comes second in its clause. I have rearranged it to the first position here to follow English order, but it would never occur here in “real” Koine Greek. Otherwise, this sentence could have been written this way in Greek.
10. This is not a perfect example, because the word in the accusative, ἀνθρώπους, is the object of the preposition εἰς, not of the verb. But it does illustrate the point that word order is more flexible in Greek than in English.
11. Here is another word that normally comes second in its clause in Greek.
Day 6: Noun Patterns
Yesterday you looked at the most common noun pattern (remember, that’s called a declension). You may recall that there are actually three basic noun declensions in NT Greek. The one from yesterday happens to be the second declension, but most textbooks take it first because it is the most common one.
Today we want to look at the rest of the noun patterns. I call this the Quick Start Guide for nouns (see appendix A). This guide is not intended to be comprehensive; it doesn’t include every possible form of the Greek nouns. It does, however, cover the majority of noun endings.
Don’t worry: you don’t have to memorize the Quick Start Guide! It’s designed to be a reference to hold onto and refer to as needed. (There is one tiny part of it, though, that I think you ought to commit to memory—more about that on day 8.)
Take a little time to familiarize yourself with the Quick Start Guide. You’ll notice that the four main cases are there, listed in four rows: the nominative (row N), genitive (row G), dative, (row D) and accusative (row A). You’ll also notice one singular and one plural column each for masculine (columns 1 and 4), feminine (columns 2 and 5), and neuter (columns 3 and 6).
As you look at the Quick Start Guide, see what patterns you can notice. For example, you might notice that every dative singular word (cells D1, D2, and D3) has an iota at the end—either as the very last letter, or as a subscript under the very last letter. You might also notice that most (but not all) accusative singular words (cells A1, A2, and A3) end in nu.
If your beginning grammar textbook was the one by William D. Mounce, you might be quick to recognize a couple other patterns in the Quick Start Guide. As Mounce helpfully points out, the nominative and accusative of neuter nouns are always the same as one another (i.e., cell N3 = cell A3, and N6 = A6). And the genitives and datives of the masculine and neuter match (i.e., endings in G1 = endings in G3, endings in D1 = endings in D3, endings in G4 = endings in G6, and endings in D4 = endings in D6).
Exercise 6
Continue studying the Quick Start Guide for several minutes. Mark it up however you wish to help you remember the patterns you see. You might use circles and lines to connect matching cells. Another idea would be to use different colored highlighting pens to point out the patterns.
Spend the remainder of your thirty minutes reading the following verses. I’ve given you more verses to read than I think you will be able to complete in thirty minutes. Don’t try to race through them to check it off your list. Go for quality within the time limit, not for quantity.
1. 2 Thess 1:3–12
2. 1 Cor 1:18–25
3. Gal 3:5–9
As you read, use the Quick Start Guide to find the subjects (nominatives), direct objects (accusatives), possessives (genitives), and indirect objects (datives). As time permits, try to translate these verses. Check yourself using one of the more literal translations such as NASB or NRSV.
If you’ve committed to the additional fifteen minutes, perhaps you will want to reread the same passage you read yesterday. This time, though, try to use the Quick Start Guide to identify all the subjects and objects (based on the cases). In general, for your additional fifteen minutes, I recommend that you pick a book of the NT to read and read it all the way from beginning to end. Then pick another book and do the same. That is better than skipping around the NT for at least two reasons. First, it allows you to use context clues to help you understand what you are reading. Second, it gives you a goal (completing the book) that helps you stick to your commitment to read fifteen minutes every day.
This is the last time I’m going to remind you about your commitment to reading fifteen minutes “on your own” each day. Now you really are “on your own” on that!
Day 7: Review
Congratulations on making it through week 1! Now is a good time to look back at how far you’ve come in one week. I hope you are feeling more confident, as things are starting to come back to you with the help of the lessons, the exercises, and the use of the Reader’s Edition. We’ve covered a lot of Greek ground this week, from the fine details (letters and sounds) to the big picture (word endings and word order), with a lot of stuff in between. Let’s take time to review these things.
Alphabet and pronunciation. First, review the alphabet. Try reciting the letters in order without looking; then look back if you’ve forgotten any. (By the way, don’t worry if you can’t recite the alphabet. The idea is just to keep the letters fresh in your mind.)
Look back at the diphthongs—they’re probably the most difficult part of remembering how to pronounce words in Greek. Remember that a diphthong is a pair of vowels that make a single sound, and therefore a single syllable. It’s possible for two vowels to appear together in a word and not form a diphthong. In that case, the two vowels form two syllables, not one. This gets easier with practice. If in doubt, you can use Bible software to pronounce a word for you (more on Bible software later).
Word endings and word order. Here we touched on one of the most important parts of the Greek language. In Greek, the way that words are formed carries a lot more information than it does in English, while the order of the words carries less information. In English, we form sentences by placing the subject before the verb, and the object after the verb. That’s how we know who is doing what to whom. Greek conveys that same information by changing the ending of the words. So the subject has one kind of ending (we call it nominative) and the object has another kind of ending (called accusative). In addition to nominative and accusative, there are also genitive and dative endings. Remember that the primary function of the genitive is what we call possession, while that of the dative is for indirect object.
We used “Greenglish” to reintroduce the idea of word endings versus word order. Greenglish used an adaptation of the most common Greek noun pattern (second declension). Using the Quick Start Guide (day 6), we looked at the second declension patterns and other common noun patterns in Greek.
Exercise 7
Go back through exercises 1–6. Reread the verses and passages that you read before. Try to stretch for a little more understanding than you had the first time through. As time permits, read a few more of the suggested verses/passages from each exercise that you couldn’t get to the first time through.
Day 8: The (Article)
I mentioned earlier that there was one tiny part of the Quick Start Guide that I recommend you memorize. That one part is the article (those twenty-four little words, all translated “the”). Here they are:
| 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 |
Why