivj auvto.n mh. avpo,lhtai avllV e;ch| zwh.n
aivw,nionÅ
Advanced
Class 1
Where did our alphabet come
from?
The Greek New Testament
The Greek New Testament was completed
about 100 AD
Scholars have discovered over 24,000
manuscripts and fragments of the NT in
Greek & Latin
The Oldest NT Manuscript –
John (p52 – 125 AD)
Colossians fragment in Coptic
(3rd Century AD)
The Septuagint (LXX) - SoS
filhsa,tw me avpo. filhma,twn sto,matoj auvtou/ o[ti
avgaqoi. mastoi, sou u`pe.r oi=non
"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.” – SoS 1:2
Codex Sinaiticus (4th century
AD)
pa,nta diV auvtou/ evge,neto( kai. cwri.j auvtou/
evge,neto ouvde. e[n o] ge,gonen
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him
nothing came into being that has come into being. – John 1:3
How Greek Works
English: The boy hit the ball
Greek:





The boy hit the ball
Hit the boy the ball
The ball hit the boy
The boy the ball hit
The ball the boy hit
Inflection
Perhaps the greatest difference between
English and Greek is that of syntax – the
way words show their relationship to each
other in a sentence.
In English, we typically understand the
function of the words in a sentence by the
word order
But in Greek, we understand the function
of the words by their inflection. Inflection
is how a word changes based on the
function of the word.
Inflection
In English, the only real inflection we have
is in our pronouns
Subjective
Possessive
Objective
He
His
Him
She
Hers
Her
It
Its
It
Inflection
He hit the ball.
The ball hit him.
The red one is his ball.