With your teacher, Robert A. Sungenis, M.A. Ph.D. (cd)

To read the Greek text of this lesson, go to www.teknia.com to download the Teknia Greek font (free of charge).

Lesson 1: The Greek Alphabet:

This lesson with familiarize you with the Greek alphabet and its pronunciation. This is probably the most important lesson you will have, since a thorough knowledge of the alphabet will make every lesson that much easier. You need to MEMORIZE the alphabet, to the point where you can recite it forwards and backwards, by memory, without looking at the letters. I suggest that you get a proctor to test you, both in pronouncing and writing the letters. The lower case Greek letters are the more important to study and memorize first. The upper case letters are rarely used.

Upper Case.... Lower Case...... Name................. Pronunciation

A ................. a ............... alpha .....................a

B................... b ................ beta .......................b

G................... g ............... gamma ...................g

D................... d ............... delta ......................d

E................... e ............... epsilon ...................e (as in "get")

Z................... z ................ zeta ......................dz

H................... h ................ eta .......................e (as in "whey")

Q................... q ................ theta ....................th

I..................... i ................. iota ..................... i

K.................... k ............... kappa .................. k

L.................... l ............... lambda ................. l

M.................... m ................ mu .................... m

N.................... n ................. nu ...................... n

X..................... x ................. ksi ..................... x (as in "wax")

O..................... o ............. omicron ................ o

P..................... p ................ pi ....................... p

R...................... r ................ rho ..................... r

S...................... s .............. sigma ................... s

T...................... t ................. tau ..................... t

U...................... u .............. upsilon ................. u

F...................... f ................. phi ................... ph

C...................... c ................. chi .................... ki (as in "Chaldean")

Y...................... y ................. psi .................... ps (as in "lips")

W...................... w .............. omega .................. o (as in "gold")

1) Vowels: The vowels in Greek match the English vowels, a, e, i, o, u, which are a e h i o w u except that Greek has two more vowels than English: h and w, which are the longer sounding vowels to e and o, respectively.

2) Diphthongs: When two vowels are pronounced as one sound, it is called a Diphthong. There are eight diphthongs in Greek:

ai (as in "aisle")

au (as in "kraut")

ei (as in "vein")

eu (as in "ey-oo")

hu (as in "ay-oo")

oi (as in "oil")

ou (as in "soup")

ui (as in "quick")

3) "Improper" diphthongs: Each has an iota subscript underneath of the letter, but it does not effect the pronunciation.

a/

h/

w/

4) Breathing Marks: Words that begin with a vowel or dipthong also have a "breathing mark." The breathing marks are "rough" or "smooth." The rough breathing mark is

aJ

...using the alpha as an example, there is a rough breathing mark on its top which tails off to the right, and it is pronounced as an "h." Thus, if there were a breathing mark on the word "alpha" it would be pronounced as "halpha."

aj

...using the alpha as an example, there is a smooth breathing mark on its top which tails off to the left, and it adds nothing to the pronunciation.

5) Gamma nasal: When the g (gamma) appears by itself, it is pronounced like an English "g." When the g appears with another g (as in = "angel"), the first gamma is pronounced as an English "n," while the second is pronounced as an English hard "g," (not the soft "g" of English). Thus, the Greek word would be pronounced "angelos," with a hard "g" sound.

6) Practice lesson: Below are the first five verses of the Gospel of John. Now that you know the letters and their pronunciation, practice writing and saying the verse in John.

The slanted lines above the words are the accent marks, which shows you where to place the emphasis on the word. For example lovgoV in verse 1 has the accent on the first syllable. It would be pronounced "LO gos," not "lo GOS." The word qeo;V would be pronounced "the OS," not "THE os."

Even one syllable words have an accent in Greek, (e.g., kaiv) but you only pronounce them as one syllable.

Note: When a Greek word ends in a sigma s the letter formation changes to V (Don't forget the breathing mark on the omnicron)j

1).. jEn arch/: h\n oJ lovgoV, kai; oJ lovgoV h\n pro;V to;n qeovn, kai; qeo;V h\n oJ lovgoV.

pronounced: en arche en ho logos kai ho logos en pros ton theon kai theos en ho logos

2) ou|toV h\n ejn arch/: pro;V to;n qeovn.

pronounced: houtos en en arche pros ton theon

3) pavnta di aujtou: ejgeneto, kai; cwri;V aujtou: ejgeneto oujde; e[n o] gevgonen.

pronounced: panta di autou egeneto kai choris autou egeneto oude hen ho gegonen..

4) ejn aujtw/: zwh; h\n, kai; hJ zwh; h\n to; fw:V tw:n ajnqrwvpwn.

pronounced: en auto dzoe en kai he dzoe en to phos ton anthropon

5) kai; to; fw:V ejn th/: skotiva/ fanivei, kaiv hJ skotiva aujto; ouj katevlaben.

pronounced: kai to phos en te skotia phainei kai he skotia auto ou katelaben

7) Vocabulary: Important note: Before we delve into the vocabulary and grammar, you need to familiarize yourself again with English parts-of-speech and grammar. Remember that stuff you learned in fifth grade?! Well, you're going to need it here. You need to know the difference between a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, article, preposition, conjunction, etc.

arch/: (noun) = beginning, supreme, power, realm, as in "monARCHy"

aujtou: (pronoun) = him, her, it, as in "AUTOgraph"

givnomai (verb) = to be, become, come to be, as in "GENesis"

diav (preposition) = through, on account of, as in "DIAgnosis"

h\n (verb) = to be, here it is the imperfect tense "was"

e[n (noun) = one

ejn (preposition) = in

qeo;V (noun) = God, as in "THEOlogy"

kaiv (conjunction) = and

lovgoV (noun) = word, matter, thing, as in "theoLOGY"

oJ (definite article) = the

oJvV (relative pronoun) = which, who

oujde; (conjuction) = but not, and not, not even, neither

ouJ:toV (pronoun) = this

pa:V (noun) = all, as in PANdemic, or PANdemonium

provV (preposition) = from, at, to, toward

cwpivV (preposition) = without, apart from

8) Translation: (word-for-word, of John 1:1-5). The English translation is put directly under the Greek word for your convenience.

. jEn arch/: h\n oJ lovgoV, kai; oJ lovgoV h\n pro;V to;n qeovn, kai; qeo;V

..In beginning .was .the Word .....and ..the Word .....was ..with ....--.......God ....and ....God

h\n oJ lovgoV.

was the Word.

ou|toV h\n ejn arch/: pro;V to;n qeovn.

This one was ...in .beginning ..with ....-- .....God.

pavnta di aujtou: ejgeneto, kai; cwri;V aujtou: ejgeneto oujde; e[n o]

All things through him ....came to be ..and ...without ....him .....came to be ..not ..one ..which

gevgonen.

came to be.

ejn aujtw/: zwh; h\n, kai; hJ zwh; h\n to; fw:V tw:n ajnqrwvpwn.

In ...him ........life ....was and ...the ..life ...was .the ...light ...-- .........of men.

kai; to; fw:V ejn th/: skotiva/ faivei, kaiv hJ skotiva aujto; ouj

And .the ..light ....in ...the ...darkness ...shines ....and ..the ..darkness ....it .......not

katevlaben.

overcame.

9) Grammatical Notes: For Advanced Study Only:

Caution: This is only for information purposes. You are not expected to dwell on the following information. In the future, however, you may want to look at this again, since then you will have the knowledge to understand it.

The following notes will show you some of the things we will be learning about how the Greek grammar effects our understanding of the passage. At this stage of your learning you will not be familiar with any of the analysis, but at least you will know that there is meaning far deeper than the English translation.

1) "was": hj:n: The Greek imperfect tense makes the three relationships of verse 1 refer to a period in the past indefinitely beyond the "beginning," thus denoting the Word's preexistence and eternity. The three relationships are: (a) in the beginning was the Word; (b) and the Word was with God; (c) and the Word was God.

2) "with": pro;V: John avoids using any of the impersonal Greek prepositions (suvn, evvjn, a{, parav). pro;V denotes that there is intimate communion between the Word and God (cf., v 18; Gn 1:26; Mc 5:2).

3) "came to be": ejgeneto: In contrast to the imperfect tense of v 1, the aorist tense verb ejgeneto makes "all things" come after the uncreated Word, showing that the Word was their creator.

4) "life": zwh;: Used 54x in John's gospel, showing John's focus zwh; appears 13x in 1Jn. The NT book with nearest amount is Romans with 13x. In Jn 1:4, light emanates from life.

5) "overcome": katevlaben: Although some versions translate this verb as "apprehend" it more likely means "overcome," since the aorist tense of this verb makes its meaning closer to the latter.

6) Sometimes the grammatical information in the Greek language is invaluable for not only understanding the text, but for silencing false and heretical ideas. As you may know already, Jehovah Witnesses try to use John 1:1 to prove that Jesus was "a god" but not "the God." They use clever arguments regarding the use of Greek articles. If you are taking our Internet Bible Study, you have seen my explanation of this passage in refutation of the Jehovah Witness's interpretation. Below is that explanation.

In v 1, John creates 3 relationships. The first sets the Word in eternity; the second opens up a distinction between the Word and God; the third closes the distinction; while v 2 combines the first and second relationships; all without a hint of contradiction. However, at least one Prot translation (New World Translation, c. 1950) claims "Word was God" is a contradiction. Citing that Greek does not use indefinite articles (a, an); and that the Greek definite article (oJ) is sometimes obscure, the NWT renders Jn 1:1's anarthrous noun as "a god," to read "and the Word was a god," contending that the "Word" is divine-like, but not the God Himself.

The Catholic response:

(1) The anarthrous use of qeo;V does not warrant the NWT's "a god," since when qeo;V precedes a verb in the NT it almost always appears without the article, but is still understood as "God." Exceptions to this are very rare (eg, Mt 27:43). Of the NT's 282 occurrences of the anarthrous qeo;V, the NWT translates 96% of them as "God," but translates Jn 1:1 "a god," showing its inherent bias. Also, Jn 1:1-18 contains eight instances of qeo;V, yet the six which do not refer to Christ the NWT translates as "God," whereas the two which refer to Christ the NWT renders as "a god" (Jn 1:1) and "the god" (Jn 1:18), respectively. Of the NT's remaining usage of the anarthrous qeo;V, the NWT translates the two referring to Christ as "a god" (Jn 1:1; 10:33), again showing its theological prejudice to attribute deity to Christ;

(2) The NWT consistently avoids acknowledging Christ's deity in passages which clearly teach it (eg, Jn 20:28; Is 45:14-15/Ti 2:13; Rv 1:8/22:13; Hb 1:8; Mk 12:29,36/Rv 17:14; Is 43:11/Mt 1:21; Is 40:3/Mt 3:3; Ph 2:6; Cl 2:9; Jr 23:5-7; Mt 1:23). Ironically, the NWT renders Is 9:6, a recognized Christian prophecy of Christ, as "mighty God."

End of Lesson 1

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